"The building of bridges requires architects who understand the laws of physics.
If they substitute their own opinions of mass, weight, and gravity, their bridges will
fall and people will die. Similarly, the sustaining of democracies requires
citizen-governors who understand the 'laws of nature and of nature's God' that underlie
human freedom. If we teach our children to substitute their own opinions about men's
relationship to God and to each other, our democracy will fall and die." "Get ready for the fireworks. Brace yourself for the coming war. With the final
results of the 73rd annual National Spelling Bee in, the din from the public education
establishment will soon be deafening. This year all three top places were won by children
who were home-schooled. The big winner, George Abraham Thampy, is only 12-years-old. For
public school officials, this is the biggest embarrassment since...well, since the first
home-schooler won, scorching the competition in 1997. Perhaps what galls the education
orthodoxy is that home-schooling parents didn't need education degrees based on fads and
smarmthink to prepare their kids for success. They did it the old-fashioned way: by
challenging, instructing, and building on prior knowledge. Unlike the education
establishment, these parents instill skills and knowledge in their children. They don't
package self-esteem courses under the mantra of 'teaching kids to think'
which is shorthand for letting kids loose to reinvent mathematics and reading, and then
acting surprised when they can't beat students from Third World nations in international
competition." "The number of children taught at home has increased from a miniscule 15,000 in
1978 to 1.5 million today. Academic resources are better than ever, with Web pages
offering information about good textbooks, teaching aids and supplemental materials. But
mostly home schooling forges a special bond between parents and their children. It
communicates to children how important they are that parents invest so much time in them.
It also earns dividends for parents who are able to shape their own children's
intellectual and moral development and not turn that responsibility over to an agent of
the state, who, no matter how good a teacher, will always be required to teach the state's
values and the state's perspective on subjects from sex to history and biology. Children
educated at home are some of the friendliest, most articulate and socially comfortable
people I've met. They look you in the eye. They speak in complete sentences, eschewing the
verbal crutches such as 'you know' and 'she goes.' They aren't robots, but neither are
they freaks. They are, I suspect, the way most parents would like their children to be:
smart, kind, courteous, respectful and seeking to live a moral life." "You know the National Education Association (teachers union) and all the state
affiliates are gnashing their financial teeth over the success of students not subjected
to the NEA, et al., dumbing down agenda. I repeat: Get government OUT of education and
everything else it has stuck its unwanted tentacles into. The 'helping hand' of government
is the one that helps you into the pit of slavery and stupidity." |
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14 jun 2000