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An extremely important message ...

to all parents, whether you homeschool or not.

Go here to read this speech by Michael Farris, HSLDA chairman.

Although the speech was first given back in October 2010, it is relevant today -- maybe even more so considering the huge erosion in rights that has taken place under Obama's regime.

Here are some excerpts (my bolds throughout):

Kimberly A. Yuracko, a professor from the prestigious Northwestern University School of Law, wrote an article for the California Law Review claiming that there are legal and constitutional limits on the ability of homeschooling parents “to teach their children idiosyncratic and illiberal beliefs and values.” She contends that there must be new legal approaches to mandate government control of the educational choices for those children whose “parents want to teach against the enlightenment.”


Law professor Virginia Ross says:

"This Essay explores the choice many traditionalist Christian parents (both fundamentalist and evangelical) make to leave public schools in order to teach their children at home, thus in most instances escaping meaningful oversight. I am not primarily concerned here with the quality of academic achievement in the core curricular areas among homeschoolers, which has been the subject of much heated debate. Instead, my comments focus on civic education in the broadest sense, which I define primarily as exposure to the constitutional norm of tolerance. I shall argue that the growing reliance on homeschooling comes into direct conflict with assuring that children are exposed to such constitutional values."


In other words, this professor explicitly emphasizes that the main purpose of state schools is not to teach academics, but to indoctrinate children into the "constitutional norm of tolerance."

Almost all people, whether for or against homeschooling admit that the academics are being taken care of just fine. But, apparently that's not enough.

As a side note, I wonder which nation's constitution she is referring to. Certainly not that of the United States.

Here's where she explains that tolerance does not extend to homeschoolers in general, or Christians in particular:

"If a parent subscribes to an absolutist belief system premised on the notion that it was handed down by a creator, that it (like the Ten Commandments) is etched in stone and that all other systems are wrong, the essential lessons of a civic education (i.e., tolerance and mutual respect) often seem deeply challenging and suspect. If the core principle in a parent’s belief system is that there is only one immutable truth that cannot be questioned, many educational topics will be off limits. Such “private truths” have no place in the public arena, including the public schools."


There you have it.

Law professor Martha Albertson Fineman says:

"Indeed, the long-term consequences for the child being home schooled or sent to a private school cannot be overstated. The total absence of regulation over what and how children are taught leaves the child vulnerable to gaining a sub-par or non-existent education from which they may never recover. Moreover, the risk that parents or private schools unfairly impose hierarchical or oppressive beliefs on their children is magnified by the absence of state oversight or the application of any particular educational standards."


But, see? There is no argument that homeschooled children are receiving a sub-par education. What these leftists are complaining about is that homeschooled children are receiving a sub-par state indoctrination.

Her conclusion?

"Private education should be banned. All of it. Private schools, religious schools, homeschools."


See? They aren't just wanting to eliminate homeschooling. They're going after your child's private school as well.

The point of the rest of Mr. Farris' speech is to show how these three professors' views are not unorthodox to the leftist agenda ... they are exactly in the mainstream of current thought today.

He warns that we as Christian homeschoolers in particular, but all homeschoolers in general, and even all parents, should beware of strident successes by the leftists in advancing their agenda in this direction.

Read the article. Then, I'll be interested in comments.

Dave

It is important

Dave,
The article you offered us is not timed to the calendar. Or perhaps I should say there is a thread tying it to today, to yesterday and tomorrow. That thread can be easily seen by remembering Rahm Emanuel's comment to let no crisis go to waste. Just hold that thought for a moment.
It is easy to see that just as the oligarchy hi-jacked our public school system they also hi-jacked our political parties exactly as George Soros is threatening to do today. The oligarchy wants a collectivist state. Furthermore they have been proceding to get what they want.
Rahm Emanuel was very revealing. In answer to the Bush recession, if you will permit me that language if only as a label, we got a bail-out program that was the greatest curtailment of personal liberty this country has ever seen. Now the recession is approaching a 'double dip' and you can safely predict a second round of curtailing personal liberty.
I find one fault with the article you quoted. The author does not seem to have any idea there has already been a coup conducted against our liberties by the oligarchy back in the days they were founding the public school system.
Do my words seem harsh, as if I am exaggerating what has happened? In your mind what have you always been taught about the late 1800s?
The late 1800s were a miserable time with starvation wages and long hours until the progressive politicians and unions rescued us? Isn't that generally what you have been taught?
If you go to Google and search on LA Belle Epoch you will find that was a time of tremendous economic, cultural, and artistic advancement. La Belle Epoch was also when our public schools were taken over and the political coup by the oligarchy occured. Just as today they hired others to do the dirty work. Why would someone bother teaching you such an untruth except to misdirect you?
The article does not tell you, but it is true, that if you study the history of Nazis Germany, the Soviet, and modern day China they suppress home schooling and religion also. The State cannot allow any other Gods except itself.
Ask yourself where do all these books promoting atheism come from? Why are heterosexual men constantly attacked for homophobia when research psychologists are constantly proving it isn't true. The average straight guy is concerned with his lady and doesn't think about homosexuality twice in a year's time. Do you really think the constant attacks are spontaneous?
Ron

Re: It is important

Ron Harrison
I find one fault with the article you quoted. The author does not seem to have any idea there has already been a coup conducted against our liberties by the oligarchy back in the days they were founding the public school system.


