Strange Days
- Donald R. McClarey
Donald R. McClarey
Cradle Catholic. Active in the pro-life movement since 1973. Father of three, one in Heaven, and happily married for 43 years. Small town lawyer and amateur historian. Former president of the board of directors of the local crisis pregnancy center for a decade.
Question: What does homeschooling look like in a left wing household? Is it possibly even worse than the indoctrination that takes place in public (and, it must be said, many putatively Catholic) schools? Just wondering.
Is it possibly even worse than the indoctrination that takes place in public (and, it must be said, many putatively Catholic) schools?
No, since parents can teach their own kids anything they please. Also, my guess is that most left-wing parents are as inept at homeschooling their kids as most other parents who suddenly had this thrust upon them.
It’s unlikely to be as bad as public school, simply because parents can’t send the kid home if they point out the teacher said snakes are invertebrates, and the more socially destructive stuff really needs a large peer group to silence questions.
Realistically, the I’m-nice-so-I’m-liberal folks will be one of two routes:
“Let the children enjoy this magical time, don’t pressure them”– AKA, they look like that painting of a screaming guy at the thought of setting it up; about now they’re calming down, have the kids on Khan or doing the weekly independent studies from Education.com, that kind of stuff.
Then there’s the more organized ones, which found one of the dozens of online schooling/enrichment programs that are giving a free month/months/duration trial, and may have switched four or five times because the one the found is obnoxiously WRONG, and/or are really losing patience with their school’s offered online stuff.
All of those who are doing school stuff are going “wait, why does it only take them two or three hours? This DESTROYS my carefully set up schedule!”
The hard left parents are still not going to be as bad as the school, because they have to have a functioning philosophy that will allow them to survive in the general population and it won’t be switching constantly. Consistency makes holes show up better.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-eSwhX5QaU
(double checked and didn’t see any sign of Don posting this earlier)
If you read the literature of the 60s you will find a surprising number of Lefties either homeschooling or joining with others of their ilk to form private academies. Homeschooling expanded enormously in that decade, long before the revival of Evangelicalism a decade later. What I call homeschooling’s “bohemian legion” had as many if not more (although often different) objections to the Progressivism of the time than conservatives, and in some ways they began the modern movement.
Thanks, everyone. Very interesting and informative. ????
Tried to send a comment thanking all for the replies to my initial question, but I got an error message saying “duplicate comment.” Strange days indeed. ????
They’re not really homeschooling. Teachers are uploading class assignments. The kids do the work and submit it electronically. Some classes are meeting occasionally via a video chat app.
The trick has been getting teachers to upload once a day, preferably early in the morning. And to communicate at the same time each day.
In the Schreiberhof school begins after breakfast and ends at lunchtime unless a teacher posts an afternoon time to take an online test.
Ernest:
My Catholic school in CA started “distance learning” the first day after we went into hiding (i.e. sheltered in place). We gather (electronically) at 8:00 for prayer and the pledge of allegiance, and any school wide announcements. We middle school teachers arrange our class meetings until noon and are available by email through three pm. Any faculty “meetings” take place after that time. Special needs kids or those missing work have a “homework club” they can be required to attend. We’re making it work, as well as can be expected.
Our science kids (7-8) had an e-meeting with a researcher at Gilead, the day they made a big announcement about remdecivir. The kids had more sensible questions than half the ones pitched at Trump and Fauci.
They’re not really homeschooling. Teachers are uploading class assignments. The kids do the work and submit it electronically. Some classes are meeting occasionally via a video chat app.
Very much depends on the school district– most of the local schools are in the “voluntary enrichment” group. My old school also has the teachers voluntarily offering stuff–even the folks who usually do online classes for the state online program.
The kids had more sensible questions than half the ones pitched at Trump and Fauci.
I don’t doubt it in the least.
Tom B-
my husband’s grandmother was the first relative to be really supportive of us homeschooling, exactly because she remembered that early long-haired-hippy sorts very fondly. She was one of the more science oriented gals, so she knew exactly how miserable that can be in a normal classroom, and we both wax poetic on all the options opened up because of those waves of homeschoolers.