Classical Christian Homeschooling

Past “Why We Homeschool”
Site of the Month Links

2004 Sites of the Month

2003 Sites of the Month

2002 Sites of the Month

2001 Sites of the Month

2000 Sites of the Month

1999 Sites of the Month

1998 Sites of the Month


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.

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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