The New Barbarians and the Case for Homeschooling
April 24, 2008 by Ingrid Schlueter
This horrendous story of school violence against a little 7-year-old boy from the West coast could be repeated daily in newspapers around the country. That’s if the true extent of abuse in our schools were reported. What this child suffered physically, and the psychological suffering from living in fear all the time is the result of institutionalized child abuse. The problem is not just that the school did not provide adequate staffing and supervision, although here is only so much that prison wardens, er, school principles can do to make sure that their inmates don’t kill each other. The real story here is the creation of a whole generation of barbarians: children who are morally and physically neglected, children who are so filled with anager and hatred that they no longer possess a conscience. These are 5th graders who can hurl a little child into a tree and run to catch a bus, as though they had just kicked a beer can into the curb. Reading these statistics from the news story was horrifying. These are the top 5 “most violent” elementary schools in Oakland, California. Each of these numbers represent the suspensions, not the violent acts that led to the suspensions. No child gets suspended on his first fist full of hair, his first punch, his first kick in the groin. Kids today get multiple chances to harass, abuse and otherwise violate fellow students before the velvet hammer falls.
- Preparatory Literary Academy - 106 suspensions.
– Piedmont Avenue Elementary - 97 suspensions.
– Webster Academy - 77 suspensions.
– Lockwood Elementary - 52 suspensions.
– New Highland Academy - 42 suspensions.
These barbarians did not come out of nowhere. They are products of parents who have totally rejected their parental responsibilities before God and man. The children are only mirroring the barbarism of their parents who nightly sit and bow low before the screen that brings pornography, murder, rape, fornication, adultery, disrespect for authority, filthy language and mockery of God into their homes. When these children act out the same in the halls of our government schools, we have little 7-year-olds with fractured skulls and hand-wringing “educators” who can do nothing more than lecture parents not to leave a student unattended for any time, for any reason because this is what could happen. The idea of an American child walking safely home from school in his neighborhood is now apparently viewed as Mayberry fantasyland. We’re living in a war-zone now, and parents better know it.
What parents should do is pull their precious heritage out of these violent prisons and bring them home to learn. I was assaulted twice at the Christian high school I attended, once having had hair ripped out by a screaming, drug-crazed student whose eyes I made the mistake of meeting in English class. In short, if your children are in a Christian school, make sure that it truly is one of the rare, truly Christian environments. If not, you’re wasting your money and harming your children. The world is driving the “church” now, and the students coming out of many homes reflect it.
The child in the news story will carry the trauma of losing four teeth and of having his skull fractured for the rest of his life. His father needs to stand physically, if necessary, between him and those who would injure him. That’s what fathers are for. It’s too bad it got to this point before the father intervened.
Nurturing and teaching one’s own child is a delight. Seeing their God-given intellects develop and unfold like little flowers is a blessing and a privilege. Directing your little ones God-ward is the highest privilege of all as a parent. I can still remember little William and Mary, (my “twins) at age 3, learning a verse for the letters of the alphabet.
A- A wise son maketh a glad heart, but a FOOLISH son is the heaviness of his mother. (They would always emphasize the “foolish” part.)
B- Better is a little with the fear of the Lord than GREAT treasure and TROUBLE therewith.
And so on. If at all humanly possible, don’t put your children where God is not honored and where they are at the mercy of the new barbarians. Barbarians and their parents need evangelism, but the spiritual war in our land today does not need to be fought by little ones who are forced to spend their time just trying to keep a full set of teeth and an intact skull to take home with them at the end of the day. Let Christian adults in their Christian armor engage the enemy of souls and let the little ones be kept safe until they are ready for battle. If you think you can’t do it financially, seek God. Ask Him to provide a better situation for your little one. I have seen God’s intervention in my life so many times when my back was to the wall. Pray in faith, knowing you pray according to His will when you seek to raise your child for Him. He will provide what is good and right if you ask.
Ingrid,
I’m so glad we homeschooled our boys. When I read your article it brought back the fond memories of those days. My wife (who did most of the teaching) would start out with either a bible study or maybe read something like Pilgrims Progress, etc., and then move on to the academics. I taught them Health and Science. I wish I could tell you and your readers how much I wish we could do it (homeschooling) all over again. Being a blended family, my wife’s husband died of a heart attack when the boys were very young. We found that our relationship with the Lord was the most important part of our day. Not to say that the academics weren’t important, it’s just that I miss that sweet time with the Lord and my family. Why would anyone want anything different. It’s somethng you’ll never experience if your chldren are in a government school. I’m sorry I don’t buy the baloney that ” My children are a light at their school”. When we homeschooled our boys I think it cost us around 300 to 500 dollars a year and I know it’s more expensive now, but it was worth every penny.
Paul
I would like to hope that we aren’t too late, but I’m afraid we are. I homeschooled my children who are now 28 and 25. I pulled them out of a disintegrating Christian school environment that forgot its responsibility to educate and decided that evangelizing a growing group of troubled kids for the sake of income was more important. We can complain all we want about the schools that our kids are in, but we are responsible, as parents, to do what is best for our children in growing them up in the admonition of the Lord. That is nearly impossible in public schools and growing increasingly impossible in private Christian schools. I have yet to meet any child that was raised in a public school environment that wasn’t negatively impacted by their experience. Schools teach compromise, society teaches compromise, churches are even teaching compromise and when we decide that it is ‘best for our children’ to be indoctrinated by the government’s philosophies, we are also compromising. If we, as parents, were honest with ourselves, and really searched the Word of God, we would have no other choice but to remove our children from these evil institutions.
