Why are so many democrats against educational autonomy? - Page 3

[CherryBomb]

I think the government in general doesn't like homeschooling. They want to control what our kids learn so they can churn out good little uber-patriotic citizens who don't question them. Not that I'm paranoid or anything.

I believe though, especially when you look at the history of public schools. Pretty scary stuff.

I think Republicans just tend to bite their tongues a bit more because they have the conservative religious base, which tends to homeschool. Dubya and his wife are strongly opposed to homeschooling, but they know enough not to bring it up a lot.

[CherryBomb]

Oh, and I have to add-

My SIL is a very conservative Christian republican, and I'm so liberal it's amazing I haven't bled to death yet. One reason she homeschools is because she thinks the public school system is too liberal, and one of my reasons is that I think it's too conservative.

[K&JsMaMa]

Originally Posted by CherryBomb

Dubya and his wife are strongly opposed to homeschooling, but they know enough not to bring it up a lot.

I've never heard this before.

Do you have any links to support this statement?

[applejuice]

Originally Posted by aniT

Yes, I know they say the lottery money goes to schools, but I never saw a difference when I was in school. There were no extra programs, no field trips, no new books, nothing. I always believed that lottery money was a load of ****!! If the schools saw the money, it never trickled down to the students.

ITA!, aniT

BTW, in regards to your story about your "friend" in school, when I attended graduate school for my teaching credential, two of my professors in the elementary education department were former principals from the LAUSD who had been caught embezzling funds from the school district.

These people were teaching me!

Later, one of them was working in the district office; she interviewed me for a teaching job with the district.

[applejuice]

Originally Posted by mwherbs

So I think that historically that many "religious" homeschoolers and homeschooling organizations are also republican or maybe libertarian defaulting to republican --

Actually the modern homeschooling movement started with the counter-culture movement of the 1960s -

The first groups to oppose the move to forced public education were the religious groups of the nineteenth century since the public school movement started under the trancendentalists and Unitarian movement of Horace Mann, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and the like.

It came to a head in 1922 when the governor of the state of Oregon outlawed all private schools and was decided in 1925 in the Supreme Court. A Catholic School sued and won allowing the existence of private, especially religious schools to operate in every state.

Pierce -vs- Society of Sisters 268 U.S. 510 docket number 583

[Lillian J]

I lean toward the Democratic party, so it always bothers me too. It could, of course, be because of the NEA, but my understanding has always been that it has to do with the intent to support the less privileged children they think would lose out if the schools have less economic and parental support. Too bad they don't get it. ; ) Lillian

[urklemama]

The head of the HSLDA is super good buds with Dubya. Now, it's possible that the the HSLDA's ultimate goal is to work with the feds to create a two-tier educational system with government schools on the bottom feeding cannon fodder and Walmart shoppers into a system controlled by the children of married, white Christians who are allowed to homeschool if they can prove their allegiance to the Reich, I mean the US - but it's also possible that Yog Sototh is inside the Pentagon, you know? I'm not gonna lose sleep over it.

[Itlbokay]

Several people have mentioned the NEA, which I was unfamiliar with until this school year. My child's teacher is heavily involved (on the NEA Board of Directors for our state), and was absent from the classroom 35% of the time for NEA meetings in Washington and other places.

[mwherbs]

Originally Posted by urklemama

but it's also possible that Yog Sototh is inside the Pentagon, you know? I'm not gonna lose sleep over it.

maybe be....

[applejuice]

Originally Posted by Itlbokay

Several people have mentioned the NEA, which I was unfamiliar with until this school year. My child's teacher is heavily involved (on the NEA Board of Directors for our state), and was absent from the classroom 35% of the time for NEA meetings in Washington and other places.

When I did student teaching, my first master teacher was absent three days out of five every week...she had a pattern of doing this before I even came to her classroom. This was in the LAUSD.

She told me she had work to do for her church : She was a Mormon. This was in a public school...what about separation of church and state?

I filed a formal complaint, and then I was dropped from that assignment and told that the master teacher was entitled to a day off now and then. (60% of the time?) My complaint was thrown away and never considered seriously. The principal laughed at me and the University ignored me.

I do not think he/she or any one else is much of any kind of influence or any kind of educator if he/she is gone most of the time from the classroom. What the heck is a teacher supposed to be doing anyway? Going to meetings all of the time and not teaching?