Michael Smith, president of the Home School Legal Defense Association, writes that homeschoolers have earned respect, but have not always received it at the legislative level.
He's right, of course. I am a hard convert to homeschooling, having moved from alarm and revulsion in the '80's to the wild-eyed fanatically supportive position I've maintained for the last twelve years or so.
But I'll make this prediction. Remember that the MSM (mainstream media, aka "lamestream media") is horridly and subtlely biased in its reporting. Remember that the MSM is in the hip pocket of the Democratic Party which, in turn, is in the hip pocket of the National Education Assocation (NEA). Remember that the NEA is horridly threatened by homeschooling, and would gladly seen it wiped off the face of the map in favor of government indoctrination camps.
Having said that: are the MSM or the NEA likely to roll over and quietly acquiesce to the outrageous overall success of homeschooling? Will they welcome, or even tolerate, the steady production of (on the whole) better-educated, better-disciplined, achievement-oriented, hardworking, independent-thinking, non-state-dependent citizens?
Not hardly.
So I predict that the MSM will try its best to do to homeschooling what it has tried to do to the prolife movement. It will selectively misreport.
That is, as the MSM has selected the submicroscopic fraction of prolifers who are violent, and made them the face of the prolife movement, so it will do with homeschooling. It will find some family, or families, who are genuine and dangerous nutcases -- and God knows the movement has them -- and it will focus intense attention on them. The goal will be to make them the public face of homeschooling. It will be to brainwash all Americans into seeing Bob and Marilyn Degenerate as representative homeschooling parents, and their children Drulie, Bark, and Boom as representative homeschool students.
It won't matter that they will comprise a subset of 0.0001% of the movement. It won't matter that the movement as a whole will univocally disown these parents with horror and repulsion. (Did it matter -- does it matter -- that the entire prolife movement roundly and unambiguously condemns all violence?)
Mark my words. You heard it here.
Saturday, August 12, 2006
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9 comments:
I agree with you. I think you might be a prophet. However, I think I heard somewhere that Marilyn Degenerate's given name is actually Ellen.
I dread the day when the first mass shooting or similar crime is done by a home-schooled kid. It will be 24/7 coverage on ALL the cable networks. It won't matter about all the crime done by public school kids, the attention will be on the Threat TO Society From Home Schooling!
The best hope we have, I think, is preventive. Noise it about that this is what we expect the MSM to do.
Well, that, and not be whackjobs. But that one should go without saying.
Noise is good, but if someone is homeschooling, I would highly recommend they join HSLDA. It's good personal insurance (on legal matters), and more importantly they serve an important lobbying function as well as educating the country at large.
I love your postings here and on TeamPyro, Dan!! Thanks for the great teaching!
I agree. HSLDA isn't perfect, but they're something, they're a presence, they've done a lot of good work. It's a classic hang together, or hang separately situation, I think.
Thanks for the kind words, too.
Great post. I have done some research into education, while a teacher at a Christian school for three years, and agree wholeheartedly about a governmental indoctrination agenda. "They" will find a way to ridicule homeschooling and bring it to disrepute, so I think the battle is far from over.
I happened on an episode of that wife-swapping show where one of the wives was a homeschool mom. She was militant and her kids were stifled. The family she had to swap with was out of control and so was their mother. It was embarrassing to watch and was not at all a true picture of a homeschool family. I knew what to expect from the out-of-control family... total disrespect, worldly view, dad not the head of the home... more like the doormat. But the homeschool family. I did feel sorry for the kids. It was like 24 hour military camp. I believe in being organized, but I also believe we must be flexible and spontaneous and loving. But then again, I have to remember the goal of the producers in such a show.
On a another note, I watched that show that featured the Dugger family that homeschools 17? kids. Wonderful family. Very organized. But you could tell they loved each other.
"So I predict that the MSM will try its best to do to homeschooling what it has tried to do to the prolife movement. It will selectively misreport."
Once we decided to HS, I began to notice immediately the MSM load of hooey about HS'ing families.
When that case broke in Texas about the woman who drowned her kids (her name escapes me right now), a HUGE deal was made of the fact that she homeschooled (and that she was a "Christian").
It happens (or seems to?) more and more all the time.
Grrr.
It's like anything else. (Insert Disater Situation Here) in town? Who's the numbskull the MSM interviews? Uh-huh. Cream of the crop, I tell ya!
:D
I've taken a lot of stupidity when it comes to my decision to homeschool. Same thing when I nursed my son. My comment has always been, "I'm sorry that it doesn't work for you. I'm so glad you could find something that works."
If we turn off the news for awhile, life gets so much less stressful. The last time I watched the news was about 5 years ago (9/11) I was glued to my seat and in tears for weeks.
Since then, I'll read a story now and then, but I stay away from it. I don't think I'm ignorant of world events, but I don't need to be IN the ring to watch the circus, know what I mean?
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