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Posts Tagged ‘Elizabeth Bartholet’

Home Schooling: Here’s What Our Masters Say

Posted by M. C. on May 24, 2022

And you’d better pay attention

“James Dwyer, a law professor at the College of William and Mary. He is the professor famous for claiming that ‘The reason parent-child relationships exist is because the State confers legal parenthood …’ In his 1994 law review article ‘Parents’ Religion and Children’s Welfare: Debunking the Doctrine of Parents’ Rights’ (82 Calif. L. Rev. 1371), Dwyer argued that ‘the claim that parents should have child-rearing rights—rather than simply being permitted to perform parental duties and to make certain decisions on a child’s behalf in accordance with the child’s rights—is inconsistent with principles deeply embedded in our law and morality’.”

Home schooling: here’s what our masters say

By Jon Rappoport

Jon Rappoport’s blog

Daniel Greenfield, writing at Front Page Magazine, offers this gem:

“Elizabeth Bartholet, the director of Harvard Law’s Child Advocacy Program, described the ‘homeschooling phenomenon’ as a ‘threat’ to society, claiming that conservative parents ‘homeschool because they want to isolate their children from ideas and values central to our democracy’, ‘promote racial segregation and female subservience’, and ‘question science’.”

“Her paper called for a ‘presumptive ban on homeschooling, with the burden on parents to demonstrate justification for permission to homeschool.’ These views are not fringe.”

Of course, this elite Harvard titan, Bartholet, knows which ideas and values are central to our democracy; and the place to drill them into children’s heads is public school.

Which pretty much sums up what public schools are for.

She also has a complete grasp of science in all fields, and she can identify disruptive questions which would lead unsuspecting people down the wrong track.

Appoint her the head of Something Big immediately.

Like all of her super-educated colleagues, she manages to forget that the United States is a Republic, not a democracy. But a democracy is what she needs, because under that system the well-oiled systems of money determine which voices are heard and which are silenced.

The voices that are heard are called “the will of The People.” So says the press, which is basically a PR and marketing operation on behalf of Money. As a cover, the press pretends to be an advocate for the poor and the underserved.

Elizabeth Bartholet should be pumping gas and collecting tumbleweed at a station in Death Valley, where she can talk to herself and right all the wrongs of society.

It’s always this way with elites; they know what we need because we can’t know it. They labor to supply us with their values because ours are worthless.

Their bottom line, when it comes to education? Children don’t belong to their parents. They belong to the State. So you see, their territory of operation is far wider than schools. They’re werewolves, and parents are silver bullets.

In 2020, Bartholet was a co-organizer of a Harvard summit on homeschooling, along with law professor James Dwyer. The announcement for this summit included the following profile of Dwyer. Buckle up:

“James Dwyer, a law professor at the College of William and Mary. He is the professor famous for claiming that ‘The reason parent-child relationships exist is because the State confers legal parenthood …’ In his 1994 law review article ‘Parents’ Religion and Children’s Welfare: Debunking the Doctrine of Parents’ Rights’ (82 Calif. L. Rev. 1371), Dwyer argued that ‘the claim that parents should have child-rearing rights—rather than simply being permitted to perform parental duties and to make certain decisions on a child’s behalf in accordance with the child’s rights—is inconsistent with principles deeply embedded in our law and morality’.”

Yes. Democracy. Certainly.

Isn’t this what you’ve always wanted? Permission from the State to perform certain limited parental duties?

Dwyer’s deep understanding of the Constitution is evident here. He realizes that, contrary to popular belief, the founding document never intended to limit and constrain central government and guarantee wide freedom to the individual.

No. Instead, it embedded government EVERYWHERE, especially within the family. Parents, the Founders reasoned, were no better than British Kings. They had to be hamstrung and placed in homes as carefully watched and monitored agents of the State, to carry out instructions on how to raise children.

Aha. Yes. Of course. How could we have missed that?

And it’s only fitting that we should receive such wisdom from Harvard, where posing as guardians of the disenfranchised while sitting on a pile of endowment money that reaches to the moon has been raised to an art form.

At Harvard, the elites play in the fields of the Lord and stoop to offer us mandates about the basics of life itself.

Mother? Father? Son? Daughter? These are grave misnomers which arose owing to parental ignorance and overreach.

A vast course correction is needed, and our rulers will define the law and guide the way.

Bow the head, bend the knee, and give thanks.

Or you could build a moat around your home and fill it with crocodiles. While you home school your children.

You know, mothers—the children YOU GAVE BIRTH TO.

Unless you believer sex, conception, pregnancy, and birth are mere footnotes of State law.

Decreed by Harvard.

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Homeschooling Is Surging, and Especially in Homes the Left May Find Troubling – RedState

Posted by M. C. on July 28, 2021

These professors are concerned that parents will make teaching children what the left wants them to learn impossible, and Elizabeth Bartholet, a Harvard Law School professor and director of its Child Advocacy Program, warned that kids are in danger of teaching their children “conservative Christian beliefs” specifically.

https://redstate.com/brandon_morse/2021/07/27/homeschooling-is-surging-and-especially-in-homes-the-left-may-find-troubling-n417015

By Brandon Morse

The COVID-19 pandemic brought with it a myriad of consequences to our society, but not every effect was negative. One such result was a dramatic increase in homeschooling, and especially in households that the left may not like.

