If there’s one thing we’ve learned during the pandemic it’s that many parents had no idea what was going on in their kids’ schools. Oh, parents knew there was crazy stuff going on in other schools, but by and large, there was a sense of NIMBY — it’s not happening in my backyard. Sadly, we’ve become increasingly aware of the abuses and indoctrination children across the country are suffering at the hands of unhinged teachers — teachers pushing their left-wing political agendas, encouraging children to be sexual deviants, and treating parents like they are not qualified to raise their own children without the state intervening in their families.
Here are but a few examples:
‘Trans Closets’: The Latest Way Schools Are Sneaking Around Behind Parents’ Backs
WARNING: These Pics From a Book in a Georgia School District Will Shock and Disgust You
DeSantis Goes Beast Mode on Woke Culture, Disney, and the Media Lies About the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ Bill
So You Still Don’t Think LGBTQ Is a Cult?
Teacher Caught Taping a Mask to the Face of a Young Student
Chasten Buttigieg Leads Kids in Pledge to the Gay Flag
National School Board Association Labels Parents ‘Domestic Terrorists’
EXPOSED: Tennessee Schools Flagrantly Breaking Anti-CRT Law
How One Bad Teacher Almost Destroyed a New Mexico Family Using the State as a Weapon
Florida Teacher Says She’ll Break the Law to Keep Secrets About Sexuality From Parents
Loudoun County School District Called CPS on Dad for Asking Questions About Bad Teachers
Parent Livid After School Instructs 8th-Graders to Describe Sex Acts Using Pizza Toppings
Leftist Loudon County Wants to Suspend Maskless Kids, But Not a Transgender Rapist
Ok, that was more than a few. But you get the point.
And, of course, we all know the damage that has been done to children as a result of lockdowns, forced masking, and sub-par education delivered by local schools. Kids have shown serious declines in both education and their mental health.
Many parents are completely fed up with the nonsense being shoved down their kids’ throats in public schools. Not only that, many realized during the lockdowns that they enjoyed having their kids home and overseeing their education and began to seriously consider homeschooling as a viable option.
The results are simply stunning. The homeschool population, as estimated by Dr. Brian Ray at the National Homeschool Education Research Institute, has grown from 2.6 million school-aged children in 2019 to a whopping 3.7 million in 2021.
Homeschooling had been growing steadily from 2016 to 2020, but the explosive growth in the educational option is staggering.
“Over the last two years, with government lockdowns of schools and parents becoming much more aware of the limitations of institutional schooling and how much the institution called school controls children’s and families’ lives, many thousands more parents have been awakened to the freedom space that is parent-directed home-based education,” Dr. Ray told PJ Media. “Rather than education being controlled by an institution that is often non-accommodating to a student’s needs and dreams or hostile toward a family’s values, homeschooling opens up many more possibilities, freedoms, dependabilities, and joys. Parents are learning that homeschooling is associated with academic success, strong social development, children with a joy to learn, and family life that is not controlled by the vicissitudes and dubious values of a state-run institution.”
At the end of the day, I believe that parents know what’s best for their own children and that God has entrusted them and them alone to make decisions about education. And I’m fully aware that not all parents are able to homeschool for a variety of reasons (more on that in a minute). But at what point do we say it’s abusive to force a child to spend 6.64 hours per day, 180 days a year, being indoctrinated by people who don’t have your child’s best interest at heart and who are actively recruiting them into a radical left-wing ideology, not to mention the LGBTQLMNOP cult?
Of course, there are still a lot of good teachers out there — including my daughter-in-law and several good friends — who aren’t abusing and indoctrinating kids, but they are fewer and farther between with each passing year. America’s universities are hotbeds of radicalism, and the teachers coming out of them are products of those regressive indoctrination machines. They’d rather teach kids to be woke, to question their gender, and to disregard the authority of their parents than teach the three Rs. It’s appalling — indeed, terrifying — to see the lengths many teachers will go to in order to subvert the will of parents. Every sane person knows it’s wrong, but we’ve now had several generations of children who have suffered through such abuse and indoctrination. A quick glance at any social media platform will give you a glimpse into the world of teens and college students. It’s a sea of delusion, mental illness, and downright evil.
