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Classical Christian
Homeschooling:
Classical Education
at Home
WebMaster:
Christine
Miller
Past Why We Homeschool Links
www.clas...ling.org/
past.html
This page last revised:
October 2004
Copyright
© 1997-2004
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Past “Why We Homeschool” Links
2004 Sites of the Month
The Seven Lesson Schoolteacher
www.worldtrans.org/whole/schoolteacher.txt
By John Taylor Gatto, former New York State Teacher of the Year. What seven lessons do schools teach? It isn't what you think. You may think schools teach lessons such as Reading, English, Mathematics, or Science. "The license I hold certifies that I am an instructor of English language and English literature, but that isn't what I do at all. I don't teach English, I teach school -- and I win awards doing it." According to Gatto, schools have been designed to teach, not academics, but lessons such as confusion, class position, indifference, emotional dependency, and more. His arguments are compelling. Private and charter schools, emulating the same structure as public schools, are not immune. This is why we homeschool.
Why We Homeschool
We homeschool because of the inefficiency and failure of the federally-controlled public school system to adequately educate our children. Since the passage of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act in 1965, the amount of taxpayer money which has been flushed through the system has risen at an exponential rate, while “math and reading scores have stagnated, graduation rates have flatlined, and researchers have shown numerous billion-dollar federal programs to be failures.” We homeschool because the most influential special interest in the nation, the National Education Association (NEA), is in hyperdrive to influence American politics while "they have failed miserably when it comes to improving education." Furthermore, the NEA is resisting most reform measures which would improve the public education of our children. While this is bad enough, recent research suggests that sexual harrassment of students by school employees is a worse scandal than the Catholic church abuse scandal, with numbers of abused children in the millions. In the face of this new report, the NEA defends its members rather than defending the children forcibly mandated to spend their days under the influence and authority of NEA members. These are only some of the reasons why we homeschool.
Dad Investigated for Taking Son off Meds
abcnews.go.com/sections/Living/US/mental_illness_treatment_kids_040607-1.html?HEALTHAd=true
“When Chad Taylor noticed his son was apparently experiencing serious side effects from Ritalin prescribed for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, he decided to take the boy off the medication. Now, he says he may be accused of child abuse.” But it was this part of the news article which confirmed to me that in America, we have crossed over into the ‘twilight zone’: “Taylor is among many parents facing a dilemma over whether to medicate children who suffer from mental disorders.” Mental disorder? I searched the article to find out what this child’s ‘mental disorder’ was which made his parents targets of Child Protective Services, and found it a few paragraphs up: “Daniel seemed unable to sit still and was inattentive” [in class, after his parents took him off the Ritalin]. The stretch is too far for my mind to make, but this news article has made it, and so have the CSS where these parents live: unable to sit still + inattentive in class (in a bored 12-year-old boy) = mental disorder? This is one reason why we homeschool.
Educational Ineptitude
www.townhall.com/columnists/walterwilliams/ww20040310.shtml
By Walter E. Williams, professor of economics at George Mason University. This article analyzes the data on teacher performance and examines the public schools' response to related student performance. Dr. Williams says, "This is a vision all too common among today’s educationists, but there’s a good reason for it: too large a percentage of teachers represent the very bottom of the academic achievement barrel and as such fall easy prey to mindless and destructive fads." Dr. Williams continues his analysis in Educational Ineptitude II. This is one reason why we homeschool.
Rewriting American History
http://www.yorktownpatriot.com/article_25.shtml
By U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo of Colorado. This is a transcript of an address made before Congress on the topic of textbooks approved and in use today in U.S. public schools, in which American history and the foundation of America, Western Civilization, is skewed to indoctrinate in a partisan political viewpoint, which gives children an EXTREMELY crippled and one-sided, and often, outright false, view of this country and the "evils" of Western Civilization. But, this viewpoint is the one held by most teachers, education administrators, and NEA operatives, so it is of course a moral duty to indoctrinate students and suppress dissent. This address, given just days ago, incorporates many examples from around the country, and is not alone in its ringing of the alarm bells: see also Dumbing Down, PC Distort US History, Critics Say, Political Correctness Suppresses Education, What They are Teaching our Young People in High School, Brainwashing in Grade School, Political Indoctrination at My Public High School, just to name a very few of the articles that have been published on this topic on the past few years.
