My email box is slowly filling up with article after article connecting presidential candidate Mike Huckabee’s sudden rise to significance in Iowa to the organization of homeschoolers. A sampling:

Julie Roe, with characteristic homeschool thrift, is spotlighted in an article from the Washington Post:

With no buttons, no yard signs and no glossy literature from his nearly invisible Iowa campaign, she took a pair of scissors and cut out a photograph of the former Arkansas governor. She pasted it on a piece of paper, scribbled down some of his positions, made copies and launched the Huckabee for President campaign in rural Hardin County.

The Times Online (out of the UK) introduces us to the stealth campaign that rocketed the “hick that can beat Hillary Clinton” out of obscurity:

Huckabee outmanoeuvred his rivals by getting the faith-based home-school movement, the gun lobby and evangelical church groups in Iowa to use their organ-isational muscle on his behalf for free.

The Des Moines Register informs us that,

Thousands of evangelical Christians who school their children at home have found a candidate they can support in Huckabee, and they provide the former Arkansas governor’s outsider campaign with hundreds of volunteers.

The paragraph following this begins with an interesting phrase. “Although not monolithic…” And there I would like to pause for a moment. I like Mike. I really do. I don’t even know why, but I like him. Maybe it is just because that Chuck Norris ad made me laugh out loud. But I don’t know that I’ll be voting for him. I haven’t decided whom I’ll be voting for, yet. But rest assured, the candidate’s stand on homeschooling is on the bottom of my list of concerns.

That may come as a surprise to my readers, and a bigger surprise to those who think they know how conservative Christian homeschoolers make up their minds about whom to vote for. None of the candidates that even have a chance at my vote (along with most of the ones who do not) have ever said or done anything so egregious against homeschooling that I honestly fear what will happen to my educational liberties should they gain office.

I am more concerned about how they measure against basic constitutional principles than their specific stance on any one issue. And even at that, one thing must be remembered: The president is not the king.

I was personally disturbed by the fact that HSLDA PAC made any endorsement for a presidential candidate. A summary of their stances on educational issues, much like the NEA provides, would have been appreciated. But I do tire of being told how to think, who to call and what to say in their various alerts. Now I’m being instructed how to vote? I like information and an organization that can give me that in an easy to scan format will have my support. But I can make up my own mind, thank you.

Homeschooling, even conservative Christian homeschooling, is not monolithic. But I think the perception that we are is exactly what is driving the current media frenzy over Huckabee’s rise in the polls. Made most clear by The New York Times’ handling,

Christine and Chuck Hurley have raised and home-schooled their 10 children here, and five of those children will be eligible to vote in the Iowa caucus on Jan. 3.

If Mr. and Mrs. Hurley have anything to say about it — and they do, being evangelical Christians who have imbued their children with the mandates of the Ten Commandments, not least the one about honoring thy father and mother — those will be five votes for Mike Huckabee.

What does Christianity have anything to do with children voting like their parents? According to Electoral Politics (1992), by David Kavanaugh, the father’s party preference is the single most influential factor in how a person will vote, regardless of class (p. 133). I am glad that the Hurley’s are passionate about politics and sharing this with their children. Helping in the campaign is a wonderful opportunity for children to learn about and practice civic responsibility. But please, NYT, do not make us out to be a thoughtless, overzealous, hyper-organized army marching to the beat of a single drummer.

Even we Christians are a diverse bunch.

_____

Some other commentary of note:

No Fighting, No Biting shares his concerns with Huckabee.
Woody’s Woundup ruffles a little at the thought that Huckabee could be the “only logical choice for Christians.”
Valerie of Home Education Magazine has put together quite a few links of note regarding Huckabee. I found Spunky’s quote she linked to particularly insightful:

Huckabee is selling himself to conservative Christians as “one of us.” He surmises that if evangelicals don’t get behind his campaign then we will permanently lose our influence in politics. Huckabee is a Christian, but far from conservative on many of the issues that are of importance to us, notabley immigration and education.

Huckebee seeks our support based on the fact that he is a Christian and because he is, most don’t even question his policies. Said one Iowa Christian leader,

“We don’t question what he believes because he is one of us.”

As well as troubling. I would hope that more goes into our decision for who shall lead the nation than “He is one of us.”

[tags]homeschooling, homeschool, Huckabee, election, politics[/tags]

I received a sad bit of news in my inbox yesterday. Jim Montgomery, the husband of Pat Montgomery, who helped found the Clonlara School and has been a strong advocate for educational freedom here and abroad, died during a bypass operation on the 15th of December. I was not able to find much information at the time of posting, so will translate the memorial offered by Netzwerk Bildungsfreiheit. Why would they have a memorial to him? Because of the incredible support this family has offered to German homeschoolers.

