Utterly Meaningless » Blog Archive » AS PROMISED
  • AS PROMISED

    Filed at 2:10 am under by dcobranchi

    Fire away:

    The excuse that would have been offered — that David Ludwig is a lone loon — has been undermined before the home schooling movement could present it. The problems in Lititz are not about one or two home schoolees. As the investigation expands, other children and young adults who were aware of Ludwig’s activities are likely to be implicated…

    I have no objection to educational aspect of homeschooling. If a parent is qualified to teach a child better than the public or private schools, fine. After all, many parents tutor their schooled children. My qualms arise because of two non-educational aspects of the homeschooling movement: elitism and segregation. The message many homeschoolers are sending, usually politely, is: My children are better than yours. Expand that. They’re saying their children are too good to be exposed to most of their peers. As a result of that attitude, homeschooled children are segregated from the norm. Not only do they not attend school, they are encouraged to associate only with other home schoolees. The result is a very heterogeneous, cult-like environment that doesn’t prepare children for the heterogeneity of contemporary American life. It is a fecund environment for extremist views to take root. We are getting a glimpse into a homeschool community because of the Borden murders. Much of what we are seeing is evidence of what is wrong with the homeschooling movement.

    Assuming that Mr. Diva was g-schooled, I think we have evidence of the poor reasoning skills taught there. He extrapolates from one disturbed kid to an indictment of home education. And, as far as we know, it was only one. There are no mentions in news reports that Samuel P. Lohr was home educated. Nor anything about “apocalyptic views” or “survivalist inclinations” among any of the folks in this sad tale. Indeed, everything I’ve seen indicates that from outward appearances, these were the kids next door.

    Mr. Diva doesn’t have comments on his site. He does, however, post his email address.

    6 Responses to “AS PROMISED”


    Comment by
    Cavalor Epthith
    November 19th, 2005
    at 1:19 pm

    I think your readers would be better served if you had offered your opinion on the veracity of what MacDiva wrote, which I would add, the bulk of public and private education parents, of good will feel:

    “The arsenal and alleged plots offer clues to the dark side of the homeschooling movement. Though many home schooling parents may be merely separatists when it comes to allowing their children to interact with people who do not share their views, some are something worse than that. A deep strain of far Right beliefs runs through the homeschooling movement. Those beliefs include apocalyptic views based in religion, survivalist inclinations including caching weapons and ammunition, and patriarchal dispositions regarding the treatment of women. Homeschooling is common among adherents to the ‘patriot movement’, Christian Identity and white supremacist groups.” –Mac Diva, 18 November 2005

    We too realize that it is tough to look beyond the beauty to warts. But if the public and private school systems admit their failures and flaws then you do need checks and balances from redsponsible government.
    Until this “movement” of 2% of the families in the nation came overcome this stigma there is no cause for us to waste anymore of this concern’s resources on this matter.

    Sincerely,
    Cavalor Epthith
    Editgor-in-Chief
    The Dis Brimstone-Daily Pitchfork
    “Hell’s leading daily newspaper since 12000 BC!”


    Comment by
    Daryl
    November 19th, 2005
    at 1:53 pm

    I think your readers would be better served if you had offered your opinion on the veracity of what MacDiva wrote, which I would add, the bulk of public and private education parents, of good will feel:

    OK- It’s bullshit. Happy? And ditto as to your SWAG that the majority of g-school parents worry about a strain of “extremist views” that are presumed to be part and parcel of home education. Care to back up you bullshit with a cite?


    Comment by
    Rochelle
    November 19th, 2005
    at 2:51 pm

    “Over come this stigma”

    How about the public schools over coming their stigma of, gosh, I can’t even remember how many school shootings there have been lately! How many people have been stabbed in schools? At my high school, there were 3 incidents.

    Let’s compare this to ONE incident of a homeschooled student murdering two people. Can we compare this to all the incidents of schooled students who have turned out to be murderers? Either way, the form of schooling involved in murderers life is the irrelevent, not the relevent , aspect of the case.


    Comment by
    Jason
    November 21st, 2005
    at 11:04 am

    I sent the below to MacDiva but I think it bounced back.

    J

    ***

    Mac,

    I came across your recent comments (
    macaro...f.html
    )while searching around online for information related to the David
    Ludwig tragedy. If you take a moment (or two) to look at violent crime
    statistics, I think you will find that David Ludwig was indeed
    exceptional. The majority of violent gun crimes committed by
    high-school aged children are *not* committed by homeschoolers, either
    by percentage or in terms of raw numbers. Public schools in my
    neighborhood have metal detectors for a reason, and it’s not to make
    sure that kids are remembering to bring their car keys.

    So much for that.

    Moving on to your critique of home education’s ‘non-educational’ aspects:

    Elitism: You say that homeschoolers are motivated by the conviction
    that their children are better than other people’s children. My gut
    reaction is to say ‘of course.’ I don’t think any parent doesn’t feel
    that his / her children are the best and most wonderful in the world,
    no matter what kind of brats they really are. Our nation was founded
    by elitists in the 18th century and led through 200+ years of peace
    and war by elitists. Some of these elites are better than others (do
    you like the Kennedys, Mac?), and some may not be the best leaders
    (e.g., our current President), but you can rest assured that ‘elitism’
    isn’t going away – nor would you want it to.

    Elitism that is based upon academic and personal excellence is a good
    thing, Mac. The alternative is anti-elitism: a situation in which
    equality of opportunity is replaced by equality of status that is
    imposed from the top down – a situation where everyone is equally
    powerless, equally helpless, equally worthless, and equally hopeless.
    The result of this alternative is easy to see: come and see the public
    schools where I grew up (Chicago), or take a look at the public
    schools where I live now (Washington D.C.). If these represent ‘the
    norm,’ then you can bet your life that my kids are better than the
    norm. And any parent worthy of the title would strive tirelessly to be
    able to say the same.

    Segregation: Our current public school system suffers from widespread
    de facto segregation that is the predictable result of demographic
    trends. Poor neighborhoods tend to be minority areas (or visa versa,
    whichever you prefer), and these areas don’t tend to have good
    schools.

    You say that the homeschool environment is one where extremist views
    take root. While this is certainly true, consider that fact that
    extremist views of every stripe are tolerated in public schools, as
    well. Students at a mostly Puerto Rican high school in my old
    neighborhood (Chicago again) were told to take down the American flag
    and replace it with a Puerto Rican one. They were fed on a steady diet
    of Puerto Rican revanchism and hate speech that was explicitly
    anti-white and anti-Mexican. A white student at a high school near
    Fort Meade MD (about 20 minutes from where I live now) was badly
    beaten by a group of black students, and the (mostly black) school
    administration has done nothing to investigate. Sound extreme to you?
    Get back to me and I’ll send you the articles.

    My reasons for keeping my kids away from the so-called homogeneity of
    the public school system have nothing to do with race. On the
    contrary, I hope to send my children to an academically top-notch
    school that is safe, well-run, and socially and economically diverse.

    If you know of such a school within the contiguous United States, Mac,
    by all means give me the address. Until then, I will homeschool.

    Thank you,

    Jason Wright
    Future Homeschooling Parent


    Comment by
    Kim Wealand
    November 21st, 2005
    at 2:51 pm

    I know for a fact that Samuel P. Lohr was homeschooled. I worked with his father for 5 years and believe me that is all I heard about was how much better Sam was than my children who attended public schools!!


    Comment by
    Kim Wealand
    November 21st, 2005
    at 2:51 pm

    I know for a fact that Samuel P. Lohr was homeschooled. I worked with his father for 5 years and believe me that is all I heard about was how much better Sam was than my children who attended public schools!!