Homeschool Moms Rock The Political Scene
Proverbs 6:20 concludes with this: “Do not forsake your mother’s teaching.” There is a group that can be said to be taking this quite literally: the homeschooled.
The homeschool population wasn’t exactly challenging to the public school system prior to the 1970s, mostly just a few religious folk educating their own. When the state of Wisconsin insisted the Amish stop educating their own children and send them to public schools, the Amish resisted.
This led to Wisconsin vs. Yoder in 1972, wherein the Supreme Court ruled that “parents have a fundamental right to establish a home and bring up children along with the right to worship God according to the dictates of their own conscience.” Beyond the religious group involved, this decision paved the way for a much larger movement to come. It basically stated that government could establish educational standards, but parents reserved the right to meet those standards by their own methods.
The public school system suffered a set back in terms of mandatory enrollment, but not in terms of their own ambitious agenda. For the next twenty years government schools became increasingly bold and to many parents, intrusive. Among the political left who gravitate towards employment in the fields of government and academics this intrusiveness was intentional. They believe it is their duty not just to educate children, but to educate them to think like they do. The ultimate goal is to prepare them for work in government. With the backing of the United States government, professional educators molded public schools into the kind of social belief centers they wanted them to be.
By 1990, many parents taking note of how much power school systems were presuming began to be disturbed. First there was an almost complete exclusion of anything referring to Christianity. Following this was the introduction of social beliefs contrary to their own. Certain sexual teachings parents objected to were made mandatory. Academic results were declining. Added to this was school violence, drugs, sexual promiscuity’s, and on and on. A movement began as a forum of resistance seeking course correction but schools didn’t listen or respond. Moms felt they had a right to protect their own children and to educate them properly. The Wisconsin vs. Yoder decision allowed them a means to do it themselves and school their children at home. So they did.
Though it was more a by product than intentional, homeschooling has actually become the most successful political movement of the past twenty years, accomplishing what legislators, fundraisers, lobbyists, and political activists could not and did not. Homeschool moms overcame a corrupted system by simply withdrawing their children from it.
Since 1990 the homeschool movement has trended upwards rapidly, from 400,000 to 800,000 homeschooled students by 1997, to an estimated 1.5 million by 2007. A survey taken in 2003 by the DOE confirmed the obvious; that 72 percent of homeschooling parents said they wanted to instill religious and moral instruction. 85 percent said they were concerned with the social environment of public schools. Another US Census survey revealed 14% objected to what schools were teaching and 11 percent thought schools were not academically challenging enough. The truth is the opposing camp is not arguing these positions. They are just hoping it will all somehow go away.
The results are success on all fronts for the homeschooled kids. College exams and required SAT exams reveal they score consistently higher than their public schooled counterparts. Studies show them to be more socially adjusted. Homeschool classrooms are not crowded, the students are not absent, teachers are not inattentive, the environment is not gang or drug infested, and the teen pregnancy rate is nonexistent. As upsetting as it may be to the political left, they cannot tarnish those enviable 
results.
To protect and educate their children, Moms did not engage politically. They didn’t spend 200 million on lobbying, wining and dining congress like Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac. They didn’t request, require, or demand government funding. They dropped out and did it themselves. They didn’t set out to rock the system per se, but they did.
So rock on homeschool moms! Perhaps politically the rest of us can watch and learn how it’s done.
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8 Responses to Homeschool Moms Rock The Political Scene
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Translator
Dear William,
I’m homeschooling my child here in Portugal, where I come from, and I’d just like to thank you for your words, they mean a lot, at least to me, because it really isn’t easy to go against the system and what everyone else thinks it’s right just because it’s followed by the majority.
I’d also like to leave a few words for all mums, homeschooling or not:
WE – mothers, families – have the RIGHT TO TEACH OUR CHILDREN according to our values and our children’s own pace. Our children do not belong to the State, they are ours to guide and help through their lives and give them the tools they need to follow their own dreams and be happy – not mentally ill and sad like schools are turning them these days.