Restoration of Education: The Role of Parents and the Body of Christ
www2.whidbey.net/jmboyes/restore.htm
By James Boyes, host of Christian Education Awareness Network. "One may ... locate a plethora of Scripture which points to the responsibility of parents and Church leadership toward the inculcation of each generation of children and their children in remembrance of God’s created works, wisdom, knowledge, and truth. ... On the other hand, it will be difficult, if not impossible, to locate biblical references that stress the importance of parents to delegate this responsibility (in loco parentis) to a government education system which is philosophically opposed to, and has essentially banned, the revelation of God through His Word. Regardless, if the state were to somehow become “godly” in its agenda, the Bible fails to direct parents to delegate the education of their children’s souls or conscience (sic) minds, into the hands of those outside of family and Church authority. This observation is well worth repeating: The Bible provides absolutely no basis for the contemporary practice of in loco parentis of Christian children, by Christian parents, into the hands of the United States federal/state school system."
Left-Wing Groups Silent on Schools’ Muslim Indoctrination
www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2004/1/21/115449.shtml
“Parents who are furious that their children are receiving indoctrination in Islam in their schools have yet to hear support from most of the same left-wing groups that loudly lecture Americans on what they call “separation of church and state,” a phrase that appears nowhere in the U.S. Constitution.” From NewsMax.com. This is part three in a series, part two in that series is Christians Fight California’s Muslim Indoctrination of Schoolchildren; and part one in the series is Jailed Terror Suspect Helped ACLU Draft Schools’ Anti-Christian Rules.
2003 Sites of the Month
Uprooting Our Biblical Foundation
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/davidlimbaugh/dl20031121.shtml
“We might as well just be blunt about what’s happened. According to our renegade courts, the government is not just forbidden from endorsing the Christian religion, it must now disavow its Judeo-Christian heritage. It must bastardize itself.” David Limbaugh explains the connection between two recent court decisions - that to remove the Ten Commandments monument from the Alabama Supreme Court, and that of the Massachusetts Supreme Court to legitimize “marriage” between gays - and the attempt by secularists to erase the biblical foundation from American life and government. (See related stories God in the Temples of Government and Gay ‘marriage’ OK’d in the US.) Are our children going to learn about the biblical foundation of American life and government, as a matter of historical fact, in their public schools? Will our children learn the historical and scientific evidence which agrees with the Biblical account in Genesis of the origin of the universe and earth’s ancient history in their schools? Will our modern education system prepare our children to be the George Washingtons and James Madisons of the next generation? That is why we homeschool.
What’s So Funny About Peace, Love, and Understanding?
www.teachermagazine.org/tm/tm_printstory.cfm?slug=02Peace.h15
This article is from the October issue of Teacher magazine, a sympathetic article about a teacher in Washington DC schools who teaches classes on peace. Some quotes from his class: “You can’t just eradicate the Constitution,” [a student] said. “Why not?” McCarthy [the teacher] asked. Or: “‘Peace through peaceful means’ also explains McCarthy’s classroom management style. He calls homework, tests, and grades ‘forms of academic violence.’ So, while he typically assigns two papers a semester and asks students to read essays by pacifists such as Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Leo Tolstoy, and Catholic social worker Dorothy Day, he doesn’t require them to do anything.” Or, from the article: “In an academic year bookended by snipers terrorizing the Washington, D.C., region and an American invasion of Iraq, it appears that McCarthy was able to accomplish something remarkable with these kids: He sent them off into an uncertain world feeling comfortable with uncertainty.” Peace is wonderful, and will only be achieved when the Prince of Peace is Lord; so any paths advocated to peace which eliminate Him as the solution are deceptive; and God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, so is a child comfortable with uncertainty uncomfortable with God? Well, this is one reason we homeschool.
Myth of Teacher Certification
www.ashbrook.org/publicat/oped/moore/03/qualified.html
This article by Dr. Terrence Moore from the Ashbrook Center examines the association in our society between teacher certification and teacher qualification. In most of our minds, a certified teacher equals a qualified teacher. But Dr. Moore exposes this association as false: certification does not always equal qualification, and sadly usually does not equal qualification. Our schools are filled with certified teachers, but are they filled with qualified teachers? This is one reason why we homeschool.
