Delightful article from OneNewsNow, which keeps vying with WorldNetDaily for their, um, non-Euclidean view of the world.
Diane Jewell is a former homeschool mom who decided to send her daughter to public school in Junior High. Jewell is now regretting that decision because she says her daughter is being indoctrinated into socialism.
Eek!
On the other hand, why did Ms. Jewell decide to end homeschooling? Why hasn’t she yanked her daughter out of Socialism School and started homeschooling again?
“Right after Obama was elected, [my daughter’s] like, ‘Well then what’s wrong with socialism? What’s wrong with the government taking over healthcare?’ [That] started into a big family debate over why we need to keep control over our own choices and I don’t know — I couldn’t decide where that was coming from. I think it’s coming from the school system,” she explains.
Yes, because heaven forbid that junior high school kids might start exploring different ideas, or parroting things they hear other than what their parents have to say.
That concern led Jewell to become involved in her school district to “help steer” the school back where she believes it needs to be.
Which is?
In working with the school, she found that many teachers and administrators were pro-Obama.
Um, I do believe he won a majority of votes in the country. And he did win Indiana. So this is hardly a surprise, though I’m sure that Ms Jewell, with her “Right and Wrong are What I Will Them to Be” remains upset whenever she runs into someone who doesn’t agree with her.
Jewell adds that when she heard about Obama’s planned address to school children, it was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
She contacted her school district’s superintendant [sic] and was pleased with the reaction she received. Carrol Consolidated School Corporation’s plan is to record the speech, have the parents screen it, and then make it available at a later date for students who have permission to view it.
Are they doing that with all educational materials? Or just speeches by the Scary Socialist Kenyan President?
So remember, if the President of the United States want to say something to kids, it must be, at a minimum, reviewed by the schools, reviewed by the parents, and then explicitly approved by each parent before their kid can see it.
(Or their kids can go to YouTube and watch it themselves. Better ban YouTube, too!)
But, of course, even with all that review and vetting, Ms Jewell is not satisfied. Because, well, nobody from the federal government should be talking to her daughter without her there to plug her daughter’s ears.
OneNewsNow asked Jewell if the speech turns out to be an educational pep talk if she will allow her daughter to view it. She says it is not Obama’s place to talk to children directly, without parental input. Jewell adds that she is very concerned with the increasing involvement of federal government in education.
“I have a problem with the states controlling education. The federal government has…no business at all. That’s just way beyond their control; it takes parents even further away from what is and isn’t taught,” she concludes.
I’m curious how she felt about Reagan and GHW Bush “talking to children directly”? Or, for that matter, anyone doing so? It sounds like Jewell would prefer to have her kids held in isolated little rooms, only communicated with by messages viewed, vetted, and approved by her.
But Jewell says her biggest concern is that she believes children are the parent’s legacy, “their footprint on the world.” Jewell says that the more government is involved in education, the more the parents are excluded from the picture, calling that approach “abnormal.” She notes that since moving away from parental involvement, there has been a complete erosion in society in general ethics and morals.
“Children are the parent’s legacy, ‘their footprint on the world.'” That’s really … sad. And scary. While there are values I hope to pass on through Katherine, I consider her to be so much more than just my walking, talking avatar. I hope she becomes an independent person, able to reach her own conclusions, make her own judgments, have her own personal impact on the world around her.
Ms Jewell’s approach sounds more like what you’d hear from a Sports Mom or Sports Dad — “I want my little Suzie to be a fabulous cheer-leader, just like I was.”
Jewell tells OneNewsNow that taking that into consideration, she regrets her decision to quit homeschooling and in retrospect she wishes she had stayed at home in order to continue homeschooling her daughter.
And what is she now doing about it, aside from working to make sure that every other child at her daughter’s junior high becomes one of her footprints, too?
Wasn’t there a study a while back that linked (but not necessarily with causation) conservative values (family first, etc.) and authoritarian (stay in line with what I believe) parenting styles?
Not being a parent I may not be able to understand, but I can’t see forcing my child to be a ‘little me’ in their ideas and understanding of the world. Do these folks really believe that their children are going to hold all the same opinions that they do? Doesn’t that seem a little Stepford?
And it may be that I’m reaching too far back in history, but I thought Roosevelt asked everyone to listen to his Fireside chats during the 1930s. He was a democratic President, but he was speaking to the entire nation. I expect that my grandparents (not Dems by any stretch of the imagination) still would have listened and encouraged their children to listen since, even though they disagreed with him on many issues, he was still the President.
That level of civility may be gone forever.
I don’t get it, is he ging to pull the Hypno-toad out of his pocket and force all those innocent children into a new way of thinking?
Even if it leads to a shadow of a doubt, a whisper of dissent, a soupcon of questioning, it’s clearly far too dangerous to The Children.
As for FDR — I honestly don’t know what the official party line, from the GOP, was about his Fireside Chats.
I spoke with my dad about the Fireside Chats and he confirmed that his parents did listen, and expected the boys to listen as well. The chats were certainly more policy speeches than Obama’s upcoming talk, but respecting the President meant listening even if you didn’t agree with him.
I’m sure the GOP had a party line, but I can’t imagine their line was “Don’t listen cause it might confuse the children.”
Of course, in FDR’s day most of his opponents had a better reason to oppose his policies than just: “No!”
Well, at least they gave better reasons.