According to the Associated Press, parents took their children’s education into their own hands and found that their children seemed to be performing much better under their own tutelage than under the public school system’s. The surge itself was confirmed by the U.S. Census Bureau that reported homeschooling more than doubled between March and September of 2020, going from 5.4 percent to 11 percent.

The biggest jump of all? The AP reported that black households skyrocketed from the single digits to the double. What’s more, some are motivated by religious reasoning:

Black households saw the largest jump; their homeschooling rate rose from 3.3% in the spring of 2020 to 16.1% in the fall.

The parents in one of those households, Arlena and Robert Brown of Austin, Texas, had three children in elementary school when the pandemic took hold. After experimenting with virtual learning, the couple opted to try homeschooling with a Catholic-oriented curriculum provided by Seton Home Study School, which serves about 16,000 students nationwide.

The Browns plan to continue homeschooling for the coming year, grateful that they can tailor the curriculum to fit their children’s distinctive needs. Jacoby, 11, has been diagnosed with narcolepsy and sometimes needs naps during the day; Riley, 10, has tested as academically gifted; Felicity, 9, has a learning disability.

“I didn’t want my kids to become a statistic and not meet their full potential,” said Robert Brown, a former teacher who now does consulting. “And we wanted them to have very solid understanding of their faith.”

Another parent in a black household, Angela Valentine, felt the need to keep homeschooling her child due to her son, Dorian, being the only black child at a school. The isolation he was experiencing was getting to him and so she now teaches him about black history and culture while homeschooling.

“I felt the burden of making the shift, making sure we’re making the right choices,” Valentine said. “But until we’re really comfortable with his learning environment, we’ll stay on this homeschool journey.”

Homeschooling also allows parents to conform the learning to their children’s needs instead of the children having to conform to the one-size-fits-all style of learning public schooling forces on children. AP reports one parent has a child with Down syndrome and noticed that her progress at home was better than her progress in virtual learning. They ended up doing the same for her son Noah, and the classes went so well that they decided to continue for the next few years.

“He told me he was learning so much more at home than he ever did in school,” Osgood told the AP. “He said, ‘School is just so chaotic — we don’t get very much done in any particular class. Here, I sit down, you tell me what to do, and minutes later I’m done.’”

Other families have weighed in, noting that their children excelled better at home, and learned far more than they did at public school.

While this is all well and good, parents should likely not get comfortable. Many are just getting into the homeschooling life but they should be aware that there is a war on homeschooling going on. Many on the left would rather see homeschooling made illegal, and Harvard professors are already making the case for this as mainstream media sources applaud and echo them.

(READ: Homeschooling Is One of the Left’s Worst Nightmares So Expect a Long Fight)

These professors are concerned that parents will make teaching children what the left wants them to learn impossible, and Elizabeth Bartholet, a Harvard Law School professor and director of its Child Advocacy Program, warned that kids are in danger of teaching their children “conservative Christian beliefs” specifically.

Right now, American parents are at war with many educational bureaucracies attempting to push left-leaning ideological extremism on their children through Critical Race Theory. As RedState has previously covered, the people leading the CRT charge have direct connections to top members of the Department of Education, and the movement is on to create radical leftist ideologues out of your children.

Brandon Morse

Senior Editor. Culture critic, and video creator. Good at bad photoshops.

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5 Things I Learned Debating the Harvard Prof Who Called for a ‘Presumptive Ban’ on Homeschooling | The Libertarian Institute

Posted by M. C. on June 28, 2020

https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/5-things-i-learned-debating-the-harvard-prof-who-called-for-a-presumptive-ban-on-homeschooling/

by | Jun 21, 2020

 

It’s not just about homeschooling.

On Monday, I debated the Harvard professor who proposes a “presumptive ban” on homeschooling. Thousands of viewers tuned in to watch the live, online discussion hosted by the Cato Institute. With 1,000 submitted audience questions, the 90-minute webinar only scratched the surface of the issue about who is presumed to know what is best for children: parents or the state. Here is the replay link in case you missed it.

Last week, I outlined much of my argument against Harvard Law School professor Elizabeth Bartholet that I incorporated into our debate, but here are five takeaways from Monday’s discussion:

While this event was framed as a discussion about homeschooling, including whether and how to regulate the practice, it is clear that homeschooling is just a strawman. The real issue focuses on the role of government in people’s lives, and in particular in the lives of families and children. In her 80-page Arizona Law Review article that sparked this controversy, Professor Bartholet makes it clear that she is seeking a reinterpretation of the US Constitution, which she calls “outdated and inadequate,” to move from its existing focus on negative rights, or individuals being free from state intervention, to positive rights where the state takes a much more active role in citizens’ lives.

During Monday’s discussion, Professor Bartholet explained that “some parents can’t be trusted to not abuse and neglect their children,” and that is why “kids are going to be way better off if both parent and state are involved.” She said her argument focuses on “the state having the right to assert the rights of the child to both education and protection.” Finally, Professor Bartholet said that it’s important to “have the state have some say in protecting children and in trying to raise them so that the children have a decent chance at a future and also are likely to participate in some positive, meaningful ways in the larger society.”