Sex Ed or Porn 101?
http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/comment-rector090203.asp
“It’s ‘Back To School’ time again, and here’s the first pop quiz. No, it’s not for the kids. It’s for parents, and they have to answer only one question: Do you know what your children are learning in sex-education classes? If you’re like most parents, the answer is no. But if the program is billed as ‘abstinence-based,’ you probably don’t feel particularly concerned. The important thing, as far as you’re concerned, is that your kids are being taught to say ‘no’ to sex. But are they? The fact is, nearly all of the government-funded abstinence-based or ‘abstinence-plus’ programs delivered in schools nationwide contain little, if any, reference to abstinence.” Warning: This article contains some explicit references in its report of “abstinence” curriculum content. If the description of the curriculum is too explicit for some to read without offense, how then can we expose our children to the full and undiluted curriculum itself? That is why we homeschool.
Men - It’s In Their Nature
http://www.americanenterprise.org/issues/articleID.17565/article_detail.asp
The pervasive attitude about masculinity among the progressive crowd is that it’s a bad thing, that male aggression is the reason we have crime and wars. (Well, yes, maleness + sin = crime and unjust wars. But do we really want to get rid of maleness altogether? (Yes! shout the progressive crowd.) Male aggression is also the reason we have innovations, prosperity, and security.) It has been vogue to think, in the progressive crowd, that if a boy child was just socialized right, if he didn’t learn to play cops and robbers or cowboys and Indians in the first place, then he wouldn’t be aggressive. So the places where the progressive crowd congregates and has influence (public schools) has been, well, aggressively pursuing the feminization of our boys, and the masculinization of our girls, in the hope that when the properly trained generation grows up and becomes world leaders, there will be peace and all the nations will forget silly things like territory and everyone will sing Kumbaya together and get along. This loathing of maleness is one reason why the progressive crowd tends to be ashamed of America (all our national heroes are masculine aggressors like Columbus and Washington!), ashamed of the military (it goes without saying), ashamed of heterosexuality, particularly ashamed of our current "cowboy" president (Texas is such a testosterone place), and why it is trying to get "He" out of the Scriptures as a pronoun for God. This contempt of the male has its roots in the rejection of God as our Lawgiver and Judge - male and female was His idea. New studies have shown what we knew to be true all along: that in the beginning, He made them male and female. It will still take years, I am afraid, for the current progressive crowd in control of our schools to retire and give up on their pet projects and tampering with our sons’ masculinity, and that is one reason why we homeschool.
The Ungraduated
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/lindachavez/lc20030604.shtml
From the Washington Times by Linda Chavez, former Bush administration cabinet nominee. (The Washington Times archive costs, so I have found the text of the same article, and the link points to that site now.) “For many high school seniors around the country, there was no Graduation Day this year. Despite good attendance and, in some instances, decent grades, thousands of high school seniors failed to pass mandatory state graduation exams implemented over the last decade to improve standards in education. Nearly half of all states now require, or are in the process of implementing, graduation tests to ensure that students who have been passed from grade to grade actually learned basic skills during their 12 years of public education.” One reason we homeschool is so that our children learn basic skills during their 12 years of home education, and not only basic skills, but proficiency in syntopical reading; concrete, analytical, and abstract thinking; a biblical worldview; and development of virtuous character and a heart tuned toward the Lord.
It’s
1984 in Massachusetts -- and Big Brother is Gay
www.insightmag.com/main.cfm/include/detail/storyid/160271.html
From Insight on the News magazine. “Mary Clossey’s children see no American
flags at school to remind them that it is their safety that young men are risking their
lives to defend. Rather, her daughter and other pupils are filed into an auditorium to
hear a speaker liken the U.S. military to terrorists. For years the Newton, Mass., public
schools have blithely violated a Massachusetts law that the flag be on display in every
classroom. On the other hand, there are many flags on display if you count rainbow flags
that symbolize a ‘gay-friendly’ environment.” Caution: the extremes to
which the public schools are being used to promote an anti-Biblical agenda is shocking. It
is not happening only in Massachusetts. Do not read if you want to remain in denial
about the destructiveness to children of modern public ‘education’. Warning: the
description of what is being done in the name of education contains graphic sexual
references.
Textbooks Put Sensitivity Ahead of Truth
www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20030417/5078122s.htm
From the USA Today. “When a sharp-eyed parent last year discovered that literary
passages on New York state’s high school Regents English exam had been censored to
make them more politically correct, state officials endured withering ridicule. Critics
were appalled that educators would delete references to God, change ‘a skinny Italian
boy’ to ‘a thin Italian boy,’ or ‘a gringo lady’ to ‘an
American lady,’ often without writers’ permission. But this kind of thing has
been going on for 30 years, says research by education historian Diane Ravitch.”
