443 | The Indoctrination Race and Old School Homeschooling (Jennifer Cabrera)
Show Notes:
Don't let anyone shame you for sheltering your kids. The true argument is not about creating open minds, but about who gets to them first. This episode is about why Old School Homeschooling is the best way to ensure continued homeschool freedom for truth and reason!
About Jennifer
Jennifer Cabrera, the Hifalutin Homeschooler, is the writer of homeschool truth, humor, and inspiration. Jennifer lives in Salado, Texas with her husband and three brilliant boys. She is a licensed Physician Assistant/MPH, but set aside that career for her ultimate life's work. She is also the author of Socialize Like a Homeschooler: A Humorous Homeschool Handbook and Revolting Writing, a hilarious writing, vocabulary, and illustration journal for reluctant writers. She is a featured speaker with Great Homeschool Conventions and her memes and witty insights are widely shared on social media.
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Show Transcript:
Jennifer Cabrera Hello and welcome to another Hifalutin Homeschooler episode of The Homeschool Solutions Show. My name is Jennifer Cabrera and I am one of many hosts here on the podcast. Each week, we bring you an encouraging conversation, inspiration, tips, tricks, and or humor from this busy and blessed journey of educating our children at home.
Now, while the title of the show is Homeschool Solutions, we do not pretend to have the answer to every question related to homeschooling, but we do hope to keep it real through lessons we've learned and urge you toward Jesus Christ and prayer with him as the greatest parent-teacher conference available.
Here's a riddle for you, parents. Homeschoolers love them. Enemies of freedom, hate them. What are they? It's the Tuttle Twins books. With millions of copies sold, the Tuttle Twins help you teach your kids about entrepreneurship, personal responsibility, the golden rule, and more. Get a discounted set of books with free workbooks today at tuttletwins.com/homeschool. That's T-U-T-T-L-Etwins.com/homeschool. And now on to today's show.
The indoctrination race. Our biggest critics say homeschoolers are sheltering their kids. Don't feel embarrassed or guilty when someone accuses you of this, please. The people that are angry about parents being the primary influence in a child's life, they're not worried kids won't be allowed to decide their worldview and social beliefs for themselves. No, they know kids are a blank slate. Naive and easily confused. And it's all about who gets to them first. It's a race of corruption versus truth and reason. We only get a few years to provide our kids with a safe green house for growth and preparation, to become firmly planted and guided by the roots of a loving family. We know better than to turn our kids out defenseless and naive in a cruel, unstable world. And so, as politically incorrect as it may be to say the following, I'm going to say it anyway: don't squander the directive to indoctrinate your kids before someone else does it for you. Train them up in the way they should go. Teach them diligently. Talk to your kids about everything. A child will often form the opinion of those people willing to talk with them about sensitive subjects and a blank slate is easy prey for a corrupt world to ride upon.
And for the love of second breakfast, teach your kids the truth about the greatest advantage of homeschooling, which is socialization. What the critics say about homeschooling is gaslighting when it comes to socialization. They say things like, "Homeschooled kids who interact with their parents and others in the community through daily life, activities, needs, and interests, well, they don't get the real world experience and socialization they need. You know, like the other kids get in the controlled environment of same aged peers sequestered together all day, every day in real school." I mean, try and make it make sense. You can't. Clown world. And this is why homeschooled kids sometimes step back and watch with bewilderment the pack like behaviors of groups of same aged kids before them, and then they're labeled unsocialized when they refuse to join in. It's the critic's only defense against the success of homeschoolers these days, because to socialize like a homeschooler is to meaningfully interact as an individual or as a family within your community. Not forced despite your values, beliefs, and goals, but naturally because of them.
If it takes a village to raise your child, it should be a village of your own choosing. And this truly real world socialization gives homeschooled kids a different perspective of coolness and self-awareness, without feeling that they must conform. As many of you know, I've recently graduated two homeschoolers about a year ago who were off at college, and I asked my two grads how they feel about their homeschool socialization since they've been off at college, and they said they sometimes feel outside the group in situations where they witnessed copycat behaviors. They're amused at the cloned hairstyles, clothes, and the lingo that's repeated. And yes, they have picked up on some of it. Though they prefer to be, they say being your own person can be alienating at times, and they feel weird about it as younger students on campus, and they're learning to deal and find their people, but they feel sorry for the kids that find out that they were homeschooled and then try to impress or intimidate or embarrass them with their tales of rebellion and bragging about sex, drugs, and alcohol.