Pat Montgomery supports the German Homeschool movement with her whole heart. In the summer of 2003, she traveled from the USA to of of the meetings of the Initiative for Self-Determined Education and the BVNL. The wonderful stories that Pat told us about how children and youth learn will not be forgotten. In the summer of 2005, Pat returned and toured Germany in order to give German homeschoolers and unschoolers courage to continue in their fight against the German compulsory attendance laws. Through this, she made a valuable contribution in moving homeschoolers of different backgrounds to work together. Clonlara Germany was founded, which now guides well over one hundred families. In April of this year, Pat, as speaker at the International Colloquium for Home Eduction in Burg Rothenfels, was accompanied by her daughter Chandra, who has been the business director for Clonlara US for over two years. Pat and Chandra became dear to all who were able to experience their open and sincere manner. We mourn with them the loss of their husband and father. Our cordial sympathy to Pat Montgomery and Chandra Montgomery Nicol!

I would like to offer my condolences as well.

[tags]homeschooling, Clonlara, Jim Montgomery[/tags]

Welcome to Saturday School, my weekly look into the practical side of homeschooling. Feel free to leave a link in the comment section if you have shared any practical ideas recently! This week, I am sharing a quick reading activity to help your child learn about a character in a book. The final result is a nice mini-poster worthy of storing in your child’s notebook, hanging on the refrigerator or storing wherever you keep your child’s nice work.

This is a simple “Wanted Poster” which the child fills out using the information in a chapter, story or book. To begin, you may want to look at some real wanted posters and talk about their purpose and design. Here are several. Please note, these are real wanted posters with real crimes listed. For a little history, you can also look through some old-time wanted posters of famous outlaws.

This is a nice format for a character analysis because it helps the child to collect a physical description, some character traits and, depending on the character and story selected, identify the central theme. There is room for creativity as well. My daughter made a “Lost Cat” poster for Benjamin and His Cat Grimalkin, for example. As a reward, she thought a portrait painted by young Benjamin would be appropriate.

A nice template is available from Education World and it downloads as a Word document so is easy to adapt to your specific story. Scroll down to “Ice Breakers” and click on “Wanted Poster.”

And when you are all finished with the serious school stuff, why not make a display of the little outlaws in your own home? Here is our little card shark, helping me win at UNO:

This was made with the free generator over GlassGiant.com. And as usual, feel free to leave links to your bits of practical homeschooling…or even just to your wanted posters since I know my baby’s picture is not going to be the only one run through the generator today.

And a few practical posts which I noticed in my Reader over the course of the week. For some strange reason, Christmasy things dominated the practical postings I read:

Standing on Isaiah 54:13 shares some pictures of the birds they have attracted for a bird study as part of Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day.

It Coulda’ Been Worse shares a nice idea for displaying Christmas cards. Even nicer than accumulating in my basket by the door.

Shanan Trail shares her rather stylish, but homemade, display for her family’s Jesse Tree. It looks way nicer than the colored scraps of paper hanging from coat hangers in my kitchen.

Practical and delicious, Simply a Musing Blog shares some holiday recipes.

[tags]homeschooling, homeschool, reading, lessons, lesson plans[/tags]

Voting for the 2007 Homeschool Blog Awards ends midnight December 15 Pacific Standard Time.  I have been watching closely as Home Where They Belong and Why Homeschool have both been quietly but steadily climbing up the ranks, slowly gathering energy for an eleventh hour challenge to my lead in the Best Current Events, Opinions or Politics Blog.

After dropping two whole percentage points overnight, I wondered if I needed to seriously re-evaluate my whole campaign.  Should I make the button in my sidebar bigger?  Should I show more adorable baby pictures?  Do I reach out to the undecided?  Rally my base?  Or wade forth and attempt converts from those loyal to other candidates?

Is it time to dig out the dirt on the other candidates?  Or do I continue with my clean campaign, focusing solely on the issues?

I was relieved to gain back one of those percentage points over the course of yesterday, but this brought another issue to light.  Consider the following:

• At the time of this writing, there are only 259 votes cast in my category.
• I currently have 24% of the vote.
• That means that only 62.16 people have voted for me.

That leads me to only one conclusion.  Well, besides the obvious one drawn over at The Common Room.  Come to think of it, our real presidential elections seem to be haunted by the same problem.  But that isn’t the problem that concerns me at this moment.

Since I know for a fact that my husband, my mother, my father, my aunt and one of my mother’s coworkers voted for me, that means only 57 of my regular readers have offered a vote.  I have more than 57 subscribers to this blog.  And a lot more daily visitors.  Meaning that either a large number of you have abstained…or [gasp] voted for someone else.