The Why of Homeschool
www.mises.org/fullstory.asp?control=1167
By Isabel Lyman, author of  The Homeschooling Revolution. “Even in a nation that applauds
innovation and liberty, the act of homeschooling continues to raise many uncomfortable,
but important, questions about government regulation of private choices. What follows are
the seven most frequently asked questions about home education. Hopefully, the answers
will explain the benefits of this educational endeavor and dispel common
misperceptions.” Posted on the Ludwig
von Mises Institute website.
How I Joined Teach for America -and Got Sued for $20 Million
www.city-journal.org/html/13_1_how_i_joined.html
The story of one young and idealistic Yale graduate’s work in inner city schools. Not
all schools are like this one. But the deep impression I was left with was a general
system of bureaucracy entrenched which tends to punish innovation and enthusiam, the very
qualities which make for good teachers, and to reward the status quo or even mediocrity.
This isn’t the fault of one school; this is what happens in any bureaucracy, because
it is the nature of bureaucracy. Rather than chance our own precious children to the
arbitrary and often unwise bureaucratic mechanizations which often go on, we choose to
homeschool.
Where America
Is History
www.washtimes.com/commentary/feder.htm
“‘Our ability to defend, intelligently and thoughtfully, what we as a nation
hold dear depends on our knowledge and understanding of what we hold dear,’ says
historian Diane Ravitch. A reasonable proposition, this. Unfortunately, young Americans
are oblivious to their heritage. Ignorance of our past has been carefully cultivated by
the educational establishment. The result is a cut-flower generation, severed from its
roots.” One reason we homeschool is that we want our children to know America’s
noble history and to appreciate what it means to be uniquely American.
Christian
Children in Public Schools: Missionaries or Prey?
www.homeschoolchristian.com/Position/MissionariesorPrey.html
A common objection heard against homeschooling among Christians is that if the Christian
children are taken out of public school, there will be no or little witness left to the
gospel there. This article attempts to answer that criticism, and shows that more often
than not, Christian children in public schools end up being influenced by the godlessness
around them, rather than influencing the godless. (“A little yeast leavens the whole
loaf,” 1 Corinthians 5:6). This is one reason why we homeschool.
2002 Sites of the Month
What to Do Till the Undertaker Comes
www.sourcetext.com/grammarian/the-booklets/7.htm
This essay by Richard Mitchell is a tongue-in-cheek critique of the importance modern
educationism places on teaching a set of skills and calling that “education,”
and contrasting that to the historic understanding of true education, which has been and
ought to be, teaching virtue, contemplating choices, and choosing good over evil. Private
schools have not escaped the skills-training mantra. Homeschooling, if it shakes off the
desire to be just like their professional big brothers (who have now failed several
generations of children), and grasps the true calling of education: of inculcating virtue
in the heart of a child, of giving a child the tools to learn, and introducing him to the
Great Minds that have preceded him -- has the opportunity to make a real difference for
our children. That is why we homeschool.
Why
Christians Don’t Belong in Government Schools
www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=29621
This three-part series begins November 12. Part I
looks at the subversion of American goverment schools; Part
II explores the evidence that this subversion has been and is intentional, and Part
III examines the homeschooling phenomenon.
Why
Are Christians Losing America?
www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=28562
This is a very provocative look at modern Christianity and its effect, or lack thereof, on
American society, one part of which is education. “Christians have lost the war for
America's schools – which have been scrubbed antiseptically clean of the Christian
principles and traditions that once guided those institutions, and are now filled instead
with every conceivable form of propaganda and perversion.” Christian parents yearly
face the question of whether they will give the precious charges in their care over to the
discipleship of an institution scrubbed clean of Christian principles and traditions.
Homeschooling parents have made the decision to actively disciple their children in
Christian principles and traditions without competition from the local government school.