The notion of truth itself is in dispute. The wokesters are telling your kids that if they can imagine it, they can make it true. Don’t like what God did when you were conceived in your mother’s womb — when he wrote your gender into every cell in your body? Then change it! Are you a male who can’t succeed in men’s sports? Put on a skirt and crush the real women in competition! The sky’s the limit!
But that’s not even the worst of it. It’s one thing for a bunch of people with mental problems to deny reality, but it’s another thing completely to force children to go along with their delusion and then punish them when they refuse to repeat the lies. Several generations of anti-bullying programs in schools have conditioned children to remain silent when confronted with statements that go against their faith and their families’ values. There are dire consequences for dissenters. Go against the grain and you will be punished, branded a bigot, a racist, or worse.
Can America even survive this? It’s hard to imagine how — unless parents step in to stop the madness. And one of the best ways to stop the madness is to pull your kids out of public schools and homeschool them.
But, Paula, I can hear you thinking. I can’t afford to homeschool! Our family needs two incomes to survive! Besides, I would go crazy having my kids home all day. And anyway, I’m not qualified to teach my own children (the stuff you allegedly learned when you were in school). And perhaps for many families, that is true. But maybe you could do without the second car or give up fancy vacations or buy your clothes at the thrift store, or shop at Save-a-Lot instead of Whole Foods — or all of the aforementioned, as many, many homeschooling parents do. As our family did. What’s it worth to you to protect your kids from what’s going on in public schools? Is any sacrifice too great? Our family went without a lot of things so I could stay home with our kids. It wasn’t always easy and sometimes it was downright scary, but do you know what I learned? That God provides for those who are faithful to Him and He gives us what we need when we need it. Note the use of the word “need” rather than “want.” I’m here to tell you that the sacrifices are worth it.
One thing I know for sure is that there’s a lot of bad stuff going on in public schools and kids are spending the majority of their waking hours with people who are not their parents — who couldn’t possibly love them as much as you do.
If you’re worried about how your homeschooled kids will turn out, there’s plenty of research demonstrating that they’ll do just fine — and probably even better on any number of indicators than their peers in public schools. Like, way better.
Dr. Ray told PJ Media that the reasons for the explosive growth of homeschooling in recent years “are deep and fundamental, such as a desire for stronger family relationships, better academic achievement than in state/public schools, more pedagogical freedom, treating children as individuals rather than as a homogeneous group, a safe and friendly environment, and for passing on values and beliefs dear to a family rather [than] allow the state-run school [to do] the values-teaching.” Who wouldn’t want that for their family?
Look, I’m not here to tell you what to do. What you do with your own children is none of my business. But I urge you to at least consider homeschooling. There are so many resources out there to assist parents and support the decision to homeschool that it’s easier than ever to teach your kids at home. What have you got to lose?
I’ve been writing about homeschooling and school choice at PJ Media for a decade now and it’s been exciting to see the widespread acceptance of what was once considered odd and exotic. Nearly 20 years ago I reached out to Dr. Ray as I was preparing to debate the issue of homeschooling with a hostile reporter from the Akron Beacon Journal before a mostly hostile audience at the Akron Press Club. I quipped to Ray this week that they looked at me like I was a monkey in the zoo. Times have certainly changed and homeschooling is now considered a mainstream educational option. But as regular readers of PJ Media know, the left wants to take away our freedom to raise our kids without the government’s interference. They believe your kids are safer at school (as if!) than they are at home with you. Sites that support choice in education — like PJ Media, Townhall, RedState, and others — need your help now more than ever so we can continue to report on the abuses children face in public schools and defend your right as a parent to do what you think its best for your kids. By becoming a PJ Media VIP member, you can help us fight back against those who want to control your family and corrupt your children. Use the promo code FIGHTBACK for a 25% discount today.
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