This is a devastating realization.  Too devastating for me to speak on.  So I will defer to my official spokesperson:

  Happy voting!

[tags]homeschooling, homeschool, Homeschool Blog Awards, HSBA[/tags]

Update: It looks like my initial concern regarding the shooter’s religion and his mental health may not have been totally unfounded (emphasis mine):

Gothard’s teachings have been criticized by other conservative Christians who allege that he has deviated from true Bible teaching. He takes a stand against rock music — even Christian rock — and is suspicious of modern medicine, believing in spiritual roots of disease. He is against women working outside the home, and certain toys. Gothard warned followers in a 1986 letter that Cabbage Patch dolls can cause “strange, destructive behavior.” STLtoday

I do not think that homeschooling had anything to do with this, nor even strict religious beliefs. But I do have a concern that his mental illness was not being properly treated. We can blame the music if we want, but if you read his postings and if they have any accuracy whatsoever, he tried Jesus first. And when that didn’t work, he turned to the occult. He sounds much more like a young man with serious mental health issues, seeking an answer no one could give him.

And back to the original post…

An interesting discussion has begun in response to my post about the shootings in Colorado. Julie of Shanan Trail brought up a question about how Christians in particular view mental illness in light of her experience with her daughter.

What I have found in the homeschooling and Christian community is almost a denial that mental illness is real. Behavioral problems are all blamed on sin. I cannot tell you how often people who have never walked in my shoes take issue with my medicating my child or how often I have read blog entries in the homeschooling community addressing the issue of medication for childhood behavioral problems.

It is a view I have seen as well, although it is generally expressed as a general disdain for mental health professionals and any medications designed to aid the mentally ill. An article posted on the Internet by the Kingdom Baptist Church expresses this view well. It is summarized perfectly in the opening sentence of the third paragraph:

I do not like the counterfeit religions of psychology and psychiatry.

He goes on with typical divisiveness, accusing those who disagree of replacing God’s word with a lie:

Christians everywhere need to stand strong against this lie! Christians are intimidated to embrace the new religion of psychiatry with its new “biological, medical model”, just like many embraced psychology decades ago. Psychiatry, with its drugs, pills, diseases, and brain chemistry terminology, is too much for many to contend against. Why not simply embrace it, give in to the monster, and let it share a place beside our Christianity? It is a trick! Even many secular leaders can see through the scam. Replacing God’s truth (as revealed in the inspired Scriptures) with psychiatric brain dope is to embrace a broken cistern…

I do not know how pervasive this type of thinking is, and I suspect it isn’t really necessarily a uniquely Christian viewpoint. Mental illness is difficult to understand. I have run into this thinking most often among fundamentalist Christians, but I heard it first from the Scientologists. After each of these types of tragedies, my email box begins to fill with speculations about what kinds of psychotropic drugs the perpetrator was taking and how the field of psychiatry is to blame.

An article by WorldNet Daily which exposes the “shocking link between psychiatric drugs, suicide, violence and mass murder” connects several shootings with the medications the murderers were on and has been emailed to me more times than I can count.

But I have two very simple questions regarding this hypothesized connection. With “tens of millions of Americans” taking these medications and the extreme rarity of mass murder, how can we be so sure that the medication has any connection to the crimes? Is it not more likely that the underlying mental illness which presumably prompted the prescription is to blame?

This question is impossible to study in a controlled laboratory. It would require too large a sample size, given the rarity of these sorts of events, even with the prevalence of psychotropic drugs being used to treat the mentally ill. And it would involve leaving people with known problems untreated to see if they were any more likely to commit murder.

But the rising concerns of suspected over use of such strong medications has led the Food and Drug Administration to issue warnings about prescribing these medications which resulted in a dramatic drop in their use in 2004 and 2005.

The warnings led to a broad decline in SSRI prescriptions for all patients younger than 60, [Professor of psychostatistics and psychology Robert] Gibbons said. Prescription rates continued to rise among those older than 60, and this was the only group in which suicides dropped between 2003 and 2004, his study found. The Washington Post

With what is described as a “precipitous drop” in the prescribed use of medications such as Zoloft, Prozac and Paxil, suicide amongst American teenagers soared, rising 14% in a single year, the largest since the government began collecting suicide statistics. The phenomenon was more striking in the Netherlands. With a 22% decrease in the use of anti-depressants, they saw a 49% increase in teen suicides between 2003 and 2005.