Dispelling
False Notions of the First Amendment
www.equip.org/free/DE206.pdf
Subtitled “The Falsity, Futility, Folly of Separating Morality from Law.” This
well-thought out article from the Christian
Research Institute illustrates how a current trend in American society which is based
on a faulty presumption, in this case, that of affirming that law does not have a
foundation in a morality from a greater authority, can be combatted with proper logic and
a foundation in a Biblical worldview. Our children need their education to teach them to
do the same with the current trends based on faulty presumptions that they will encounter
as adults, something that government schools do not do. This is one reason why we
homeschool!
Alexis de Tocqueville Vs. Antonio Gramsci: To Transmit Or To Transform; That
Is The Question
toogoodreports.com/column/general/rowles/20020603.htm
This article by Gerald R. Rowles examines the difference between those who, like
Tocqueville, want to transmit Western and American culture, complete with its
biblical foundation, on to the next generation, and those who, like Gramsci, want to transform
Western and American culture into something else, largely because of its biblical
foundation. Rowles makes the point that if your desire is to transmit, then one of the
things that you must do is take your children out of public schools, as they are
temples to Gramsciism. Well, this is one reason why we homeschool.
2001 Sites of the Month
Pay Attention: Ritalin Acts Much Like Cocaine
jama.ama-assn.org/issues/v286n8/ffull/jmn0822-1.html
From an August issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association comes this report
of recent research on Ritalin: “Although they have used it [Ritalin] to treat
attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) for 40 years, psychiatrists and
pharmacologists have never known how or why it worked. Chemically similar to cocaine and
other stimulants, methylphenidate [Ritalin] presents a pragmatic paradox: it decreases
activity and increases the ability to concentrate in people with ADHD, but in studies,
about half of those without ADHD find it unpleasant, like drinking too much coffee.
‘I’ve almost been obsessed about trying to understand [methylphenidate] with
imaging,’ said Volkow at a recent media conference. ‘As a psychiatrist,
sometimes I feel embarrassed [about the lack of knowledge] because this is, by far, the
drug we prescribe most frequently to children.’” Four to six million children in
the United States now take this drug; by far the vast majority are boys; by far the vast
majority of children on the drug are taking it because of a recommendation by their public
school. I didn’t even realize that the experts did not understand why or how it
works. Need I say more?
Basic
Minimum Christianism
www.sourcetext.com/grammarian/leaning-tower-of-babel/04.htm
The first essay in the Basic Minimum Christianism collection is titled,
“Uncomfortable Words.” And they are. In these essays, Richard Mitchell calls
into question everyone who claims to educate without teaching clear language and the power
of reason -- the first two tools, grammar and logic, in the three tools of learning. He
spares not private Christian schools, nor even popular Christian organizations seeking to
influence public policy, such as the Eagle Forum or the Moral Majority. He is an equal
opportunity blaster of Protestant and Catholic educationism. But keep reading. If
criticism is leveled at the Church, can it be because the Church has earned it? It is the
Church that abandoned the intellect, reason, and academia after “our” position
was blasted at the Scopes Trial in 1925 by Clarence Darrow and the ACLU. We decided that
faith and reason cannot go together, a strange conclusion that Mitchell claims even Martin
Luther shared. We abandoned the head and focused on the heart, and forgot that Jesus
commanded, “Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart AND mind and soul and
strength.” It is not either heart or head, either faith or reason. It is heart AND
head, faith AND reason. Those who teach faith to the exclusion of reason do as much harm
as those who teach reason to the exclusion of faith. We need both.
For another perspective on this whole debate, my husband and I have been
listening to many of Dr. Davis’ messages (see Family Alternatives in Past Why We Homeschool Site
of the Month links). In either the message Changing the Heart of a Rebel, or The
Secret to Becoming Strong, Dr. Davis mentioned he would rather a person was a God-fearing
ignoramus than an educated fool. If someone fears God, which I believe means, he
acknowledges not only God’s existence, but also His sovreignty by reason of His
existence, and has submitted his life to Him accordingly, seeking to serve and worship Him
in the manner God has prescribed, i.e., through faith in Jesus Christ our Lord, then that
person has begun to be wise: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,”
(Proverbs 9:10). The God-fearing ignoramus won’t stay that way long, because
“the ear of the wise seeks knowledge,” (Proverbs 18:15). But “the fool says
in his heart, ‘There is no God,’” (Psalms 14:1). An evolutionist scientist
is an educated fool; an abortion doctor is an educated fool. I agree with Dr. Davis; if
you can only teach one, teach the heart to be wise. But we do not have to only teach one.
