Our daughters are currently 17 and 19. They have never set foot inside a public school. The 19-year-old is leaving home in a few weeks to attend a trade school of her choice; the 17-year-old is taking the SAT in June. Our homeschooling days are behind us as we prepare to launch our kids into adulthood.
Over the years we've heard every possible criticism, disparagement, reproach and censure from those who think we did our daughters a disservice by teaching them at home. They would grow up stunted, we were told. We were brainwashing them. They would be academically inferior. They would be unable to socialize with their peers. We were isolating them. And of course, there was often the sly innuendo that we only homeschooled to hide the bruises.
It goes without saying the above excuses are all bunk. Our daughters, along with millions of other homeschooled young people, are happy, well-adjusted, highly educated, moral and sensible. They speak and write clearly, without profanity or chat speak. They look people in the eye. They hold their own in conversations. They are well-read and well-informed. They are honest, hardworking and a credit to their generation.
Contrast this to the increasingly prison-like atmosphere of public schools, particularly middle and high schools. These institutions are sometimes described as resembling juvenile detention centers during lockdown. Children are guarded, monitored, fingerprinted, tallied, scanned and spied upon. And for good reason – too many kids today are violent, disrespectful, shallow, untrustworthy and downright dangerous. Drugs, alcohol, casual sex, violence and intense peer pressure are par for the course.
Blame can be evenly distributed among schools, parents and society. Schools have responded by implementing increasingly lower academic standards, foregoing discipline, winking at defiance, catering to the basest common denominators and upping the "security" of campuses until they resemble prison grounds.
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And people wonder why homeschooling is becoming so popular.
But if you want a clear example of why so many parents keep their children out of school, look no further than this article detailing how kids as young as 12 are being given a popular "Youth Risk Behavior Survey" at schools across the country.
What kinds of questions are being asked on this survey? A small sample:
- During your life, with how many people have you had sexual intercourse (oral, anal, vaginal)?
- During your life, with whom have you had sexual contact?
- During the past three months, with how many people did you have sexual intercourse (oral, anal, vaginal)?
- Did you drink alcohol or use drugs before you had sexual intercourse (oral, anal, vaginal) the last time?
- The last time you had sexual intercourse (oral, anal, vaginal), did you or your partner use a condom?
- How many times have you been pregnant or gotten someone pregnant?
As you may notice, the survey seems obsessively focused on kids' sex lives and plants the seeds of curiosity for every imaginable sexual variation. Remember, the youngest recipients of this survey are 12 years old. Oh, and the survey also has a great many questions dealing with parental interests and influences, notably (and conveniently) regarding firearms ownership. Coincidence? Of course not.
These questions have been described as a "psychological distortion of reality." Note, for example, the way questions are phrased: "How old were you when you smoked a whole cigarette or other tobacco/nicotine product for the first time?" "How old were you when you had sexual intercourse (oral, anal, vaginal) for the first time?" "The last time you had sexual intercourse (oral, anal, vaginal), did you or your partner use a condom?"
The questions aren't phrased "Have you ever …?" Instead, the questions are phrased, "When is the last time you …" This is a subtle but critical difference.
In most cases, please note, parents are not informed their children will be participating in a survey of this nature.
Folks, this is beyond appalling. It's evil, sick, sinister … and calculated. These are not happy little random questions meant to weasel out a few kids who need help; these horrifically intrusive and inappropriate surveys are part of a much larger, deliberate agenda to bring all children in line with non-diverse uniform progressive groupthink.
In fact, here's a scary little experiment for you: Google the term "schools as change agents." Far from denying or hiding this agenda, changing the minds and attitudes of students is accepted and encouraged and publicized. There are papers, books, seminars and other aids available to get schools to influence and forcibly mold students. The stated goal is for children to reject the morals and values of their parents and embrace the progressive uniformity desired by the government. I believe Hitler had a lot to say about the effectiveness of this technique.
And people wonder why homeschooling is becoming so popular.
Remember this: Schools can indoctrinate children far more efficiently than parents can. Parents can beat their heads against a brick wall for all 12 years their children are in school and have nothing to show for it but sub-educated kids at best, and broken kids at worst.
Schools have become places in which the bad kids thrive and the good kids merely survive. Homeschooling parents don't want their kids to spend their young lives merely "surviving" – they want to give them the chance to excel, thrive, enjoy and grow without spending the bulk of their waking hours in a combat zone.
Of course, there are exceptional schools and exceptional teachers who encourage students to do their best in a solid academic environment. But these kinds of teachers are becoming increasingly rare. Dedicated teachers are being marginalized by the dumbed-down curriculum, the oppressive, ponderous and inflexible academic requirements and the increasingly violent and destructive students they are tasked to teach. It's a lose-lose situation all across the board. It's no accident many teachers choose to send their own children to private schools.
As the quality of public education declines and the evidence of academic and moral superiority of home and private schooling increases, entrenched bureaucrats and government bodies find themselves more and more hostile to those families who refuse to send their kids to government schools.
Public schools have become little more than change agents at the bidding of their masters. Folks, please – try your best to keep your kids out of these hellholes.
Media wishing to interview Patrice Lewis, please contact [email protected].
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