Ron, I'm very confident that Mr. Farris is aware of the coup conducted against our liberties. It just wasn't in the scope of his original speech to go that far back into our history.

Ron Harrison
In your mind what have you always been taught about the late 1800s?


If I just let my mind wander back to whatever my impressions are about the late 1880s, I think of mostly positive things. I think of the Westward expansion. The opening up of new states. I think of the great period of inventions, the advancement of science (although much of it false, like evolution).

I'm afraid that my mind doesn't automatically turn to the Dickensian deprivations of the ruling class against the poor, the work houses, the factory slums. I guess I failed the public schooling system in that regard.

Ron Harrison
Ask yourself where do all these books promoting atheism come from? Why are heterosexual men constantly attacked for homophobia when research psychologists are constantly proving it isn't true. The average straight guy is concerned with his lady and doesn't think about homosexuality twice in a year's time. Do you really think the constant attacks are spontaneous?
Ron


There has been quite a lot written lately about the liberal mindset as a mental illness. I'm convinced that it is true. If you look at all of the current ills of our society as they are brought to us by the leftists from the point of view of their being mentally ill -- their obsession with sexual perversion, their race-baiting, their desire for absolute control, their inability to reason and understand consequences -- then, the answers to all your questions make sense.

Dave

Re: It is important &:timely IMO

Dave,
"I'm very confident that Mr. Farris is aware of the coup conducted against our liberties. It just wasn't in the scope of his original speech to go that far back into our history."
Therein lies the problem in my opinion. All of the ill contained in that original coup still is operative. We are still being manipulated daily by the organizational descendents of the original aggrandizement for their benefit. Chief among their goals is to keep us ignorant of our being manipulated. To remain silent is to be a participant.
Ron

Re: It is important

I also have come to believe that there is a mental illness that afflicts these elitist controllers. Folks like the Clintons, the Bushes, the Rockefellers. How much money does anyone need? Why the constant grasping for control and power? The hatred for others to the degree that they desire to make slaves of them? Is it a deep seated insecurity or delusions of godhood? The run of the mill liberal I don't see as mentally ill as the real power grabbers. The liberal is simply pushing his religion while pretending that it is simply "reality" and not the state idolatry that it is. These feminazi "law professors" who spin a Constitutional basis for claiming state ownership of everyone have no faith in God. There is no hereafter in their view. The here and now is all, this life is all they have. So it is very important to them to create a perfect world. They believe that men are nothing but animals and this excuses their aggressions against other people that they commit in their utopia building. Members of the state class are divine and THEIR theft, murder, and lying is righteous. And all the while they do these things they claim a system of values that springs from consensus and force it on people as "right" even as they claim that no such thing as "right" exists. It is an illogical and inconsistent religion, but religion nonetheless.

Round 3 from the despicable people pushers

I say bring it on. They are taking off their masks and coming out with it: they consider us and our kids state property for them to mold as they see fit…and WHO the HECK are THEY????

Ms Yuracko seeks to ram HER religion down our throats as she persecutes those of the (primarily) Christian faith.

>>>>This Essay explores the choice many traditionalist Christian parents (both fundamentalist and evangelical) make to leave public schools in order to teach their children at home, thus in most instances escaping meaningful oversight.<<<<

Presumes the state owns the children and the parents. Also presumes they are guilty of something without proof, less human than those who presume to “oversee“ them.

>>>> I am not primarily concerned here with the quality of academic achievement in the core curricular areas among homeschoolers, which has been the subject of much heated debate.<<<

No wonder. The “heated debate”, such as it was, has been long over. Her side lost because “schools” do not educate, they aren’t supposed to.

>>>> Instead, my comments focus on civic education in the broadest sense, which I define primarily as exposure to the constitutional norm of tolerance.<<<

“Constitutional norm”?? Gotta love the contortions these “legal scholars” go to to “interpret” the Constitution for us idiots, “educated” in her “schools”, who can’t read it. The Constitution LIMITS the state, or is supposed to. NOWHERE does it give the state the right to force children into government brainwashing, nor does it give ownership of the individual to the state.

>>>> I shall argue that the growing reliance on homeschooling comes into direct conflict with assuring that children are exposed to such constitutional values.2<<<

LOL!! Such concern for the transmission of “Constitutional values”!! The amount of instruction I received on the Constitution in government school could be written on an index card and it was nearly all false. Besides, NOWHERE does the Constitution give the state ownership of the individual or the right to forcibly brainwash and dumb down children.

>>>>>Listen to her again, later in the same article:
Many liberal political theorists argue, however, that there are limits to tolerance. In order for the norm of tolerance to survive across generations<<<<

Assumes that tolerance is a “norm”. If it is a “norm” it is a norm that was forced on people through laws forcing association and demonizing those who wish to associate among those THEY choose. Besides, since WHEN are we ruled by “political theorists”???