We can teach the heart to be wise, and the mind to reason. Faith and reason do not
contradict each other at all, but truth, which God personifies, is established by proper
inquiry and investigation. The excess of the Renaissance, which undoubtedly Martin Luther
was preaching against, was elevating human reason to a place above God Himself. Faith
teaches us the limits of human reason, that there is thought higher than humans can reason
or understand (Isaiah 55:8-9).
We homeschool to avoid the mistakes of educationism, false education, in
both government and private schools, in neglecting the teaching of reason to indoctrinate
in humanism or Christianism, rather than teaching truth, “difficult
disciplines”, and “difficult doctrine”, if we will listen.
Family Alternatives
www.drsmdavis.com/
Homeschooling, as anyone finds out who is into it for longer than a month or two, is about
more than academics. The family is impacted in a powerful way, as parents seek to obey the
biblical injunction to teach their children, and parents and children start having more
time to spend together. Family relationships soon take on an importance as great or
greater than academic excellence, and because every one is home and around each other much
of the time, the potential for closeness as well as conflict is multiplied. This is the
way God designed families to be, to be around each other so that the father can teach his
children when he rises up, when he lies down, when he comes in and goes out. But because
so many of us were raised in families fragmented by the culture in which we live, we lack
the living examples and, many times, the biblical knowledge of relationship principles
that make family relationships a joy and a blessing rather than a burden. Enter Family Alternatives, the ministry of
Dr. S. M. Davis, pastor of Park Meadows Baptist Church in Illinois. My husband and I had
an opportunity to hear Dr. Davis speak recently, and we were very impressed with his grasp
of biblical truth as it applies to family relationships. Especially helpful are his
messages on parenting,
husbands and wives, and dealing
with rebellion in
children. But many of the biblical principles are difficult to implement in families
where the parents see, much less communicate, with their children only a handful of
minutes a day. Homeschooling combats family fragmentation and is one very important reason
why we homeschool.
Dinosaurs
and the Bible
www.newleafpress.net/details/dino.htm
“An aura of mystery surrounds the dinosaurs,” begins Ken Ham’s essay on
dinosaurs and the Bible. Are dinosaurs mentioned in the Bible? Do dinosaurs prove
evolution? What about creation? What happened to the dinosaurs? These fascinating
creatures are favorites of our children, but how do we answer their questions about
dinosaurs and evolution? The answers
are in Genesis, and because we homeschool, we are free to explore scientific and
historic truth that, because it challenges their dogma, the high priests of the
educational establishment in America have censored.
Makers of Modern Schooling
www.johntaylorgatto.com/history_of_education_tour.htm
Who were the makers of modern schooling in America? It’s not who you think. At John Taylor Gatto’s site,
learn about the Fourth Purpose of American Schooling. In the colonial days of our country,
the three purposes of schooling were to: make good people, make good citizens, to help
children find their talents. But today, the fourth purpose has crowded out the other
three. And it is the proliferation of that fourth purpose that is one reason why we
homeschool.
AiG
Creation Education Center
www.answersingenesis.org/cec/
Evolutionary theory is the high priest of secular humanism, and the foundation of almost
all science taught in the United States today, certainly in the public schools. This in
spite of the fact that the theory remains unproven, that new data weekly shows up the
flaws, inconsistencies, and scientific impossibilities with the theory, and in spite of
the fact that more and more secular scientists are, privately and publicly, voicing grave
doubts of the theory’s soundness. As homeschoolers, we can bypass the defunct
dinosaur of a theory all together and teach pure science, unencumbered by the politically
correct baggage of the age. The brand new Answers in Genesis Creation Education Center is
just what the doctor ordered for lesson plans, information and ideas not only on creation
science, but everyday science as well. February’s topic is weather.
2000 Sites of the Month
Homeschoolers for Bush 2000
This link is no longer active and is now
unavailable.
This excellent website, newly posted, contains lesson plans and unit study ideas for
teaching our children of all grades about the election process, and Governor Bush has
promised to send a signed letter to each child that participates in the Homeschoolers for
Bush 2000 Unit Study. By homeschooling, we can ensure that our children learn the nature
of the political process and participate in that process, under our guidance.
Election 2000: for more on the
ongoing news of the nominees’ positions on homeschooling.
Educational Revelation
www.crosswalk.com/family/home_school/513122.html
By Michael Farris, president of the HSLDA.
