Homeschooling parents are accustomed to the prejudice, misunderstanding, and scorn that results from choosing to take direct charge of their children’s educations. Because of this, finding fresh ways to insult the diverse and varied homeschooling movement can be quite a task. Robin L. West of Georgetown University Law Center, however, has proven that she’s more than capable of rising to that challenge.
Writing in the University of Maryland’s Philosophy & Public Policy Quarterly, West has produced what is undoubtedly the silliest, most offensive caricature of homeschooling to ever be published in a scholarly journal.
West’s thesis—the government should have primary oversight of a child’s education—isn’t original but she managed to put a unique spin on despicable stereotypes. When is the last time you’ve seen a serious policy journal claim that poor, overbreeding, fundamentalist Christian families are destroying the tax base?
The average homeschooling family may have a higher income than the average non-homeschooler, as was recently reported by USA Today. The radically fundamentalist “movement” family, however, is considerably poorer than the population, and it is the participants in these movements—the so-called “patriarchy movement” and its “quiverfull” branch and related groups — that are the hardcore of the homeschooling movement. The husbands and wives in these families feel themselves to be under a religious compulsion to have large families, a homebound and submissive wife and mother who is responsible for the schooling of the children, and only one breadwinner. These families are not living in romantic, rural, self-sufficient farmhouses; they are in trailer parks, 1,000-square-foot homes, houses owned by relatives, and some, on tarps in fields or parking lots. Their lack of job skills, passed from one generation to the next, depresses the community’s overall economic health and their state’s tax base.
Another danger, warns West, is that the movement is creating mindless GOP drones that are similar to the mindless drones of the U.S. military:
Fundamentalist Protestant adults who were homeschooled over the last thirty years are not politically disengaged, far from it. They vote in far higher percentages than the rest of the population. They mobilize readily. The “army” in which adult homeschooled citizens are soldiers has enormous clout: homeschoolers were called “Bush’s Army” in 2000 and 2004 for good reason. Their capacity for political action is palpable and admirable, although doubly constrained: it is triggered by a call for action by church leaders, and in substance, it is limited to political action the aim of which is to undermine, limit, or destroy state functions that interfere with family and parental rights. Nevertheless, and by their own accountings, these citizen-soldiers in the “homeschooling movement” and the various political campaigns in which they are enlisted have no clout in the army in which they serve. They are as effective as they are, and as successful as they are, because they engage in politics in the same way that soldiers participate in combat. They don’t question authority, and they can’t go AWOL. With little education, few if any job skills, and scant resources, their power either to influence the lines of authority within their own sphere, or to leave that sphere, is virtually nil.
Sadly, the rest of the article isn’t able to keep up this jaw-droppingly condescending tone and merely slips into a banal offensiveness. But if you’ve ever wanted to read an article by a feminist legal theorist who knows nothing about her subject other than what she remembers from watching Jesus Camp, then “The Harms of Homeschooling” is a must-read.
(Via: Big Journalism)
January 14th, 2010 | 1:30 am
No, no! It started a long time ago–Abe Lincoln lived in less than a 1000 square foot home. No electricity! He started this mess!
Weren’t lefties more conscientious, a decade or so ago, about pointing out their disdain for poor people and people not like them? Has their diversity curtain been lifted and they do not care to spin the language anymore? How can homeschoolers mobilize, undermine and know anything about politics if they are so uneducated without job skills?
January 14th, 2010 | 5:23 am
Homeschoolers have higher than average income but are also a bunch of gap toothed hillbillies living in backwoods trailer parks?
January 14th, 2010 | 7:57 am
An example of the “No True Homeschooler” fallacy.
January 14th, 2010 | 8:38 am
Curious, Ms. West references statistics that prove her wrong and then makes the claim anyway. That she has prejudices is not surprising as we all do, though her public ones seem more exaggerated than most. I have to wonder where the editor was.
The first homeschooler I met, 15 years ago, held down a high-end high-tech job that brought in more than most two-income families make. He was interested in local musical theater and deep into barber shop quartets. I still don’t know what his religious inclinations were. He also did his share of the teaching.
But what should my anecdotal information matter, when Ms. West starts by rejecting much broader statistics.
January 14th, 2010 | 8:40 am
Oh, and Ms. West clearly knows nothing about the military.
January 14th, 2010 | 9:49 am
Georgetown University, my alma mater, has become such a disappointment. It has long-ago traded its status as “America’s oldest Catholic University” for “The University of America’s Political Capital.” Creatures like Robin West own Washington DC, and Georgetown long-ago has become infected.
