Ron Paul: More women should sacrifice career to homeschool kids

[DC Al Fine]

It's the difference between political and cultural views; what you think the government should enforce versus what you think people should do.

[DC Al Fine]

Ron Paul, then, should start supporting an economic policy that allows single-earner households to actually exist in this country again, rather than one that continues to decimate the middle class.

I tend to agree. There's been a gutting of the family in the poorer parts of society. Stagnant/declining lower class income isn't solely responsible for it, but it definitely played a large part.

[DC Al Fine]

Homeschooling should be banned.

Nothing says personal freedom like banning an educational system you disagree with. Mandatory state education has been used to push a whole assortment of agendas from the evil (Naziism/Communism) to the innocuous (recycling). If parents disagree with something the schools are pushing, they should have every right to withdraw the kids from schools and pursue an alternative form of education.

[DC Al Fine]

Homeschooling should be banned.

Nothing says personal freedom like banning an educational system you disagree with. Mandatory state education has been used to push a whole assortment of agendas from the evil (Nazism/Communism) to the innocuous (recycling). If parents disagree with something the schools are pushing, they should have every right to withdraw the kids from schools and pursue an alternative form of education.

We have an alternative form of education, it's called private schools. Last time I checked, the only form of education being used to push agendas are home schools, with fundie parents taking their kids out of school in order to hide them from evolution/LIBRULS/things that invalidate a parent's worldview ("IF THIS HIGH SCHOOL LETS GAYS DANCE AT PROM, I AM TAKING MY SON OUT OF HERE!").

Home schooling cripples children in regards to social skills and future career paths, and quite honestly it should be banned.

Homeschooling should be banned.

Nothing says personal freedom like banning an educational system you disagree with. Mandatory state education has been used to push a whole assortment of agendas from the evil (Naziism/Communism) to the innocuous (recycling). If parents disagree with something the schools are pushing, they should have every right to withdraw the kids from schools and pursue an alternative form of education.

The only option other than homeschooling is a state education? Who knew?

Anyway, it's clear that homeschooling creates maladjusted manchildren whose wingnut parents have indoctrinated them with fringe views while socially crippling them. Homeschooling is the preserve of white supremacists and Christian fundamentalists for a reason.

TNF is on record as wanting to ban public schools. My assertion stands.

Also, this notion that home schooled children are maladjusted is bigoted and completely unfounded.  All I've seen is people boldly state that they are maladjusted without ever providing any evidence to support it. At least Krazen bothers to cite stats from time to time.



Large portions of students take music lessons (Higher than the general population I'd wager), do group sports etc. Heck, 40% of them have outside classes from tutors. I know in my church the older homeschooled kids spend much of their time in community college classes to learn in areas where the parents knowledge is limited.

But wow two opinions without evidence or argument. I better change my mind.

[DC Al Fine]

Right, in order to protect diversity of people and opinions we have to keep people from having any real diversity in what and how they learn.  That's what passes for being "socially liberal" these days.

Precisely.

Want your kid to learn to read with phonics? Too bad. Want your kid to learn more about European history? Tough luck. Want your kid to grow up not believing in the Aryan master race in 1930's Germany? Can't have that now.

[DC Al Fine]

I am aware the link is to a homeschool advocacy group so it should be taken with a grain of salt. But the thing is Link, I haven't been able to even find statistics discrediting the idea that homeschooled children outperform children educated in public schools. I would think that, in our lovely era of utilitarian ethics and social liberalism, one should need to demonstrate, and with statistics not with ideologically driven anecdotes, that the practice of homeschooling leads to worse educational outcomes if it is to be banned.

Besides home schooling advocates there just doesn't seem to be a real need to prove anything about home schooling one way or the other for the broader society.  The majority of people can't do it because current economic reality demands a two income household... not to mention the rise of the single income female headed household.  Also as others stated most people simply aren't qualified to teach.  So it is a niche market.

And as far as data there are numerous studies out there concerning socialization of children and it is enough to give plenty of us pause when thinking about removing children from the traditional school environment.  The act of getting up, commuting, following instructions from a non family member, interacting with a cross section of society, etc is important.  I would not want my child's first time doing all that to be when they go to college at 18.

I personally haven't seen a lot of independent research drilling down and studying homeschooling.  Besides when you talk to homeschoolers the reasons they often give for doing are tinfoil hat.  I mean this thread was started because someone saw Ron Paul pushing it.

TJ posted his link in the middle of a discussion about whether homeschooling should be banned. It's pretty freaking relevant if some of the lefties want to ban a type of education full of high performers even if correlation =/= causation.

You, angry greatness, and oakvale have posted nothing but a string of unfounded assertions and ad hominems against homeschoolers without the slightest whiff of logic or argumentation to back it up.

Angry calls them conformist, Oakvale calls them maladjusted and you call the parents irrational. But where is the evidence? Where are the statistics? If these things are all true, why does no one post the proof?

The stereotypes and insults prove once again that bigotry is hardly the domain of the right.

[DC Al Fine]

TJ posted his link in the middle of a discussion about whether homeschooling should be banned. It's pretty freaking relevant if some of the lefties want to ban a type of education full of high performers even if correlation =/= causation.

Reread my post.  I never said anything about banning homeschooling.  And my argument stands even for those that would seek a ban.  It's niche and it will always be niche.  There are more important things to worry about.

Several posters said homeschooling should be banned. After rereading your post, my statement doesn't apply to you. However TNF, Oakvale and Angry Greatness all support bans on homeschooling and the latter made statements like

You must be logged in to read this quote.

To arguments like that, my statement stands. No evidence behind a bunch of bigoted assertions.

You may not want to take a risk plunging into something so unstudied, but by the same token, angrygreatness and Oakvale should not be making such sweeping statements about the same unstudied issue.

On another note, here's a serious rebuttal for you

And as far as data there are numerous studies out there concerning socialization of children and it is enough to give plenty of us pause when thinking about removing children from the traditional school environment.  The act of getting up, commuting, following instructions from a non family member, interacting with a cross section of society, etc is important.  I would not want my child's first time doing all that to be when they go to college at 18.

1) I'd dispute that removing children form the public school will lead to poor socialization in most cases. Many home schooled kids play team sports, take music lessons or take classes at community colleges etc. It certainly takes a bit of effort to socialize a homeschooled child but it isn't that difficult

2) Public school doesn't automatically mean one will "interact with a cross section of society". The wealthy WASP school where I went to high school and the school in the black community outside town both were not exactly diverse. In each case, and with most educational issues, it is up to the parent to get what they feel their kids need.