In this article, Mr. Farris responds to the Democratic National Committee position
on homeschooling. We won’t be debating why we homeschool if the government makes
it extremely difficult for parents to homeschool their children at all. The DNC gets its
position on homeschooling from the National Education Association, which advocates teacher
certification for homeschool parents and compliance with state-approved curriculum. So
much for choice in education. The ramifications for homeschooling families, if Democratic
candidates adhere to their party’s position and are elected, will be enormous.
Late News: The DNC has taken down its position on homeschooling
from its website as of October 5, 2000, so after this date the above link will not work.
What is it that the DNC does not want you to know? Fortunately, the exact text of that
page has been saved, and you can access it here from the Homeschoolers for Bush 2000
webpage [this website has been taken down, unfortunately these links are no longer
active], the October 2000 Why We Homeschool Site of the Month.
The War Against Boys
http://service.bfast.com/bfast/click?bfmid=2181&sourceid=40117746&bfpid=0684849577&bfmtype=book
Subtitled: How Misguided Feminism is Harming our Young Men. Christina Hoff Sommers
addresses the “girl crisis” that has been seized upon by feminists and promoted
by leading academic experts. Sommers examines the work of some of the “experts”
and finds that it is girls who are outperforming boys academically. Under the guise of
helping girls, many schools have adopted policies that penalize boys, often for simply
being masculine. Sommers says that boys need help, but not the sort they’ve been
getting. While they need help catching up with girls academically, they do not need to be
rescued from masculinity.
The Devil’s in the Details
eagleforum.org/column/2000/apr00/00-04-12.html
This column is from Phyllis Schlafly’s Eagle Forum, long a conservative watchdog on education reform:
“Congress is about to pass legislation that will federalize every local school
district and spell the end of local and state control of America’s public school
classrooms. Mindful of Ronald Reagan’s words, ‘You can’t control the
economy without controlling the people,’ Bill and Hillary Clinton have found the way
to control the economy by controlling America’s schoolchildren.” The article
summarizes the Elementary and Secondary Education Act currently before Congress. As of
this writing, the Act has passed the House, and admendments to the Act are being
considered in the Senate.
The Necks and Minds of the People
www.sourcetext.com/grammarian/newslettersv04/4.6.htm
This little jewel of an essay is from the pen of Richard Mitchell, professor of classics
at Glassboro State College and the Underground Grammarian. Those of you that have been
around long know that a treat in reasoned thought and clear expression, along with a bit
of wit and wisdom, is in store for you; those that have not read Richard Mitchell before:
enjoy, then weep, then thank God that we can homeschool in this country.
UTCH Why Home
School
www.utch.org/handbk02.htm
This well-written page from the Utah
Christian Home School Association's Home School Handbook explores the spiritual, emotional, academic,
intellectual, and rational benefits of homeschooling, using sound reasoning and Biblical
principles.
Render Them NOT Unto Caesar
This link is no longer active and is now
unavailable.
Are children to be rendered unto Caesar? This article is a highly compelling answer using
sound Biblical argument to that question. By Lynn and Sarah Leslie, publishers of The Christian Conscience, and
active members of the Iowa homeschooling community for many years.
The October Sky Study Guide
This link is no longer active and is now
unavailable.
We loved the movie October Sky, and bought it for our children when it came to video. We
have been constructing model rockets together as a family for several years, and that
increased our appreciation of the movie. A recent visit to the October Sky website (which has
some great model rocketry links)
turned up this study guide, written for junior and senior high school teachers to use with
their students. Excited at the prospect of finding lots of relevant information about
rocket propulsion, Werner von Braun (a creation scientist) and the history of rocket
science, trigonometry links, etc., what I actually found was the cold water bucket of the
reality of public education: conflict resolution with unreasonable parents, finding your
identity, and comparing the TV and music of the 50's and the 90's. Who knows how many
junior and senior high students actually wasted school time on these activities? It
reminded me why we homeschool.
1999 Sites of the Month
Seven Undeniable Truths of Homeschooling
www.triviumpursuit.com/articles/7_und_trs_hsing.htm
By Harvey Bluedorn of The Trivium
Pursuit.“...we have developed what we call “Seven Undeniable Truths of
Homeschooling” in order to encourage Christian parents to begin Homeschooling, to
continue Homeschooling, and to defend Homeschooling.”