January 14th, 2010 | 11:06 am
“…these citizen-soldiers in the “homeschooling movement” and the various political campaigns in which they are enlisted have no clout in the army in which they serve. They are as effective as they are, and as successful as they are, because they engage in politics in the same way that soldiers participate in combat. They don’t question authority, and they can’t go AWOL. With little education, few if any job skills, and scant resources, their power either to influence the lines of authority within their own sphere, or to leave that sphere, is virtually nil.”
So, they have no clout with their political allies. But they are extremely effective and successful at political action. But they don’t have any power to influence the authority figures of their political allies.
Right.
How many degrees do I need to acquire before I can write such self-contradictory passages?
January 14th, 2010 | 11:10 am
Oh, and just two sentences prior to the passage I cited, she wrote:
“The “army” in which adult homeschooled citizens are soldiers has enormous clout:”
Two sentences later, they have no clout. But they’re very effective. But they have no power.
Somewhere in heaven, a very large 13th century Dominican weeps.
January 14th, 2010 | 1:28 pm
How can you believe anything that comes out of Georgetown, when they cover the cions of there faith to mollify the lack of faith of our President.
Georgetown should stop calling themselves a Catholic University.
January 14th, 2010 | 1:38 pm
Georgetown University should have thrown this masterpiece into the same hole in which Obama demanded they bury their crucifixes. These people get sillier every day.
January 14th, 2010 | 8:43 pm
The homeschoolers are uneducated?? Hmmm…
January 15th, 2010 | 8:39 am
[...] The bad news: The chattering classes still look upon homeschoolers like they are aliens with three heads. [...]
January 15th, 2010 | 1:31 pm
While a myriad of professors sneer at homeschoolers, college directors of admissions and registrars LOVE THEM.
They pay their tuition, listen to directions, speak like adults, are literate, and tend to out perform their publicly educated peers. They also tend to be leaders.
And why should we be shocked? For decades teachers have told us that the gold standard for educational improvements is to reduce the student per teacher ratio (which homeschooling does), improve teacher motivation (by better pay) which homeschooler teachers – the moms – have WITHOUT pay…. and provide children with “social skills” – which in Public school seems to be massive exposure to liberal, hedonistic, hyper-partisan ideology, gangs, bullies, and the cause of the day…. while Homeschoolers need to learn how to deal with people younger and older on a daily basis.
In short, homeschooling is simply vastly superior to public schools in all the areas that matter. And this drives the leftists crazy.
January 15th, 2010 | 3:43 pm
My rebuttal is here
http://alasandras.blogspot.com/2010/01/robin-l-west-takes-potshot-at.html
It doesn’t drive all lefties crazy, some of us actually homeschool our kids. Homeschoolers are more diverse then most people realize.
January 16th, 2010 | 11:35 am
The most shocking thing about West’s article is that a presumably peer-reviewed academic journal published it as an essay based on verifiable evidence. The fact that West cites no sources for her money paragraph about oppressed families living in tarps exposes her as a shoddy scholar whose work no one should take seriously.
January 17th, 2010 | 3:58 pm
If you were to narrow down all of the
~Fundamentalist
~Patriarchal
~Uneducated Homeschoolers
~Who Live on Tarps in Parking Lots
~and have Eight Kids
I would dare say you might come up with one family at most… and shame on them!
January 17th, 2010 | 10:33 pm
We are headed for a new dark age. Unlike the last dark age, this coming dark age will be one where there is an abundance of information, just no one who knows how to use it. West’s article is a sign-post of the coming intellectual dark age: self-contradictory ramblings passing as “scholarship”. To get published and applauded, it need only pass one litmus test: “does it advance the left-wing agenda?” The process of “dark age-ification “will probably take 100 years. It began in the ivy league post-WWII. It will be upon us in toto by 2050. The Georgetowns and Harvards will all succumb to it. The echo chamber of self congratulation and tautologous self confirmation that liberlism demands will silence countervailing points and liberal nonsense will go unchecked. Unchecked nonsense only gets worse, and the worse it gets, the darker and dumber the denizens of these “universities” will get. Homeschooling and the new classic Catholic schools and universities are the future. I am not a home schooler, but the writing is on the wall.
January 21st, 2010 | 10:28 am
I was homeschooled, and at age 16 proudly wrote a : “Homeschooling: The Best Form of Education” research report for my English250 class at a public university (yes, my professor loved me!) I am now 27 years old. My eldest child is 6. Because of my own childhood homeschool experiences, however, my husband and I have decided to send him to a private school this fall. Yes, I am nervous about this decision. You see, some homeschoolers really are raised to fear the “real world”, have difficulty socializing and, even worse, feel that they are so far superior to the mortals who attend public school that they shouldn’t waste their time with them. Only with the support of my wonderful private/public schooled husband have I been able to better discern what will be a more balanced approach to my childrens’ education (please God).