While other bloggers have looked at this case and postulated the involvement of psychotropic drugs (see the comment section on Why Homeschool’s entry), my first reaction was the opposite. Particular with his involvement in a fundamentalist church, founded by Ted Haggard (made famous by his involvement with the youth camp better known as “Jesus Camp” because of the movie), I questioned first whether his mental illness was being treated at all. Or was this troubled young man being treated with only the laying on of hands, prayer and admonitions to read the bible?

Please do not misunderstand me. These medications are strong, with a list of side effects that is frightening. And some of the more common side effects of these medications are often the very symptoms they are designed to relieve. Little is known about their effects in children and their use should always be monitored by trained professionals who can chart their progress. Parents need to be well-educated about what to watch for. But mental illness is equally as frightening, both for the victim and the victim’s family. Unfortunately, children can suffer from these serious diseases, as well.

If we shun the use of all psychotropic drugs, how are we to treat mental illness? And will our children suffer as a result?

[tags]pharmakia, mental illness, fundamentalism, Christianity[/tags]

Educating Germany has kindly posted the translation of the German High Court’s decision regarding homeschooling.  While the family affected is devoutly religious, note that the language does not apply specifically to their religious beliefs.  The grounds of endangerment have nothing to do with the physical or emotional well-being of the children in the home.

The mental and emotional welfare of the children is lastingly endangered because the first Party rejects and hinders the school education which is important for the development of the children in a pluralistic society. It is a moot point whether the home education of the children ensures an adequate transfer of knowledge, as children should also grow up in communal life.

It is all about that infamous socialization.

And a couple of carnivals:

The Carnival of Homeschooling invites you to discover the various hats homeschoolers wear.

Lo-Fi Tribe has posted the Carnival of Christianity.

I wasn’t going to post on this. I have had enough of shootings for the moment. (In case you haven’t heard about it yet, there was another shooting, this time in a missionary training center and a mega church in Colorado.  By a young man who was homeschooled in a Christian family.)  But a comment over on Why Homeschool’s entry, Homeschooler gone bad story, bothers me. mrs. dani (no link) writes:

So this kids was homeschooled the last THREE years of his education. What about the other 10? He was a product of the public school system. So if he was in a school setting the majority of his life….mmmm……Yup, that public schooling just makes kids stir-crazy.

There is no link indicating where she gets this information about how long the shooter was homeschooled. The only information I can find says there is no record of him attending school in his district where the family has lived for ten years. And that he had been kicked out of the missionary training program three years prior which may be the source of the confusion. But it is irrelevant. If this young man were fully public educated, it would be irrelevant.

The public school has a variety of issues, but it does not turn children into wanton killers who write,

“I’m coming for EVERYONE soon and I WILL be armed to the @#%$ teeth and I WILL shoot to kill. …God, I can’t wait till I can kill you people. Feel no remorse, no sense of shame, I don’t care if I live or die in the shoot-out. All I want to do is kill and injure as many of you … as I can especially Christians who are to blame for most of the problems in the world,” CNN.com

just after murdering two people and before heading on to murder yet more.

This is NOT an educational issue, but a mental health issue. Months of strange behavior culminating in what was described as a bizarre performance which had workers “pretty scared” led to him being removed from the missionary training program. A bunk mate of his said he would “roll around in bed making noises.”

“He would say, ‘Don’t worry, I’m just talking to the voices,’ ” Werner said. “He’d say, ‘Don’t worry, Richard. You’re a nice guy. The voices like you.’ ” CNN.com

This is not the picture of a homeschooled youth or a public schooled youth. It is the picture of a mentally ill young man.

[tags]Murray, Arvada, New Life Church, Youth With a Mission[/tags]

The Sun Herald ran a story this weekend with a shocking headline:

Home affects school.

This conclusion is based on a research report released by the Educational Testing Service in September which studied America’s achievement gap in light of key factors known to affect school achievement. Predictably, they found that discrepancies in performance between school districts and states are linked strongly to home environment.

Together, these four factors account for about two-thirds of the large differences among states in National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) eighth-grade reading scores. The Family: America’s Smallest School, p. 4

Commenting on the apparent failure of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) to improve education in America despite its far-reaching measures, I noted last year that the real problem with education is not with the factors influenced by NCLB.

If parents had not stepped out of the lives of their children, we would not need education reform. The single greatest factor indicating school success is parental involvement. The socio-economic status of the family, teacher pay, teacher training, classroom equipment, curriculum are all secondary. If the parents are involved, these barriers seem to disappear. Education is not just the right of the parent. It is the responsibility of the parent. No Child Left Behind’s Missing Ingredient

So, in light of research reiterating this, what are we to do as a nation? I agree with the basic statement that we need to “invest in our families.”  And for the same reasons.

