One hundred good reasons

Reader Terry in Florida sent me a link to a fascinating article out of American Thinker entitled One Hundred Reasons to Abandon Public Education Now.

All one hundred reasons are extremely valid, of course, but I thought I’d pull out my particular favorites:

(8) Psychiatric branding and drugging of non-compliant children.

(16) Public school teacher certification requires “successful” indoctrination in government-approved pedagogy.

(17) Public school teachers belong to powerful unions with radical leftist leadership and agendas.

(18) Rare talented, earnest teachers are completely hamstrung by government/union social and academic goals.

(20) Obama Youth singing “Yes We Can.” [This one gave me shivers.]

(25) Socialization: a progressive catchword which means learning how to mold oneself to the shape of any presiding majority, i.e., conformity.

(34) “Wherever is found what is called a paternal government, there is found state education. It has been discovered that the best way to insure implicit obedience is to commence tyranny in the nursery.” — Benjamin Disraeli

(37) “Peer pressure.” The moral intimidation of a child whose character is not yet firmly established, by an ever-present group with the power to condemn with ostracism.

(38) 12,000 hours (counting only mandatory class time) of wasted opportunities for family guidance and conversation, practical skills development, remunerative employment, apprenticeships, reading, exploration of nature, and musical training.

(43) The entitlement mentality.

(44) Natural attachment to the “provider.” Abstract state replaces concrete parents as the object of future obligation and duty.

(46) Unceasing Marxist critique of Western civilization: sexism, systemic oppression, capitalism is racist, the rich get richer, etc.

(47) Public education requires lowest common denominator approach. Stifles natural intelligence.

(48) Discouraging female modesty.

(49) Discouraging male admiration for female modesty.

(69) “From my cold, dead hands.” As I have said before, if you stand proudly against state confiscation of your firearms, how can you not feel at least as strongly about state confiscation of your children?

(71) Feminism.

(79) The moral ratchet: Yesterday’s vice, today’s “experiment,” tomorrow’s “basic right.”

(85) The push for public pre-schools. The trajectory: universal, compulsory government raising of children from the beginning of language use to the completion of character formation and thought process habituation.

(86) “The education of all children, from the moment that they can get along without a mother’s care, shall be in state institutions at state expense.” — Karl Marx

(92) Genuine education breeds self-reliance; public school breeds dependency.

(97) “I can undo the school’s damage at home.” If the government mandated that your child be force-fed rotting “state food” for each meal, would you say, “No problem — I can feed him healthy food on weekends”? Then how do you justify allowing the state to force-feed its spiritual rot to your child’s mind?

(98) “I can undo the school’s damage at home.” All of it? Are you completely certain? Children indoctrinated under totalitarian regimes go home after class, too. Their parents probably tell themselves the same thing — but they, unlike you, have no choice.

The author of this piece, Daren Jonescu, concludes with these words: There is my list. Please add your own ideas. Who knows? Perhaps every hundred reasons will persuade one family to withdraw a child from a government school. One soul rescued from irreparable harm — that seems worth the effort.

I urge you to go read his entire list, then post your own reasons for homeschooling.

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