Homeschool or Die – Vox Day
Previously, we talked about Knowing Your Enemies – Socialists. I focused on things that I thought were most relevant to the political discussion in America today, of Donald Trump fighting with the converged Republican Party and the socialist takeover of the United States government (in that both major political parties have now accepted socialist tenets as part of their foundational platform). Today, we want to talk about education, and the future of education. The centralization of the education of the children is a central tenet of all the various unholy spawn of Marx. In the United States Captain Peanut brought us the Department of Education. Ronald Reagan vowed to destroy it, unfortunately, he failed and it still plagues us to this day. This centralization of power in education has brought a blight upon this country, and has manifested itself in Common Core, an educational regiment so stupid that people with math related PhD’s can’t do elementary school math homework.
But this article isn’t about how the educational system has been ruined, I take it as a given that if you’re reading Men of the West you probably already agree that things are in a pretty sad state. But, Men of the West do. We like verbs. We see problems, we go to fix them. This entire website exists because we didn’t want to see our culture be destroyed by the enemies of the West. And having briefly surveyed the landscape of public education one thing is apparent to me – we can’t compete dollar for dollar with the state system. At least not where we are now. ( I happen to have some ideas about why the West is so starved for resources to raise up our children in the way that they should go ).
Computers are a wonderful tool, but they are only a tool. But they can enable us to divest of one of the most costly resources that we use for educating our children, and that is the actual school house. Families already successfully educate their children from home with books, and have for years. Most homeschoolers are involved in some sort of cooperative where they have the opportunity to learn from somebody who is strong where one of their parents may be weak. But while it may be wonderful to be able to have a Q&A session with Dr. Sarah Salviander over Skype ( you can view her homeschool astronomy curriculum at Castalia House ) there is no substitute for going out with a telescope and looking at the stars. And this is where the Churches come in. Most churches don’t have the money to build a school. But they DO have the ability to bring in a group of homeschoolers and shut the lights off in the parking lot and let them learn about the stars. Churches regularly pull together the talent to run scouting troops, I have no doubt that churches could pull together their resources to have a shop lab where students learn small engine repair, woodworking, or welding from older more experienced men. And if we spread the course work between several churches then no one church has to shoulder the burden. We can decentralize the educational process and at the same time, keep the valuable parts of hands on learning.
After all, what better opportunity is there to teach cooking and anatomy than the end of a successful hunting trip?
I know there are homeschool conventions. I have never attended one, but they seem to be centered on selling books and speakers. Would a practical home-school convention where there would be classes on welding, small engine repair, etc. be something that homeschoolers would attend? Or maybe something to try to add to these conventions?
There are a number of homeschool activities like that, but they are not really conventions. There is one group in the KC Area (Midwest Parent Educators) that holds cooperative, 6-to-12 week specialty sessions in a classroom where necessary and outside where possible. I’m sure there are plenty of other groups that do the same. But, yes, the conventions are centered around short workshops (usually for parents) and supplies.
Excellent ideas all! This needs to be encouraged.
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Best decision we ever made. You really have to not care what others think, though. It’s almost a superpower of mine, but some people are paralyzed by the thought they might not be accepted by their social group anymore. What’s more important, your kids or your social group. If it’s the latter, God protect us from idiots like you.
You are correct in your comment. I feel that it is my duty to also defend those who choose this for their children. So I hope you realize that there are a number of us like minded individuals out in the world who have your back. I cannot feel strongly enough about how I believe that home schooling our kids is Biblical, it is wrong to offer them up to the filth that passes as the education system. I mean look at France. They just elected a guy President whose wife is not only old enough to be his mother, but she is a pedophile as well when she was his language teacher. That is over the parent’s objections too.
So realize that not everybody is going to be against you. We might not be as vocal as we need to be, but we will stand up for your right to home school
A perspective that some people forget about is that the Proverb that teaches us to train up our children in the way that they should go has no time limit or expiration date. I believe that Proverb advocates Home schooling.
About 25 years ago, the Astronomy professor at the nearby college set his very powerful telescope up in the parking lot in the middle of town. Seems that Saturn was going to be close enough to Earth to be seen with a powerful enough telescope. After looking through that and seeing the rings of Saturn for myself, I went home and for the first time in our marriage, I demanded that my hubby accompany me back to the parking lot.
The sight of Saturn was just too wondrous to keep to myself. I had to share it with my hubby. It was that big. He finally understood my reaction after seeing for himself. Some sights just have to be shared. I hope you husbands understand that, sometimes we just have to share a wondrous sight like that. We cannot in all honesty keep it for ourselves. But that is what marriage is all about, right?
The authoritarians of any political persuasion hate homeschooling; it represents a loss of control for them. Fortunately, we’re winning this part of the war, homeschooling is continuing to grow.
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