kuro5hin.org || How Home-Schooling Harms the Nation

[measl at mfn.org]

> >          "Home schooling is a social threat to public education," says
> >          Chris Lubienski, who teaches at Iowa State University's
> >          college of education. "It is taking some of the most affluent
> >          and articulate parents out of the system. These are the
> >          parents who know how to get things done with
> >          administrators."

While I agree that home schooling is a [very real] threat to public
education, I think it is so for an entirely different reason: it shows
that there is a real alternative to sending your children into the hell
holes that are our public schools.  Obviously, having this kind of
[extremely attractive] alternative threatens the State Mind Control
Centres.

> Funny that, the only people I've ever met who were home schooling their
> kids were fundamentalist christians who objected to all kinds of
> perceived immorality and wrong teaching like sex ed and evolution. In my

Interesting.  I have not known many home-school families, but none of the
ones I _have_ known were fundamentalist christians, or for that matter,
fundamentalist *anythings*.  In fact, the most successful home-schooler I
know is a long time cpunks member (although I haven't seen a posting from
him in about a year <frowny face>).

> My reading of the 1st also leads me to the conclusion
> that the tax-exempt status of the churches is wrong. They should pay
> their fair share of the fucking property taxes like every other victim.

Of course they should.  But the religious communities are well organized,
and present a real threat to government if pushed to the point of acting
in unison, so the government has chosen (as do all such schoolyard
bullies) to graze in easier pastures.  For a modern example of how this
works, look into the history of the Church of Scientology. 

 > Another facet is that the well-to-do are attempting to remove their
> funds from the systems so they can use those funds to educate their
> children as they choose. A voucher system would surely benefit me
> financially. This is a reasonable desire but it will have a negative
> effect on the public school systems and a subsequent negative effect on
> the society as a whole.

So I must educate my children according to the public good, and not the
good of the kids themselves?  Fuck you.

> I know the masses are a bit thick but do you
> want them to be even thicker? 

To be frank, sending kids to public schools is practically *requiring*
that they become "thick", merely in order to _survive_.

> I wish there were more ( and better ) educational choices and that those
> choices were reflected reasonably in the financial systems but every
> proposal I've seen so far sucks moose bladder through a hairy straw.

While you claim to favor choices, you have just argued that these choices
should not be available.

Make up your mind.

> 
> Mike
> 

-- 
Yours, 
J.A. Terranson
sysadmin at mfn.org

If Governments really want us to behave like civilized human beings, they
should give serious consideration towards setting a better example:
Ruling by force, rather than consensus; the unrestrained application of
unjust laws (which the victim-populations were never allowed input on in
the first place); the State policy of justice only for the rich and 
elected; the intentional abuse and occassionally destruction of entire
populations merely to distract an already apathetic and numb electorate...
This type of demogoguery must surely wipe out the fascist United States
as surely as it wiped out the fascist Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

The views expressed here are mine, and NOT those of my employers,
associates, or others.  Besides, if it *were* the opinion of all of
those people, I doubt there would be a problem to bitch about in the
first place...
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