Homeschool News & Views
Issue 56
February 3, 2008
From Homeschool Helpers
By Dan L. White
Mike Huckabee
was helped greatly in his presidential campaign in
Iowa by the homeschoolers. All the
Republican candidates except for John McCain have expressed support for freedom
of education, and all the Democratic candidates support expanding the
government socialist school system. When
we discuss these candidates here, we are not advocating any particular
candidate. That is not our purpose. We are only discussing these candidates as
they involve homeschooling.
Ron Paul is a candidate
for the Republican nomination for president of the United States. Let’s listen to Ron
Paul as he talked to a group of homeschool families. This is not a prepared speech, just some
offhand comments, so the flow is not grammatically good, but his thoughts are
very interesting to homeschoolers.
“One of the key group of
people that have worked for me for so long over these many years have been the
homeschoolers. They have …They seem to
understand the Constitution.
I wonder why that is?
Homeschoolers seem to understand the Constitution
compared to those who have gone to the public schools. Now I’m highly
critical of the public school system. I praise homeschoolers but I have to admit, I went through
the public school system and so did my children. But I always thought
it was a struggle to relearn or to get rid of those things that were put into
my brain that I thought … turned out to be incorrect… in economic policy or the
understanding of the Constitution.
So that is why, you know, I have a lot of optimism and one
of them has to do with the homeschoolers.
And all I have to do is look around and see if
there is a contest, a spelling bee …Oh, those homeschoolers are doing pretty
good. I guess they’re
getting a pretty good education.
You know,
since I got to know so many homeschoolers in my district, one thing I have
learned that has been wholeheartedly refuted – you know, they always say about
people who homeschool their kids, their children will be withdrawn and not be
personally sociable. And
all I know is, the first thing is when I would campaign, homeschoolers,
actually, they were allowed out of school to come to an event…Lo and behold, I
knew that if there was a rally or something, and someone 8, 10, 12 or 14 stood
up to ask a question, a very intelligent question, I didn’t have to ask where
they were getting their education.
So the poise that they have, it’s just been
remarkable.
You know, it
is reassuring to know this, and it’s reassuring to
know that we still have this freedom and this responsibility to our children,
but we can’t even take that for granted.
In the 1980’s in Texas homeschooling was
severely challenged and I believe the challenge will return if we aren’t
careful. But
today we are still fortunate. We can
homeschool our kids. We can have private
schools.
I would try to help you more financially, not by
grants and by… What I would do is allow tax credits,
so people can get some of their own tax money back, and not send it to their
government, whether they’re homeschooled, or whether
they are in private schools, or whether they are in extra tutoring. Just so we can get some of that money back in
where the determination and the responsibility for education is
by the parent.”
That is an extremely
favorable discussion of homeschooling by a candidate for president. Ron Paul is the fourth place Republican
candidate at this time and it does not appear that he is close to winning the
nomination. However, he does participate
in the debates, he is being heard by a lot of people and
he has a core of extremely dedicated followers.
Like Mike Huckabee, he is very positive on
homeschooling, and he is supported by a lot of
homeschoolers. Alan Keyes is in the same
camp, but his support is too far down for him to be
considered as a serious candidate.
Let’s examine some points that Ron Paul made about
homeschooling.
0 through 10
“So that is why, you know, I have a lot of optimism
and one of them has to do with the homeschoolers. And all I have to do
is look around and see if there is a contest, a spelling bee …Oh, those
homeschoolers are doing pretty good. I
guess they’re getting a pretty good education.”
Homeschooling, or love
tutoring, has worked so well that now everybody knows about it. Everybody knows that the homeschoolers
dominate the spelling bees and the geography bees. It’s taken for
granted now. Not so widely
known is that homeschoolers also dominate yearly standardized tests and college
entrance tests, but people are learning.
It is now almost universally accepted that
homeschoolers get a superior education academically. A presidential candidate made a joke about
it: “I guess they’re getting a pretty
good education.” The humor is in the
obvious understatement.
10 through 55
“You know, since I got to know so many
homeschoolers in my district, one thing I have learned that has been
wholeheartedly refuted – you know, they always say about people who homeschool
their kids, their children will be withdrawn and not be personally sociable. And all I know is, the first
thing is when I would campaign, homeschoolers, actually, they were allowed out
of school to come to an event…Lo and behold, I knew that if there was a rally
or something, and someone 8, 10, 12 or 14 stood up to ask a question, a very
intelligent question, I didn’t have to ask where they were getting their
education. So the poise that they
have, it’s just been remarkable.”
When it was obvious that
the public schools were being greatly outclassed academically
by the homeschoolers, they shifted their attack. Note that in no case were the public school
supporters actually interested in the best education for young people. They were only looking to support the public
schools. Since it became ridiculous to
attack homeschooling academically, the public school people shifted their
attack to socialization. Ron Paul
astutely picked up what we have seen so often:
homeschool students are more ready to stand up and speak out. It is the public school
students who lack socialization skills, because they live with a mob
mentality. Cool rules the schools. Public school students are always worried
about being cool. This has an enormous
inhibiting effect on their lives.
55 through end
“… it’s reassuring to know
that we still have this freedom and this responsibility to our children, but we
can’t even take that for granted. In the
1980’s in Texas homeschooling was severely challenged and I believe the
challenge will return if we aren’t careful.”
The liberals want to force
Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and conservative
commentators off the radio. Liberals do
not believe in freedom. Liberals believe
in socialism, with them in charge. Now
in this presidential election the homeschoolers have demonstrated that although
they small in number, they are a real political force. They are a threat to liberal power.
Germany is such a great
example of what this whole battle in education is about.
Some American Christian
missionaries went to Germany to work.
God knows the Germans need it.
They wanted to homeschool their American children while they were
working in Germany. The German
government, which has been extremely hostile to homeschooling, will not even
allow that. They will not allow that
family to stay in Germany if they homeschool their children.
A representative of the
International Human Rights Group said, "The German education system is
very hostile to devout Christian faith. Their
health education in public middle schools is very explicit regarding human
reproduction. It is often nothing short of pornographic,
even in the lower grades. Their science curriculum is
very heavily weighted in its discussions of evolution. Also,
there is a lot of teaching on occult practices."
The American liberal
controlled public schools are very hostile to Christ. Homeschoolers are the most conservative
Christians. Liberals will attack
Christian homeschoolers, somehow, sometime.
This presidential campaign
has surprised me by focusing so much attention on
homeschooling. Presidential candidates like
Ron Paul are discussing homeschooling and homeschoolers are helping determine
presidential candidates. We’ve sure come a long way since Margie and I started
homeschooling in 1976.