To Home School or Not....

By Betty Freauf
for NewsWithViews.com

March 18, 2004

I'm going to admit right up front I have never been a home school mother and yet with my educational knowledge, several people have suggested I write an article on the subject. Debbie O'Hara, a writer for NewsWithViews.com and a home schooler, wrote to me with words of encouragement when I wondered whether I could do justice to the subject. She said: "Many really need to be encouraged to keep on going in their home schooling and some need that push to get started." So like the parents she wants me to encourage to "get started," here I go.

I won't go into great detail about the public school system because Debbie already did that in a terrific article titled: The Fraud of Multiculturalism. I also cover more in other articles on News With Views which I wrote on the subject.

Suffice it to say, in 1975 I did feel as though there was something wrong with the public schools and we removed our children and put them in a Christian school at great financial sacrifice and transportation time, I might add. They graduated from what I thought was a Christian high school. After all, it taught Bible, didn't it? That must make it Christian. Right? Not necessarily. Caveat Emptor.

Home schooling was becoming popular in the 80s but the press was so negative at the time which made many home schoolers stay "in the closet fearing Big Brother", however, with a little effort I eventually got to meet some of them.

The first thing that impressed me was how easily these kids were entertained. One young lady sat in a chair at my home and knitted while her mother talked to me and I was absolutely astounded at their ability to communicate with older people.

And how many of these dedicated parents (usually mothers) heard the tired old phrase: "But your kids won't get socialized". That was the sad drum beat from many working mothers back then who refused, and still may today, to give up their financial security at some job, which they felt gave them gratification, but forgetting that the most fulfilling job any mother can have is to raise her children without the help of some day-care provider when they were young and some glorified baby sitters in school when they got to be five years old.

Someone wrote to Ann Landers in June 1991 and said she was considering teaching her son at home. Ann Landers replied: Home Schoolers miss an important part of education - learning to get along with other children. What a joke! How absurd! Today, they are killing each other in the schools, offering conflict resolution classes, putting children on psychotropic drugs such as Ritalin to keep them calm while the "unsocialized" home school children move merrily along in life, well adjusted and college bound in many instances.

Now days, Big Brother wants these innocent babies in school at age three. You can read about Oregon's agenda for Children, Youth and Families. And you may rest assured that same agenda is being carried out in every state in the U.S. This is how the children are "socialized." And the following poem by an unknown author pretty much describes what has happened since.

MARY HAD A LITTLE LAMB

Mary had a little Lamb,
His fleece was white as snow.
And everywhere that Mary went,
The Lamb was sure to go.
He followed her to school each day,
T'wasn't even in the rule
It made the children laugh and play,
To have a Lamb at school.
And then the rules all changed one day,
Illegal it became;
To bring the Lamb of God to school, Or even speak His name.

Every day got worse and worse,
And days turned into years.
Instead of hearing children laugh,
We heard gun shots and tears.
What must we do to stop the crime,
That's in our schools today?
Let's let the Lamb come back to school,
And teach our kids to pray!

Once the creator (the Lamb) was driven out of the public schools, a vacuum developed which was filled with the Humanist/Communist idea of evolution.

Another author with a sense of humor, Dr. W.A. Criswell, pastor of the First Baptist Church in Dallas, TX. for many years and later founded The Criswell College explains evolution like this:

Once I was a tadpole beginning to begin
Then I was a frog with my tail tucked in
Then I was a monkey in a Banana Tree
Now I am a professor with a Ph.D

And today in education circles if one does not have a Ph.D, you are frowned upon as being somewhat inferior. The gradual deterioration in public education seemed to accelerate after the audacious Department of Education was created in 1980 under our so-called born-again Christian, Southern Baptist President Jimmy Carter. Carter was a charter member of Rockefeller's Trilateral Commission (TC) as well as a member on the Council of Foreign Relations (CFR). He was also responsible for giving away the Panama Canal helping to fulfill the Communist's strategy of "External encirclement, plus internal demoralization, plus thermonuclear blackmail, lead to progressive surrender."

When the B.F. Skinnerian international curriculum necessary for the United States' participation in a socialist/globalist government began to be implemented (A goal of the CFR and TC), education became worse. Curriculum began to be developed with that goal in mind.

All parents ever wanted was "back to basics" but they got, instead, this United Nations agenda eroding our national sovereignty and preparing the school children for one-world government scheduled to begin in the early years of the 21st century. For the whole background on this subject matter, check out Charlotte Iserbyt's website: Deliberatedumbingdown.com Her 8 1/2 x 11 1000+ plus page book by that name is well worth the money -- all documented with an excellent index for easy referencing.