Jean
hello,
This is my first post. I work in Oakland and live in the east bay. This topic has been hotly discussed by parents and those that don’t have children in my office. In fact the same sfgate.com which ran the story has since published a list of horror stories from other parents whether in the Oakland Unified district or in another city whose children have also experienced bullying. We came to the same conclusion:
That while bullying and social aggression has always existed, it is now normal and mainstream, whether it is this case, or the teenagers in Florida who beat up their “friend” and taped it with a cell phone in the hopes of posting it on my space for their 15 gigabytes of fame, or the copy cats who staged their own fights. Evil is now good and good is evil. I don’t have any kids yet. I want to pray but I don’t know really where to begin. The mayor of Oakland Ron Dellums who is off in South Africa getting an award for his work in the anti-apartheid movement but seems to be asleep at the wheel regarding his city? the apathetic city council? the school administration who seems more interested in putting on a good face than doing right?
I’m so glad we were able to home school. We did it on a shoestring, but the Lord allowed us to do it.
YES! We have homeschooled for so long (began with our oldest two in 1991 and are still homeschooling two), that sometimes I forget that our “bad” day is NOTHING compared to what is out there on a “good” day. Thanks for another reminder that it is SO worth it!
I am so grateful for your voice of reason, Ingrid.
~ Cheryl
I just want to encourage all homeschool parents to “stay the course.” Yes, your children could excel educationally or socially in a Christian, public, or private school. But what would the cost be? Is the little bit of extra “free time” in your day/money in your wallet worth it? No matter how “grounded” a child is even at the high school level, they are no match for the peer pressure that is involved even in the Christian school.
I went to a Christian high school in Milwaukee (it is still there, btw) and was amazed at how many worldly kids that attended the school. This was over 15 years ago! I was aware of more sinful kids at this “Christian” school than at the large public high school I had attended previously. Not to mention the whole idea of “preacher’s kids” (kids whose dad’s were preachers but they went the entirely different direction!). That idea had to start somewhere so it can’t be a complete myth! (Not to mention my personal experience with 3 PKs!) You just don’t know what your kids are doing or what they are exposed to each and every day. Christian schools are controlled and taught by sinners just like you and me. The question is: who has the best interest of your child at heart? Only the parents truly and deeply care about the outcome of their children. They are God’s heritage to us- not to the teachers. HE CHOSE YOU to raise and educate the children HE gave you for HIS glory. How can you counter 8+ hours a day away from your influence and care? Trust in God’s plan for the family. He will not let you down if you are obedient to His will. He will make a way.
As I step off my pedestal, I want to leave you with a quote by Doug Philips of Vision Forum: “The Bible calls debt a curse and children a blessing, but our culture applies for curses and rejects blessings.”
~mtnmamaof4
I am sure that there are rotten home school parents just as there are rotten Chrisitian schools. I remember my coworkers Christian home schooled son who couldn’t even begin to compose an essay when he attempted entry into a junior college. Of course, I could take that anecdote and really go to town bashing homeschooling…hmmm maybe I’m on to something.
James
Uh, James, I was talking about godly homes who take God’s mandates seriously. There are many reasons people homeschool. I used to babysit as a teenager for two feminists I now realize were lesbians. They were homeschooling because the public schools were too “conservative” for them.
Godly parents are going to see to it that their children’s spiritual needs and academic needs are met in a home education setting. In officially atheistic public schools, neither are. Thanks for posting.
Ah yes, what a comparison. One home-schooled student who had trouble writing an essay versus how many schools–ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS–where children are routinely SUSPENDED–many of them for bringing WEAPONS!!
Now, James, does this kinda bring the whole issue into better focus for you? You are trying to say that one kid who didn;’ succeed at being homeschooled is enough to paint the whole system with a broad brush of failure. Yet you will let publikk skuulz off the hook for being a breeding ground for the next generation of thugs, rapists and murderers. Read the stats again, and let them really sink in this time.
didn;’ should be didn’t. Pubblikk ejukashun att wurk agen.
James, this one’s for you. This was from today’s ABC News website.
American Schools In Trouble
http://abcnews.go.com/WN/story?id=4732319&page=1
Ingrid:
Thank you so much for all you do, and I want to encourage everyone who is home schooling or plans to home school their kids, to not give up. Do not let people like James with his condescending remarks get in the way of you and your God-given responsibility to educate, care for, raise, and love your children.
And James, citing one case of a kid who couldn’t write an essay while ignoring the countless cases of public school kids who can’t even spell their names, find America on a map, nor execute a simple mathematical equation, is very disingenuous on your part.
Still wondering how generations survived before the almighty public school,
- The Pilgrim
Here’s another good article…
http://by101w.bay101.mail.live.com/mail/mail.aspx?wa=wsignin1.0&n=1834167554
Oops - here the correct link
http://www.americanvision.org/Today/04-02-08.html
[...] Posted by The Pilgrim under Home School, News Ingrid has reported on her blog Hope in Laodicea of yet another example of problems with the public schools. It’s examples like this [...]
Even if you can’t be “super home-school mom” (you know who you are!!), just doing the basics with your children to the best of your ability will be so much better than public school.
I may not always have my ducks in a row, but my children and I are thankful that they do not need to enter a godless environment for the sake of their “education”.
And if judges and politicians feel that parents are not qualified to teach their children, what are they saying? That public education didn’t prepare us to teach the ABC’s? If that is the case, it just shows how truly horrible the public education system is!
Very good point Deldobuss. If the government thinks that my wife and I are too ill-equipped to teach our children, then that’s an indictment to the public school system that both my wife and I were schooled in. Very good point!
- The Pilgrim
P.S. They must also conclude that the government loves and cares more for our children than their own parents. Ludicrous!