>>>>, society need not and should not tolerate the inculcation of absolutist views that undermine toleration of difference.<<<

THIS statement negates all her fancy legal theorizing and rationalizations for tyranny: THIS is an absolute statement promoting an absolutist idea. The idea that society should not tolerate families teaching certain religious beliefs in favor of HER religious beliefs is an absolute view itself. Can she be this stupid?

Re: Round 3 from the despicable people pushers

>>>>> Respect for difference should not be confused with approval for approaches that would splinter us into countless warring groups. Hence an argument that tolerance for diverse views and values is a foundational principle does not conflict with the notion that the state can and should limit the ability of intolerant homeschoolers to inculcate hostility to difference in their children—at least during the portion of the day they claim to devote to satisfying the compulsory schooling requirement.3<<<<<

Sooo, “tolerance” only goes one way, HER way is the only one that will be tolerated. Absolutely. And of course she has not a shred of legal or moral authority on which to claim this.

>>>>>Again, Professor Ross continues:
If a parent subscribes to an absolutist belief system premised on the notion that it was handed down by a creator, that it (like the Ten Commandments) is etched in stone and that all other systems are wrong, the essential lessons of a civic education (i.e., tolerance and mutual respect) often seem deeply challenging and suspect. If the core principle in a parent’s belief system is that there is only one immutable truth that cannot be questioned, many educational topics will be off limits. Such “private truths” have no place in the public arena, including the public schools.4<<<<<

But the opposite “private truth” of Ross and Yuracko IS immutable and and cannot be questioned.

>>>>>And, finally, Professor Ross tells us what she thinks should be done about us, in addition to imposing testing requirements and all manner of academic regulation.
I propose that we add to the civics education goals of the state, including lessons on mutual respect for diverse populations and viewpoints as a mandatory curricular requirement. As I observed above, some homeschoolers doubtless are committed to diversity, and this requirement would not conflict with their educational agenda, but this is not the group that concerns me.<<<<

LOL! Do tell! Which particular group don’t rear their children and teach them as YOU say they should, Ross?

Re: Round 3 from the despicable people pushers

>>>> Imposing curricular requirements about respect for diverse viewpoints will be seen as undermining the most authoritarian conservative homeschoolers—those who believe in an absolute truth which forms the basis of the education they provide their children. Unfortunately, the unavoidable counterpart of a belief in absolute truth is that other belief systems are mistaken at best, and at worst, evil.5<<<

Which is EXACTLY what she is saying about people who teach their kids that Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life.

>>>>Professors Yuracko and Ross are far from alone in urging these positions.<<<

Oooooo, an argument from authority and numbers! I’m converted to HER absolute truth!

>>>>> Professor Martha Albertson Fineman, from the Emory University School of Law, wrote in 2009 of her fear of parents with “oppressive, hierarchical belief systems.”6<<<

Fear of the belief systems of others? Why? Why no “respect”??

>>>>She says,
Indeed, the long-term consequences for the child being home schooled or sent to a private school cannot be overstated. The total absence of regulation over what and how children are taught leaves the child vulnerable to gaining a sub-par or non-existent education from which they may never recover.<<<<

There was an almost total absence of regulation when I home schooled (we had to have a teacher evaluate us at year end for $25.) and my kid got into a fairly selective private school. My other one is considering college and got a scholarship toward it. I submit that the children of others are not this womans business, despite her irrational fears.

>>>> Moreover, the risk that parents or private schools unfairly impose hierarchical or oppressive beliefs on their children is magnified by the absence of state oversight or the application of any particular educational standards.7<<<

Yes! It is for the STATE to “impose oppressive beliefs” on kids, not parents or pastors!

>>>>>So what does she recommend should be done about all of us?
Private education should be banned. All of it. Private schools, religious schools, homeschools.<<<<

Such “tolerance”, such “respect” for the beliefs of others.

>>>>. . . he more appropriate suggestion for our current educational dilemma is that public education should be mandatory and universal.<<<<

The hilarious thing is that she is still passing off this brainwashing as “education”, even after mincing around and admitting that they “fear” homeschoolers don’t indoctrinate enough. I think what they FEAR is an EDUCATED population.

>>>> Parental expressive interest could supplement but never supplant the public institutions where the basic and fundamental lesson would be taught and experienced by all American children: we must struggle together to define ourselves both as a collective and as individuals.8<<<<<

No, we DO NOT “ALL” have to “struggle together” to define ourselves as a “collective” OR as individuals. And, as KIND as it is of her to allow parents to “supplement” state worship indoctrination of their children, she doesn’t have the right to do so.

The jig is up. We are onto them. We KNOW they want us stupid and compliant so they can pursue their atheistic utopian schemes as the elites get richer and richer off our enslavement. Useful idiots. Their arguments are as bogus as their religion.

Thanks for posting, Dave.


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