The
Graves of Academe
www.sourcetext.com/grammarian/graves-of-academe/index.html
By Richard Mitchell, professor of classics at Glassboro State College, and editor of the Underground Grammarian.
Richard Mitchell traces the philosophy and the folly of the education establishment which
trains the teachers who teach our nation’s children. If “clear language
engenders clear thought, and clear thought is the most important benefit of
education,” then how can the education establishment, high priests of muddied,
illogical language and thought, bestow that which it does not itself possess? This site is
well worth the time to examine and digest thoroughly.
Preparing Our Children for Perilous Times
This link is no longer active and is now
unavailable.
By Mr. and Mrs. James Brashear for the Home School Digest. One of the many advantages and privileges we enjoy
as homeschooling families is the freedom to devote time and energy on what God deems
“the good part” of our children’s education: sitting at His feet and
learning from Him. Homeschooling parents of seven, the Brashears’ outline their
stragegy for “Spiritual Preparedness” in their children.
U.S. Senate Passes Historic Resolution
www.hslda.org/docs/nche/000000/00000088.asp
On September 16, the United States Senate, by unanimous consent, officially passed Senate
Resolution 183, designating the week of September 19-25, 1999, as “National Home
Education Week.” Read highlights of this historic resolution, as well as view the
complete text on-line.
Two
World-views in Conflict
www.answersingenesis.org/docs/4047.asp
Subtitled: Evolution is absolutely opposed to the Bible. This article by Dan Manthei was
first published in the wonderful family magazine Creation Ex
Nihilo (“ex nihilo” is Latin for “out of nothing.”) Manthei shows
the worldview foundational to evolution, taught as fact in all public schools, although
there is much debate on its feasibility among the most secular of research scientists, is
at complete opposites with the Biblical worldview, upon which, by the way, the great
discoveries of Newton, Lavoisier, Pasteur, and others were made. Eye-opening reading.
The Columbine Massacre
www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/columbine/
The ongoing news coverage of the massacre and the investigation from the Rocky Mountain
News, a local newspaper. The link includes an archive of the reports from the day of the
shooting to the present. My family and I are Colorado residents, and my oldest daughter
knows some students that attend Columbine High School. Our public schools are not safe
places for children.
The Answering of Kautski
www.sourcetext.com/grammarian/newslettersv03/3.8.htm
Another classic from Richard Mitchell, the professor of classics at Glassboro State
College, and the Underground
Grammarian. More on tyranny, freedom, minimum competency, logical thinking, Lenin, and
the modern educational system.
Saint Jerome’s Advice to a Homeschooling Mom
www.greenleafpress.com/articles/a_jerome.htm
“Practical wisdom from 400 A.D.” This article is by Rob Shearer of Greenleaf Press. He says, “You
can imagine my surprise and delight when I came across the following letter, which might
be entitled, Jerome’s Advice to a Homeschooling Mom. One of Jerome’s
acquaintances had written him asking for advice on how to educate her daughter.”
Interesting reading.
What
About Socialization?
learninfreedom.org/socialization.html
This informative article from School is
Dead: Learn in Freedom explores the effects of negative socialization on children
segregated by age in today's school classrooms. The findings are continued in the Age Segregation in
School article, School Attendance and Crime article, and the Schools and Suicide
article.
The Public
School Nightmare
www.afhe.org/gatto5.htm
Subtitled: “Why Fix a System Designed to Destroy Individual Thought?” This
thought-provoking article is from John Taylor Gatto, a past New York State Teacher of the
Year, author of Dumbing Us Down and outspoken critic of our public school
establishment.
1998 Sites of the Month
Homeschooling:
You Can’t Do It
www.homeschooldigest.com/jbond.htm
From the Home School
Digest archives comes this encouraging message by Alan & Jill Bond: “The good
news is that while we can’t, GOD CAN! He is quite capable of knowing what our
children’s future will be like, where they will be, what they will be, and what they
need to get there. It is so freeing to relax our tight control on our children’s
lives. What we ask of parents is less, not more. Less of fleshly works and more of
God’s presence, direction, and empowering.”
Sticht in the Eye Again by Richard Mitchell
www.sourcetext.com/grammarian/newslettersv03/3.3.htm
Richard Mitchell is professor of classics at Glassboro State College, and the author of
the Underground Grammarian.
This article from the March 1979 issue of UG had me rolling on the floor.
 
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