It’s true that the state has a role in protecting children from harm, but does it really have a role in “trying to raise them”? And if the state does have a role in raising children to be competent adults, then the fact that two-thirds of US schoolchildren are not reading proficiently, and more than three-quarters are not proficient in civics, should cause us to be skeptical about the state’s ability to ensure competence.

I made the point on Monday that we already have an established government system to protect children from abuse and neglect. The mission of Child Protective Services (CPS) is to investigate suspected child abuse and punish perpetrators. CPS is plagued with problems and must be dramatically reformed, but the key is to improve the current government system meant to protect children rather than singling out homeschoolers for additional regulation and government oversight. This is particularly true when there is no compelling evidence that homeschooling parents are more likely to abuse their children than non-homeschooling parents, and some research to suggest that homeschooling parents are actually less likely to abuse their children.

Additionally, and perhaps most disturbingly, this argument for more state involvement in the lives of homeschoolers ignores the fact that children are routinely abused in government schools by government educators, as well as by school peers. If the government can’t even protect children enrolled in its own heavily regulated and surveilled schools, then how can it possibly argue for the right to regulate and monitor those families who opt out?

Of all the recommendations included in the Harvard professor’s proposed presumptive ban on homeschooling, the one that caused the most uproar among both homeschoolers and libertarians was the call for regular home visits of homeschooling families, with no evidence of wrongdoing.

In my remarks during Monday’s debate, I included a quote from a Hispanic homeschooling mother in Connecticut who was particularly angry and concerned about imposing home visits on homeschooling families. (According to federal data, Hispanics make up about one-quarter of the overall US homeschooling population, mirroring their representation in the general US K-12 school-age population.) She made the important point that minority families are increasingly choosing homeschooling to escape discrimination and an inadequate academic environment in local schools. She also pointed out that, tragically, it is often minorities who are most seriously impacted by these seemingly well-meaning government regulations. Writing to me about Professor Bartholet’s recommendation, she said:

“To state that they want to have surveillance into our homes by having government officials visit, and have parents show proof of their qualified experience to be a parent to their own child is yet another way for local and federal government to do what they have done to native Americans, blacks, the Japanese, Hispanics, etc in the past. Her proposal would once again interfere and hinder a certain population from progressing forward.”

Anyone who cares about liberty and a restrained government should be deeply troubled by the idea of periodic home visits by government agents on law-abiding citizens.

Despite the landmark 1925 US Supreme Court decision that ruled it unconstitutional to ban private schools, there remains lingering support for limiting or abolishing private education and forcing all children to attend government schools. Homeschooling is just one form of private education.

In her law review article, Professor Bartholet recommends “private school reform,” suggesting that private schools may have similar issues to homeschooling but saying that this topic is “beyond the scope” of her article. Still, she concludes her article by stating that “to the degree public schools are seriously deficient, our society should work on improving them, rather than simply allowing some parents to escape.”

The government should work to improve its own schools, where academic deficiencies and abuse are pervasive. But it should have no role in deciding whether or not parents are allowed to escape.

Some advocates of homeschooling regulation suggest that requiring regular standardized testing of homeschoolers would be a reasonable compromise. In her law review article, Professor Bartholet recommends: “Testing of homeschoolers on a regular basis, at least annually, to assess educational progress, with tests selected and administered by public school authorities; permission to continue homeschooling conditioned on adequate performance, with low scores triggering an order to enroll in school.”

During Monday’s debate, I asked the question: By whose standard are we judging homeschoolers’ academic performance? Is it by the standard of the government schools, where so many children are failing to meet the very academic standards the government has created? I pointed out that many parents choose homeschooling because they disapprove of the standards set by government schools. For example, in recent years schools have pushed literacy expectations to younger and younger children, with kindergarteners now being required to read. If they fail to meet this arbitrary standard, many children are labeled with a reading deficiency when it could just be that they are not yet developmentally ready to read.

Indeed, as The New York Times reported in 2015: “Once mainly concentrated among religious families as well as parents who wanted to release their children from the strictures of traditional classrooms, home schooling is now attracting parents who want to escape the testing and curriculums that have come along with the Common Core, new academic standards that have been adopted by more than 40 states.”

A key benefit of homeschooling is avoiding standardization in learning and allowing for a much more individualized education. And it seems to be working. Most of the research on homeschooling families conducted over the past several decades, including a recent literature review by Dr. Lindsey Burke of the Heritage Foundation, finds positive academic outcomes of homeschooling children.

There are very few movements today that bring together such a diverse group of people as homeschooling does. Families of all political persuasions, from all corners of the country, reflecting many different races, ethnicities, classes, cultures, values, and ideologies, and representing a multitude of different learning philosophies and approaches choose homeschooling for the educational freedom and flexibility it provides. Homeschoolers may not agree on much, but preserving the freedom to raise and educate their children as they choose is a unifying priority. In times of division, homeschoolers offer hope and optimism that liberty will prevail.

Reprinted from FEE.

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