Dakota Beacon

One of the potentially worthwhile and unintended side effects of coronavirus shut-down is that a lot of parents are discovering the benefits and pleasures of homeschooling their children.  This is one effect which is scaring the pants off of those on the left who thought they were making such great progress in programming our kids.  Just when they are learning that Heather has two mommies and settling in to drag queen story time, just when our secondary and post-secondary students are beginning to be fluent in  Newspeak and calling for classic socialism, here we are with them falling under the dangerous influence of their . . . parents!

Breitbart ran an article today from Harvard Magazine in which author Elizabeth Bartholet of Harvard Law School’s “public interest” department is frantically calling for what she calls “presumptive banning” of homeschooling.  Well, small wonder.  There are many hazards with this.  Her first red herring is that children might be abused by their parents without public school oversight.  Okay.  That sounds like a legitimate question.  Let’s think about that one.  Studies support the idea that children who have been abused tend to do poorly academically.  (There are some exceptions with regard to Asian “tiger moms” who seem to produce high achieving children, but we can assume that that is not what Bartholet is concerned about.)  So there is the danger, then, that these abused kids are doing poorly.  So it would follow then, that statistically speaking, we should expect that homeschooled children, being constantly subject to this “abuse” are also coming in at the bottom academically on standardized tests, right?

Well, if these assumptions - based on studies relied upon by the Court Appointed Special Advocates for Children (Montgomery County, TX) are correct, we should then take a look at the academic performance of homeschooled children vs. public school students.  What do we find there?

Studies tend to strongly support the premise that homeschooled children outperform public school children academically.  This is no surprise to those who are accustomed to doing their own research and their own thinking.  It might be a shock to those who have not.  One study clearly shows an advantage to homeschool for Canadian children, in 5 to 7 tested areas home schooled children were one half grade or more ahead of their public school peers, and in other areas they were “slightly” ahead.  In the same article it was posited that among American homeschooled children the “median” scores were in the 70th to 80th percentiles.  This is impressive.  This independent review agrees with one commissioned by the Home School Legal Defense Association, which found a 39 percentile point advantage with the homeschooled kids over the public school kids.  This study also found that these homeschooled children scored higher in social, emotional and psychological well-being, which sort of puts the pin in Ms Bartholet’s argument.  

I can say this of my own experience in homeschooling three very different children in a climate of what would by any American standard be described as “poverty”.  Our children were more like what is referred to as “unschooled”, which gets bad marks from some.  In our case their father’s philosophy was that “school is never ‘out’”.  Every day is an opportunity to learn something new.  It is why our kids became published writers, interviewing international figures in the world of music and art, community leaders with new projects, other writers and scientists.  It’s why our son found archeology so fascinating that he took up the study of languages such as Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, Arabic, Sumerian, Tamil, Manchu, Finnish, and historical linguistics as well as more “main road” languages such as French, and has produced an album of his own music.   It is why one daughter has co-produced a movie, choreographed for Minneapolis’ Theater-in-the-Round and reviews scripts for an international competition and the other has written plays in Spanish and English, a sci-fi novel and has been named a regional “number one” salesperson for major retailer.  They never stopped “going to school”.  

There isn’t much good to be said for this pandemic.  But if there is one thing we can benefit from it is the increase in awareness of the value of homeschooling our kids.  There is absolutely nothing wrong with teaching our values.  Why should we prefer to fill them with the ideas promulgated by Harvard?  In what universe are their values better or more appropriate to our children than ours?  This is a good time for Americans to step back and take a look at what these “experts” are telling us - that their ideas of bringing up our children are better than our own, that we need to basically turn our kids over to them to somehow shape into the little slogan-reciting robots they want them to be.  

Never be afraid of thinking for yourselves - especially when it comes to bringing up your children. There is a right and there is a wrong.  You know the difference.  You are fully capable of teaching your kids this difference.  There is a grave danger, on the other hand, in abdicating this responsibility to people who really have no interest in your children.  Ms Bartholet has revealed her interest - state control of your kids’ thinking, state forming of their opinions of everything.  The fake concern about “abuse” is a fig leaf, and a very shabby one at that.  It is meant to intimidate you, to put you on the defensive.  Just say “no”.  And go ahead - teach your kids.  I’ll bet that in the 25-30 years you have on them you have learned a whole lot of value that you can share.  Teach them to read.  If you can read you can teach them (if you can’t, then you know that the schools have already failed you once - seek some help with it and keep on going).  Teach them to sew - start with making face masks.  Study Spanish - now's a good time.  Read Shakespeare.  Show them how to plant a garden.  How to bake bread, how to knit, maybe.  Learn Yoga together, or how to paint in watercolors if that’s your skill, to play jazz on the piano, or chords on the guitar or how to teach your dog tricks.  And don't be afraid to read the Bible.  This could be one of the best times of your lives together.  

Just say “NERTS” to Ms Bartholet and her control-freak Law School colleagues at Harvard.  I suppose we should be glad she’s just writing nonsense in her little journal and not compromising our national security vis-a-vis China, like her colleague, Dr. Charles Lieber, now under arrest.  Gee, it seems these two are at cross purposes - Lieber is helping the Chinese to do the work that has resulted in the COVID-19 pandemic and that pandemic is threatening Bartholet’s lock on your kids’ minds.  

In case you're still not sure if it's safe, here is one more brief article you should consider.

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