With the two-parent familyhaving historically been, for many cultures, the basic unit for raising and socializing children, its decline is perhaps the most important development in the role families play in children’s early literacy and cognitive development.  Ibid., p. 40

But what does that mean when it is used as a standard to measure public policy? The study cites UNESCO statistics comparing the condition of children in the United States to that of children in other nations which perhaps gives some clue. It also asks,

What can neighborhoods, communities, private organizations, and governments do to compensate for this decline in the parent-pupil ratio which we believe is leading to a “new inequality?” Ibid., p. 40

Not surprisingly, single parent households are linked closely with low academic performance in the study. But how does the state counteract a decision made in private for reasons only the parents know? This is where proposals get a little complicated.

It’s essential that parents, educators, and policy leaders fully understand that raising student achievement involves much more than improving what goes on in classrooms. Leaders and policy makers must establish community, state, and national programs to both improve schools and enhance the home and family conditions that give all students a better chance to reach high platforms from which to start school. (Ibid., p. 41)

Unfortunately, we are still looking at symptoms rather than causes. Meaning that the proposals focus on reducing income gaps between families, expanding Head Start programs and increasing the availability of “quality daycare.”

Where families fail, the state moves in. And where once we talked about local control, we are now building an argument for yet greater influence over that most private sphere of life: the family.

____

The complete report can be downloaded from the link to the Sun Herald.

[tags]education, parenting, parental involvement[/tags]

Renae of Life Nurturing Education did a wonderful job with the Carnival of Principled Government (yet again).  Join her for some discussion on the essential ideas of liberty.  I haven’t had a chance to check out all the entries yet, but since I just posted on the new vaccination schedule for New Jersey, naturemom’s entry on the increasing pressure on parents in Maryland to vaccinate caught my attention.  Incidentally, since the vaccination schedule New Jersey is considering is based on recommendations by the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control, it is my best guess that they will soon be required nationwide.

Take some time to stop by the Carnival of Principled Government and add your thoughts to the discussion!

The New York Times is reporting that that the New Jersey Public Health Council will be voting on a new rule today (Monday) that will require the addition of four new vaccines to the schedule, including one for any child entering school or daycare.

The flu vaccine is one of four that the council will consider. There is a vaccine that would be given to children entering day care or preschool to protect against pneumonia, and two others that would be given to those entering sixth grade: one to guard against meningococcal disease, a fast-killing strain of meningitis, and the other an additional booster of a three-part shot already administered at a younger age against tetanus, pertussis and diptheria. The New York Times

I am probably more neutral on the whole vaccine debate than your average homeschooler, but there is one thing in this discussion I am not neutral on: who should make the decision.

It concerns me that so much of our children’s health decisions are being made by bureaucracies which are not directly responsible to anyone, yet subject to the pressures of lobbyist organizations. What vaccinations my child is subject to should be between me and our family’s pediatrician without the pressure of health insurance companies, government agencies and pressure from vaccine manufacturers.

I do believe that a number of these vaccines have played a large role in improving public health in America and that you are safe in opting out of most or even all of them due to the fact that most Americans are vaccinated. Because of these and other health factors such as nutrition and clean water, some childhood diseases are now virtually unheard of, introduced only by unvaccinated immigrants.

On the other hand, there is the concern with mercury levels and other potential side effects of vaccines. There are questions about the long-term effects of vaccines, both in its proposed link to autism and in its overall effectiveness against the diseases they are designed to prevent. Chicken pox, for example, is an uncomfortable illness but is not generally fatal. It can be considerably more dangerous to the elderly, however. Is the immunity from the vaccination as long-lasting as it is from contracting the disease? Is the slight benefit to children worth the potential risk as they age?

The overuse of antibiotics and antimicrobial cleaners and hand sanitizers has been linked to the development of “supergerms” such as MRSA and other antibiotic resistant diseases. Treating every infection with a round of antibiotics has proven to have unintended consequences. Is it possible that the same could be true of the overuse of vaccinations?

I believe there is a strong case for the routine vaccination of children against diseases such as pertussis, diptheria and polio. But the flu? Chicken pox? Rubella? Every few years, it seems, new vaccinations are added to the schedule as we seek to stamp out all disease, all discomfort. But not all the questions regarding the increased use of vaccines have been answered and they are not likely to be so long as so much of the money for research is coming from those with a vested interest in maintaining the status quo.

Hat Tip: The Not Quite Crunchy Parent, who shares some more interesting links. A User Friendly Vaccination Schedule is also an interesting read. And this one from the Huffington Post raises a few questions, but without any sources, I am not sure how to follow up on any of the information.

[tags]health, vaccines, CDC, education[/tags]