American Homeschoolers Flex Their Muscle

   More than two million American children are home-schooled and the number is rising at a fast pace.  The vast majority of homeschooling parents are evangelical Christians who deplore the secular education provided in the public schools. As a group, they are tightly-networked, exchanging study materials and legal advice via online-discussion boards and homeschooling blogs - and they are embracing the candidacy of Mike Huckabee:

"And in Iowa, home educators mobilized through e-mail chains and support groups to help boost Huckabee from obscurity into a second-place finish at the straw poll in Ames last summer. Pundits were shocked at Huckabee's strong finish. Home-schooling parents were not; some had driven hours to attend a special breakfast the candidate held before the poll just for home-schooled families.

"This is the first presidential campaign in some time I've felt engaged in," said Pete Kottra, 43, who has promoted Huckabee's candidacy through his home-school support network."

Why the interest in Huckabee?  Mike Huckabee is an ordained Baptist minister who in his ads portrays himself as a "Christian leader".  Just as important to the homeshooling crowd, Huckabee is an avowed creationist who frowns on the teaching of evolution in elementary school curriculum. He doesn't believe in the science of evolution. That is music to the ears of the homeschoolers, who teach their children that the earth is six thousand years old and that dinosaurs were brought onto Noah's Ark.

While the American homeschoolers support Huckabee, they also demonize Germany for its "fascist" law (Schulpflicht) which bans homeschooling. Germany is held up as a potential model for America should the "atheist-secular" liberals take power in Washington in the next election:

So, why all the hubbub over the plight of some German home schoolers?

Well, here’s why. The socialistic European model of government is where the Left in America has us gravitating toward. I’m not talking about a minority of extreme far-Left zealots – I’m talking about a substantial number of Democrats in Congress and all of the Democrat contenders for the 2008 presidential nomination. I know this will be old hat to some and severe extrapolations to others, but I’ve met elderly folks with numbers tattooed on their forearms who might beg to differ with the latter group.

The authoritarian carriage of the German courts is fairly typical of European Union nations, although there is of course some variance. Suffice it to say that most of Europe is effectively socialist compared to the U.S., at least for the time being. What the German courts are essentially saying (anti-religious attitudes against parochial homeschoolers notwithstanding) is that the state must be the final arbiter of education (read: social indoctrination). While some of the same sentiment exists in the U.S. (particularly amongst far-Left politicians and the National Education Association), it wasn’t sufficient to keep home schooling from going forward.

I have to say that the prospect of millions of Americans reaching adulthood without a basic understanding of science coupled with a distorted knowledge of history is frightening.  But now more and more Germans are also interested in homeschooling, according to the Web site www.homeschooling.de.

Comments

[Hattie]

This a new tack with the right wingers. The claim is that liberals are really fascists!

[David]

@Hattie,

I see on your blog that you've discovered Jonah Goldberg's new book "Liberal Fascism". Here's an excerpt from Jonah:

"Fascism was an international movement that appeared in different forms in different countries, depending on the vagaries of national culture and temperament. In Germany, fascism appeared as genocidal racist nationalism. In America, it took a “friendlier,” more liberal form. The modern heirs of this “friendly fascist” tradition include the New York Times, the Democratic Party, the Ivy League professoriate, and the liberals of Hollywood. The quintessential Liberal Fascist isn't an SS storm trooper; it is a female grade school teacher with an education degree from Brown or Swarthmore."

I guess I'm not a "quintessential Liberal Fascist", since I'm not female and I don't have an "education degree". But as a New York Times-reading Democrat with a PhD from Harvard I'm certain Jonah would view me as a "representative Liberal Fascist". I am working to make sure that Barack Obama becomes our new "Oberfuehrer".

[erphschwester]

jaja, das ist der neue trend von allen, die sich nicht verstanden fühlen und wenig gute argumente haben: sie nennen die anderen "faschisten" und schon fühlen sie sich im recht und haben die (bessseren) argumente ihrer gegner "totgeschlagen".

ich würde mir wünschen, wir kämen wieder zu einer besseren gesprächskultur zurück.

[Dana]

Eine bessere Gespaechskultur waere ja prima! Aber das wird auch schwierig, wenn Christen staendig daemonisiert werden.

Und wenn alle annehmen, dass wir alle hinter einem Kandidaten sind, nur wegen einer einzigen Orginasation und des Kandidaten religioeser Aussicht.

Ich bin Christ. Ich bin Konservativ. Aber Huckabee? Bitte Schoen. Christ ist er wohl, aber nich Konservativ.

And how does a "basic understanding" of science conflict with religious beliefs about where the world came from? Or are you refuting thereby the work of every Christian ever involved in the advancement of science, including Isaac Newton?

If you are really all that concerned with people's views on the beginnings of life, maybe you should start with the public schools which teach evolution but yet somehow most Americans still believe in creation to some degree.

How life began cannot be objectively measured and tested (the most basic of scientific principles. Science is ruled by the Scientific Method...advanced against many evolutionists of the day whose theory of spontaneous generation was disproved by it.

[David]

@Dana,

There are some brilliant scientists who identify themselves as Christians, but they don't believe in creationism. Creationism and Intelligent Design are not science and should not be taught as such.

I suggest you read Pope Benedict XVI's latest Encyclical (Spe salvi) which deals extensively with the interplay between reason and faith throughout history.

I don't demonize "Christians", only ignorance.