Home schoolers have been threatened with stiff penalties and restrictions including the use of the child welfare laws. There are thousands of home schooling parents all across America who live in fear of the government taking their children for the crime of educating their own children. Judges seem to have forgotten that most of our Founding Fathers, including Washington, Jefferson and Franklin, were all educated at home. More tax dollars does not a scholar make!

Maximum requirements are placed on home schoolers while minimum standards are required of the public school kids and often "social promotion" is applied simply to get the kids out of school all the while some experts claim the home schooled children are "at risk."

President Ronald Reagan gave the home school movement his blessing when he said in 1983, "I believe the parents, not the government, have the primary responsibility of educating their children." However, he failed in fulfilling his campaign promise to shut down the Department of Education.

It was reported in HUMAN EVENTS in December 1984 that the home school movement was the fastest growing movement in the country as parents continued to fight for positive recognition.

The May 1999 EDUCATION REPORTER indicated a national study showed home schoolers outperforming peers at all grade levels in the public schools and they even out performed kids in private schools.

Studies like this must make the blood boil of those leaders at the National Education Association which stated in its resolution in 1989, "Home schooling programs cannot provide the student with a comprehensive education experience." Seeing the possibility of their membership numbers dwindle and their power dissipate, the N.E.A. wanted home schooling to be permitted only by "persons who are licensed by the appropriate state education licensing agencies" as if that was to assure parents they were qualified.

The January 1996 McAlvany newsletter reported these home school children were a major obstacle to the New World Order since they were not being lobotomized (dumbed down) so it was only natural the N.E.A. reacted the way they did. The home schoolers were throwing a monkey wrench in their agenda and may more join the ranks.

By 1995 prospective home schoolers applications went up a whopping 30%. During that approximate time period it was reported as many as one million children were being educated at home in America and enrollment at private Christian Schools was growing steadily as concerned parents were fleeing the moral and intellectual decline of public education.

Home school children are winning national geography bees and spelling contests. They are becoming semifinalists in the National Merit Scholarship Competitions.

As more and more parents recognized their God-given duty to their children we have come to the point where even the media is beginning to acknowledge the advantages of home schooling. It no longer seems to be stereotyped as a negative thing.

An Associated Press release on January 26, 2004 reported that colleges and universities are beginning to take notice of home-schooled students. Steve Giegerich from the AP reported, "Until recently, educators say, home-schooled students mostly gravitated to small, primarily religious colleges. Now, as the movement keeps gaining in popularity, they can be found on many - even most - campuses nationwide." However, as early as 1986, my local paper admitted a home schooler was heading for Harvard.

There have been all types of scare tactics. One website said the most violent place for the typical American youth is in the home. For this reason, no one may hope for a safe learning environment, especially when such "learning" is provided by mere parents. What a put down. What stupidity.

In September 2002 the California Department of Education warned "home schoolers" it was not an authorized exemption from mandatory public school attendance. It also warned that children educated at home by parents without professional teaching credentials would be considered "truant" if they were not attending public schools. The educrats still refuse to admit it's the "professional teaching credentials" of the "experts" from most, if not all, teacher's college that has been destroying the public school system in unison with textbook publishers.

Because of these scare tactics, some women are opting for home birth deliveries with midwives and they avoid putting their children in the system and are labeled "kooks" or "extremists."

Any parent that can read, can teach. Any child that can read, can teach themselves and now with the Internet, VCR's, videos and other ancillary devices, home schooling is much easier.

In addition, some Christian academies offer satellite classes which include pre-testing and will personally design a year-long course of study for each student.

Christian Liberty Academy in Illinois supplies teacher handbooks and they maintain regular contact with the teachers and students by mail as well as issuing reports cards four times a year and keeping a transcript for each student. They even hand out diplomas.

The laws in each state vary so parents thinking about home schooling should become informed and the trick is not to take any government help whatsoever. One log will go out but two logs side by side burn bright so stay closely affiliated with your home school associations but otherwise remain completely autonomous and call the newspapers when your kid goes off to Harvard. I only hope they return after graduation with the same value system they had when they left the home school environment. Get started home school parents and good luck.

© 2004 Betty Freauf - All Rights Reserved

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Betty is a former Oregon Republican Party activist having served as state party secretary, county chairman, 5th congressional vice chairman and then elected chairman, and a precinct worker for many years. Betty is a researcher, freelance journalist and a regular contributor to www.NewsWithViews.com. New E-Mail: bettyfreauf@webtv.net