So, allow me to use your words: ROCK ON MUMS!
Once again, thank you very much for this article.
Cheers!
Amen! As a former classroom teacher and current homeschool mom, I’ve said a thousand times, there is NO WAY I’d send my kids to some of the schools in the metro-Atlanta area. More and more homeschooling “academies” are popping up each year, as the free market has embraced the homeschooling movement and responded accordingly.
Thank you so much for your words!
As a liberal, I don’t find homeschooling “upsetting” at all. Quite the contrary; as the material taught to all children in public school (regardless of race, ethnicity or religious background) is chosen by the overwhelmingly white, conservative and Christian voting bloc of the Texas Board of Education, I would leap at the opportunity to teach my child a more balanced version of history– perhaps one that doesn’t ignore those who have been trampled by corporate and expansionist interest throughout the years. Imagine if our children could learn in depth about what happened to the American Indian, or about the massive casualties of the Spanish-American War. Or about the class struggles of the 19th century. We could even teach children (gasp) what things like socialism and communism really are (just ideas, to be weighed against other ideas) instead of just using the words to evoke fear without explanation. In other words, actually teach them. Perhaps we could finally produce a generation not doomed to repeat the mistakes of the ones that came before.
It would also allow me to put a higher premium on the things that will actually make my child a more informed (and employable) member of society like language skills and information retention– the same things that usually suffer when a hugely disproportionate chunk of public school funding goes to sports programs (which, aside from providing some exercise, does little for our children except instill in them an unnecessarily aggressive sense of competition).
Rock on indeed.
Blake, we don’t have to imagine what your definition of a balanced history would be like. The public schools are immersed in it, and at the university level patriotism is all but banned and socially disdained. The Texas school board is actually swinging back to include both views. Socialists and communist doctrine is already presented as good “ideas” as compared to capitalism.
I have no problem including realities like the massive casualties of the Spanish American war or what happened to American Indians. I just don’t want one side of the issue only to be presented.
We agree on the sports programs. I do appreciate your well presented comments though I disagree with some of your conclusions.
Homeschooled Students now in Graduate Program are being derailed by political evil…
They initiated an attack on the Opponents three children – Joshua, Bethany and Matthew – for the purpose of throwing them all out of the OSU graduate school, despite their outstanding academic and research accomplishments. OSU is a liberal socialist Democrat stronghold in Oregon that received a reported $27 million in earmark funding from my opponent, Peter DeFazio, and his Democrat colleagues during the last legislative session.
Thus, Democrat activist David Hamby and militant feminist and chairman of the nuclear engineering
Read more: Democrats attack Republican candidate’s children http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=271753#ixzz1FvjENLjW
PLZ CONTACT THESE FACULTY!!
HOME SCHOOLED CHILDREN that have proven outstanding achievement should not be harmed because their parent ran of office and took home a 40% of the VOTE! He is Tea Party!
He is a Honest man that needs support for his successful homeschooled children..
We have been homeschooling our childrend since last 4years.
Recently we moved to Portual and we have been told by some friends that we cannot do it here.
Please tell me fast if that is so and if we can homeschool here, pls connect us to other homeschoolers in portugal.
We need help fast.
Thank you and God bless you.
Vasco Nunes – I appreciate your comments and support of home schooling. We home schooled 4 in 3 different states and every state is a slightly different experience, some more receptive than others. Sorry but I know little about Portugal. I can only suggest that you start with anything resembling a “board of education” on a local basis and ask what the options are. Best of luck to you. Even in the states, and things are easier than 15 years ago, the onus is on the one seeking to homeschool to sort out the requirements. The established school “professionals” often resist attempts to upset their apple cart.
Hi Vasco,
In response to your question, the answer is yes. It IS possible to homeschool your children in Portugal, although there are some requirements that must be followed (they have to be enrolled in a public school and you have to request homeschooling “status”. Some paperwork may be required.
Although I haven’t started homeschooling my children yet, I am seriously considering it also, and this is the information I’ve been provided by the Ministry of Education.
Good Luck!
Isabel