Homeschooling Comments

I'm a bit behind on "Reader Mail". However, there were two interesting comments on homeschooling. That also relates to some other points I wanted to mention.

theftthroughinflation has left a new comment on your post "We are the State":

FSK. On "we own your children". Someone I know is at school to be a teacher. They have her sitting in on a class and doing everything that teacher does to "learn the ropes" (I know, teacher is like official state brainwasher, but I can only do so much convincing.
Anyways she was sitting in on a teacher meeting. One teacher started complaining that parents are holding them accountable for their teaching and asking for an increasing amount of meetings. The teachers all felt it was unacceptable and that the principal should screen out the parents so they would not have to meet with them.
I found it very amusing to learn this! WHen you buy a product or service as a paying customer you have the right to demand good service and demand efficent service. In the world of state-run monopoly education the children are property of the state while at school. Parents are discouraged from being pro-active with their children except when schools need them to sell something. It is verboten to question the state appointed educators! Questioning the authority of state agents is a serious offense.

That's the problem when you have a violence-backed monopoly. It makes no difference if you do a great job or a lousy job.

In what business besides government would someone say "We don't want feedback from our customers!" (Some State-backed monopolies also act this way, such as the telephone monopoly.)

I'm sure the day is near when we will hear about a parent who got tazered to death because he threw a fit in a school office demanding to speak to the child's teacher.
Children are as much state property as calves are to a farmer. At birth the calves are seperated from the mother and put under the close and artificial care of the farmer. He must protect his ability to milk cows in the future. The state must protect its ability to tax future generations.
I'm looking into the possibility for home school when I decide to have children. But that seems like a good way to get raided and murdered by the state.

That's an interesting analogy.

Did you know that some types of turkeys no longer can breed naturally? They were selective bred/engineered for huge bodies. They can't fly and mate. A wild turkey is actually pretty intelligent.

If you figure it out, by the time you're 7-8 years old, you've spent more waking hours with State bureaucrats than with your parents! Also, "day care" is a type of State care. You aren't going to get as good care from a bureaucrat overseeing 10-20 children as you will with the parent.

I wonder if rising autism rates are correlated with placing children in daycare from a young age?

"Women in the workplace!" also is an excuse to separate children from their mothers. Also, labor previously performed by women for free is now part of the official State economy and taxed.

This story is interesting. A German couple applied for political asylum in the USA, and had their request granted. They wanted to homeschool their children, but German law states that all children must go to public school. State thugs fined the parents, and threatened to kidnap their children, so they left the country. I'm surprised they were able to get an exit visa, with a pending trial.

This version of the story had a particularly offensive quote.

German courts have ruled that homeschooling creates a parallel society which needs to be eliminated.

“There is no safety for homeschoolers in Germany,” Donnelly said. “The two highest courts in Germany have ruled that it is acceptable for the German government to ‘stamp out’ homeschoolers as some kind of ‘parallel society.’

The "parallel society" bit is particularly offensive. If I want to teach my children "Taxation is theft!", then why should they be forced to go to a State school and be brainwashed to believe "Taxation is not theft!"

This law also targets Islamic children, forcing them to attend public school.

The goal of an agorist specifically is to create a "parallel society"!

I've looked into homeschooling. In some states in the USA, you may only homeschool if the parent is a State-licensed teacher. There are pending lawsuits challenging the validity of those laws.

In NYC, you may homeschool, but you have to register your intention with the State. That raises an interesting question. Do I file the paperwork or not? It seems that the best approach is to not file the paperwork, and then say "Oops! I didn't realize I was required to do that!" if anyone asks. Otherwise, you could be placed on a "subversive persons" list. (as if I'm not already on it)

That's one problem with giving birth in a State hospital. With a birth certificate and Social Security Card, your children are registered as State property. I don't know if State bureaucrats are that skilled at making sure every child enrolls in a brainwashing program. I doubt it. I could always move if State thugs harass me.

If you decide to be an unregistered homeschooler, you'd have to make sure your kids stay indoors during normal school hours.

The other problem with homeschooling is "Can I earn enough so that my spouse can afford to stay at home?" That's tricky. It'd help if I or my spouse had an agorist job that could be performed at home.

Also remember that I'm still paying taxes to support State schools, even if I homeschool. That's a huge disincentive. I also thought of starting an agorist homeschooling association. I figured I'd wait until I did the work myself on homeschooling.

Property taxes and sales taxes are used to support State schools. I have to pay property taxes no matter where I live, even if I otherwise work as an agorist.

The more I think about it, homeschooling seems like the morally correct choice. I don't have children right now, so I won't have to decide for awhile. The tricky parts are:

1. Managing it financially, so that someone can stay home.
2. Dealing with State thugs/bureaucrats.
3. Working out the details of what to teach.
4. Cooperating with other homeschooling parents.

Hidden Homeschooler has left a new comment on your post "We are the State":

The above comment is quite interesting. Some years ago we went through this with our son, his two different teachers over a 2 yr period refused to have their parent conferences. When we would try to communicate with them by phone, the requested notes, when we sent notes, they would respond with angry one word responses sent home, and make sure to also punish our son on days that we did ask questions. All through this time the school and teachers were publicly talking about how their well known failures and poor results were a result of poor parenting, lack of parent involvement, and so forth.

This is a school that has 1 hr homework for Kindergarten, 2 hrs for 1st grade, both levels which are completely counterproductive and inappropriate for that grade level, in addition to the fact that it was busywork such as endless dull worksheets to fill out. There is no morning or afternoon recess, elementary school lasts 7 hrs, and PE is only 1 hr a week.

That's pretty annoying. Most homework is a waste of time. For example, history is mostly fact memorization. There's lots of evil fnords. For example, the US Civil War was mostly about taxes. Slavery was a retcon. The agricultural South wanted no import/export tariffs, but the industrial North wanted high import/export tariffs.

I found an interesting workaround. I finished my homework quickly, so I could do other things! What was 2 hours of busywork for other people was only 30 minutes of busywork for me!

Homework is a way that the State influences the children/property, even when they aren't physically in school.

I hated writing when I was in school. It was a waste of time and the topics were stupid. Now, I write a lot on my blog. The difference is the freedom of subject, and something interesting to write about.

Any attempt to discuss any thing with anyone is greeted with antagonism, smart ass remarks and so forth.

Since we both have experience in education it was not even a question to pull him out and the decision was right, he did extremely well after that, whereas his school peers for the most part were drugged and ended up illiterate.

Homeschool while you can.

"Drugged"? The "chemical imbalance" theory of mental illness is a mistake/fraud. That includes ADD and ADHD. That problem is mostly due to kids reacting to the fact that school is a humongous waste of time. The kids labeled with "ADD" or "ADHD" are the ones who resist their Matrix brainwashing, i.e. the smartest ones.

That's another problem with going to a State school. If a school psychiatrist labels your kids with ADD or ADHD, then they will try to forcibly drug your kid against your will. State thugs will forcibly drug your child, kidnapping him if necessary.

One advantage of the USA is that you can move to another state. Then, you're subject to a different State bureaucracy.

That's an interesting question. What would you do if State thugs kidnapped your children? At that point, violent retaliation is not a violation of the non-aggression principle. However, it still would probably be pointless.

In the USA, homeschooling is still legal but very hard. There's the economic hardship. Nowadays, both parents are required to work to earn a decent living. There's the State bureaucratic hassle.

The right to homeschool won't be explicitly repealed, because that would be too obvious. Instead, there's a lot of bureaucratic and economic obstacles.

The more I think about it, homeschooling is the only morally acceptable choice. I don't have children or a current partner, so that's something I can make sure we agree on.