And the Winner is. . .

This article is vying for the distinction of being the Worst Homeschool Article Ever. Though, a close runner up might be this one.

Some gems from Peggy Boyce's Home-schooling Robs Children:

What an ego trip for a parent -- to be all things to your children, to control every thought, every concept that enters their world. Is this education, or programming? To deny them the stimulation of working and playing with their peers is unfair.
. . .

The real trip was for the mothers, who received the big emotional rewards. My response is: Mothers, get a life. How unfair it is for you to take away your own child's life in order to gratify yours? Is this what we must expect from the "me first" generation as it raises their families?

Power-tripping mothers and deprived home school children are welcome to comment.

(Via Paul via Chris via Daryl. I was surfing.)

Posted by TulipGirl | 01:53 PM| TrackBack (1) | Words

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» Homeschool kerfuffle from Arcanus Maximus
Peggy Boyce has written an anti-homeschooling screed. I ran across it first on about.com's homeschool section. I then read further details from tulipgirl, the zero boss, and Tim Berglund. Ms. Boyce seems quite a piece of work, and yet she... [Read More]

Tracked on September 27, 2004 02:28 PM

Comments

I have a comment:

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!! How absolutely RIDICULOUS!!!!!

Why is homeschooling the only subject in the world, about which journalists are allowed to write, who don't know anyone who does it, don't do any actual research on how it is done, and the type of people who do it?

Why is the only subject on which journalists feel they've done their job if their research consists of observing the families at Walmart and two blocks down the street, and drawing assumptions about why people do what they do?

BTW, the first link is not working. Whether it's a temporary server problem or a bad link, I can't tell. Sadly, it prevented me from seeing more pearls of wisdom than the ones you quoted, though. ;-)
Posted by: pentamom at September 16, 2004 03:21 PM

Hmmmm. . . Either they are experiencing server probs or took the article down, because the places I originally clicked-through from are showing the same error.

Unfortunately, it was too new a story for the Wayback Machine to already archive. Hmmmm. . . I'll see if I can find another copy of it online.
Posted by: TulipGirl at September 16, 2004 04:55 PM

Yes, I control my son's every waking moment. He is a robot. He doesn't have an original thought in his head. I'm controlling him to take over the world! Mwuahhhhhhh!
Posted by: Christina at September 16, 2004 08:52 PM

Okay, I'm confused about the 2nd little blurb you quoted. She said that mothers are "taking away their child's life" and living in a "me-first generation". This seems like an awful double standard, doesn't it, to blame women that take responsibility for their children for being selfish and having a me-first attitude when we've heard all along that it's the women that go out and get a full-time time and send their children to school and daycare that are being selfish. So which is it? We're selfish for working outside the home or going to school and having an identity apart from our families or we're selfish because we stay home with our families? I guess women are just to blame for everything, no matter what we choose to do.
Posted by: Christina at September 16, 2004 08:56 PM

Christina: it's not the same people who would call women selfish for going out and working, and call homeschoolers selfish. The people who think homeschoolers are selfish probably think that working mothers are heroes, no matter what their motivation, attitude, or level of hands-on involvement with their children.

It's just so stupid to think that we homeschool because we can't stand to have anyone else have any influence on our children. Speaking for myself and a lot of people I know (though I know some have a different attitude) I'd be happy to share the burden at least to some extent, if I thought that there were good, affordable, available alternatives that still met my goals of good education and real discipleship for my kids. While I believe that discipleship of my children is primarily the responsibility of myself and my husband, I don't happen to believe that means that I must personally control every thought that enters their heads. AFAIK, NO ONE who homeschools believes that.

If the author of the article came to the conclusion that homeschoolers don't want anyone to have any input with their children other than themselves, they must have interviewed that small subgroup of homeschoolers known as "homers." But the likelihood that she would have known any of those people is pretty small, since they're generally not the sort that move in the same circles with insane feminist journalists.
Posted by: pentamom at September 17, 2004 03:50 PM

I'd be happy to share the burden at least to some extent, if I thought that there were good, affordable, available alternatives that still met my goals of good education and real discipleship for my kids. While I believe that discipleship of my children is primarily the responsibility of myself and my husband, I don't happen to believe that means that I must personally control every thought that enters their heads.

pentamom, I TOTALLY agree!

Btw, about the appellation "homers"--Hubby's dear aunt who introduced us used to make jokes about them converting to "Homish"--they live in Amish country, that that was their version of home-everything/amish.
Posted by: TulipGirl at September 17, 2004 04:29 PM

I found a sample of Mrs. Boyce's secretarial work demonstrating horrific computer skills.

My high school secretarial practice teacher would have made her do this over or given her an "F". Being unaware of what acceptable work in real life is, Mrs. Boyce not only proudly signed it, but also published it, formatting disaster and all.

Enjoy! http://www.saugatuck.k12.mi.us/June03.htm
Posted by: Gene at January 14, 2005 05:44 AM

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