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Nov. 24, 2004 Proverbs 22:6 – “Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not turn from it.” Robert Paul Reyes has selected one from “Column A”: “Disappearing Childhood” – Useless-Knowledge.com, Nov. 21, 2004; and one from “Column B”: “Home Schooling; Not a Good Idea” – Useless-Knowledge.com, Nov. 23, 2004. As readily as I can agree that “childhood should be about skinned knees, ice cream cones and cartoons, not about “Sony Playstation”; and as much as I could agree with Mr. Reyes’ assertion that: “Parents must instill their own values in their children and protect them from a consumerist value system that emphasizes material wealth …and sex.” I have to wonder what he means by his statement: “Parents, of course must take the lead in reclaiming childhood as a time of learning, exploring, and above all, simply having fun.” The reason for my wonderment is simply Mr. Reyes’ follow-up diatribe against Home Schooling. In “Column B” he wrote: “Home Schooling poses a serious threat [THREAT?], to our educational system.” He also wrote: “…with a wide range of public, parochial and private schools there is no reason why any parent should choose to home school his kids.” Okay, I can agree that not every parent can be well versed enough in all educational disciplines to teach every conceivable thing modern education has published as a quality subject. Parents who “can’t balance a checkbook or find Iraq on a map” should perhaps go back to school themselves. But to lump most home school families into one category, as Mr. Reyes has, writing: “Most parents who home school their offspring are religious zealots;” – strikes me as a bigoted and angry response against anything that works for 2 million American children. Joining the PTA has not solved anything. Public education in America grows steadily more complicated and inconsistent through the intervention of unions and the tenured incompetence of unqualified teachers. Mr. Reyes would make it against the law to home school children and then would “prosecute” “Parents who home school their kids in blatant disregard of the law”[s] he created to make it a crime. The person, who inspired the above proverb (God), knew what he was about. It is only for parents to train up their children. It is only for parents to instill values, ethics and morality in their children. Teaching them to read, write and do math is a logical continuation of a child’s preparation for life. Parents have been home schooling children for centuries. This is not a new phenomenon. What is new is the verbal assault against parents who opt to keep unionists and multiculturalists from poisoning the minds of their children with much of the clap-trap that currently serves as a modern public school education. Mr. Reyes has no argument other than the rhetorical. “Foxnews.com” reported on Wednesday, May 21, 2003, “Homeschooler Wins National Geographic Bee.” A 14 year-old named James Williams from “Vancouver, Washington won the 15th annual National Geographic Bee.” He made the trip to the Geographic Bee “after participating in a science bowl competition in Ohio.” Another contestant in the finals of that bee was Deborah Beihl, a 13 year-old from South Carolina. That was her second time in that competition and she was following in the footsteps of a brother (David) who had previously won the competition in 1999. If you look at these instances as part of the overall educational percentage, home schooled children are fitting right into the mix and are achieving at the same rates as children from the other venues. For parents serious enough to determine they should be the true guides of their children; they should look into the various home school formats being offered and select the best one for their children and drive on! The simple fact that public education is failing whole generations of American youth is incentive enough to home school. Perhaps, if public education returns to par with most private and parochial institutes of learning; those who have opted for home schooling will return their children to the public arena. Parents are the ones primarily responsible for the training of their children. To legislate away the home school option is to strip parents of a fundamental human freedom and turn it over to the whim of government intervention. That may be okay for a communistic society, but certainly not for America. ------------ About the Author: Michael John McCrae is just a guy with an opinion and a desire to express it. Email: macswordV@hotmail.com Tell a friend about this site! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com and are not allowed to be posted on other websites. ARTICLE THIEVES WILL BE PROSECUTED! |
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