There’s one thing Robin West got wrong that I have to point out — at least based on my experiences – Patriarchal? Yeah right! I can count on less than one hand the homeschooled families I know where the father is actually the “head of the household”. Homeschooling frequently attracts strong-willed, MATRIARCHAL-type women who have no problem taking the majority of the credit for their seemingly brilliant, obedient, admired, emotionally stunted children!
This isn’t just my story. I’m not the only one with a “horror story”. We tend to only hear of the success stories, or articles like West’s. I’m sure there are many homeschooled families who are doing a wonderful job. I was raised in a very rural area. Maybe homeschooers in urban areas are able to lead a more balanced life. But on the outside my family looked like we had it all together too. Others told us they envied our “perfect” family. It has taken years of struggling with relationships (what??? why should I respect your way of thinking, when mine is so far superior?) and attending therapy, to deal with some of these issues. My therapist acknowledged that she has seen a huge increase in one group of clients: HOMESCHOOLING FAMILIES.
God bless homeschool families, for their road is very difficult. God bless homeschooled children, for I fear many of them – if they dare to leave the bubble many were raised in – will have a very painful journey ahead.
January 21st, 2010 | 12:28 pm
The real harm to society is the publication of articles like Ms. West´s in so-called serious journals.
January 21st, 2010 | 1:48 pm
[...] Homeschooled kids ARE DANGEROUS ROBOT DRONES! How Fundamentalist, Patriarchal, Uneducated Homeschoolers Who Live on Tarps in Parking Lots with The… [...]
January 21st, 2010 | 6:32 pm
Nevertheless, there are some serious drawbacks to homeschooling, as outlined here: http://politickles.com/blog/?p=953.
January 29th, 2010 | 6:39 am
Social comments and analytics for this post…
This post was mentioned on Twitter by ROFTERS: How Fundamentalist Uneducated Homeschoolers Who Live on Tarps in Parking Lots with Their Eight Kids are Harming America http://bit.ly/5SG5mZ…
February 24th, 2010 | 11:56 pm
I agree that this is not a description of your typical homeschool family. However, I don’t believe your hackles would be so raised were there not a grain of truth to West’s caricature of the quiverfull people. As someone who was homeschooled through graduation in the ’80s and early ’90s, I think we all know of whom West speaks. They were around in “my day,” and I know some of those kids are now homeschooling their own kids, while living in abject poverty on whatever jobs they can find with their scant education (let’s face it, some parents do not have a game plan beyond protecting their children from the evils of the secular world and there are plenty of kids who neither learned anything useful in the modern world nor gained the social acumen to succeed in a typical career). As for me, I was lucky enough to have fundamentalist parents who WERE concerned about preparing me for college and a career (although there was much pressure to find a missionary or preacher to marry so I wouldn’t “have to” finish college). I did well in high school, excelled in university and did OK for myself in the workplace; however, I don’t think I’m any more or less successful than any other motivated child with attentive parents would have been — and whatever educational edge I may have gained has been mitigated by the fact that I am completely and totally socially inept. It’s not that I can’t have a conversation with someone, but my life experiences are so dissimilar to others’ that I can’t relate to them, nor they to me. And as Heidi mentioned, there’s that air of superiority people find so annoying! I’ve spent ages trying to wipe the supercilious smile off my face, because quite frankly, all the intellect in the world won’t do you any good if your colleagues find you insufferably arrogant.
I graduated 12th in my university class, and of the kids who graduated above me, two were privately educated and the rest were products of the evil, secular public school system upon which my parents and their friends spent so much time sneering. Had I learned before it was too late that taking the PSAT could earn me a National Merit Scholarship, or that you have to actually APPLY to Harvard to get in, or that professors have office hours — all things a guidance counselor will tell you — who knows how I might have done?
At any rate, I, too, am sending my children to a private school, where they will enjoy the benefits of individual attention AND regular social interaction with other children.
I’ve also noticed, after reconnecting with old homeschool acquaintances on Facebook, that they all share exactly the same political viewpoints (with the exception of one, who has added white supremacy to her portfolio. I only wish I was kidding.). If homeschooling is supposed to encourage creativity and critical thinking, how can it produce such a homogeneous worldview? I absolutely agree with West’s characterization of the homeschool “army” and its unquestioning attitude toward the “authority” of conservative leadership. I’ve read enough of the classics to know that our great philosophers and politicians have all had their differences, and goodness knows I have my own point of view on everything. But when it doesn’t jibe with the views of other homeschoolers, I’ve been accused of being everything from a tool of Satan to a “lost soul” to my favorite, being brainwashed by secular society. I’m sorry if I read the entire contents of my library and it poisoned me, people — what did you expect me to do with all that spare time at home? ;-)
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