So I asked my grads, "Be honest. Tell me, what does constitute a cool college kid in their eyes?" And their responses were... Well, I'm going to sum this up. Obviously, it wasn't their real words or the arguments that might have ensued between these things, because let's get real, I don't want to paint a fantastical portrait of my absolutely perfect homeschool grads, but suffice to say, this was their reply, "The ones who just seemed to walk confidently but are friendly to everyone. You know those students are cool that are hardworking, witty, funny, but they never bully and they're not making fun of others. They're respectful and helpful to others, and especially respectful and helpful to the adults and professors on campus, and even to themselves in the way that they dress and the way that they present themselves and carry themselves. Those students that are humble but accomplished and determined, independent but easy to talk to, not afraid to walk away from or disagree with the pack when necessary." And wow, when they were finished explaining what they thought was cool, I was humbled and I thought, wow, that's how we should all aim to be. And I hope that they strive to continue to be like those people that they see and assume are cool and have it all together, which deep down, we parents who have kids at college know that none of them have it all together, and the ones that are confident in the way they carry themselves are still calling their parents at night with hard days and need of encouragement and how to microwave something without blowing it up.
Those kind of things are still happening, but it's good to hear that the homeschoolers out there, at least the two that I know, and a few of their friends that I've spoken with, have taken that homeschool socialization with them into college life, work life, and really have tried to hold on to those values of what cool really means. So monopolize on the perks to socialize like a homeschooler and just laugh when someone asks about socialization. The argument is finished. We've already won. And don't throw it, punch them or anything because Jesus loves them too. We can't make our critics acknowledge what they clearly see in our homeschool students, but we can ensure our ability to continue to socialize on our own terms if we embrace the need to continue to old school homeschool.
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So let's go there next — it is a treasured right to homeschool. Old school homeschool is what we need to aim for, which is a term that I made up to highlight real home schooling before the name was hijacked by remote learning in 2020. To old school homeschool is to cut the cord of government institutions and homeschool for real. To gather your own supplies, plans, or private group courses and set your own heading for an independent family adventure. To create personalized plans for each of your kids' education and socialize naturally along the journey. Old school homeschooling means you and your kids are in control of their education, which is equally amazing and horrifying at first, I know. In an ocean of possibilities, personal accountability feels more like freefalling than freedom. There is no one to blame if you mess up. However, it also means there is no one you must wait on to fix the problem. Schools make mistakes all the time and many go uncorrected at the expense of individual students. Or all of them.
Now recently, the headlines from Scientific America, which is the magazine, went buzzing around social media. Written by the editors of the magazine themselves, it says, "Children deserve uniform standards in homeschooling." The byline said, "With few states tracking who is being homeschooled and what they are learning, an untold number of U.S. children are at risk of a poor education or even abuse. They are calling for the regulating and tracking of homeschoolers with basic standards for safety and quality of education." It goes on to highlight the need for parents to undergo background checks to teach their own kids. That's funny. Not background checks for them to live with these suspicious parents from birth through adulthood, just for parents who want to educate on their own terms. The article also stated that, "Education is a basic human right," but it doesn't mention educating or parenting your own kids as a right. Well, they basically said the quiet part out loud in the article, "We're worried you will teach them the worldview we don't want them to have."
The article throws out slanderous allegations of Nazi empathizing and slavery denial against homeschoolers in general, to unfairly alarm and pit readers against homeschooling without the "proper surveillance". Well, they misspelled government control and approved programming. Now, I'm not going to sit here and speak into this microphone and pretend everyone claiming to homeschool is doing a good job. Lord knows lazy and deadbeat parents hide all kinds of neglect behind the cover of homeschooling. I've personally met homeschoolers who give homeschooling a bad image, even though I know they love their kids deep down. But not a day goes by that somewhere in this country, multiple articles don't come out showing the sad mass scale failures, neglect, abuses, and unenforced standards of the public education industry built with a multi-billion dollars worth of oversight and regulations. That's not working. There is no perfect, foolproof solution for education in this fallen world. But I do know that God instructed us to teach our own children, not hand them over to the government. So if you're going to ruin a child, you might as well keep them home and do it yourself.
There are hundreds of ways to homeschool effectively. Each family should decide, but if we agree on nothing else, we must stand as one against government intrusion into our family life and educational decisions. The freedom to homeschool privately is lost if standards and oversights are allowed to creep in. If they can't get laws from scare tactics and allegations of abuse and neglect, they will try another way and currently are in many areas. Many in politics want homeschooling to be labeled as a school choice, and a lot of new homeschool parents do as well. School choice funds would follow the student, but as bad as we all could use that extra cash, it will be the bait that welcomes the government in as superintendent of the family. And it's already been welcomed in in several states.
But homeschooling is not a school choice. It is education seamlessly built into family life. It's a complete embrace of parenting. Money for supplies, field trips, courses and resources sounds delicious. Believe me, I know. It'll all start out optional. You'll have to register for it, though. And as the signup list grows, so does the government office running it. And when it gets big enough, all homeschoolers will need to register and accept or decline those funds. Funds that can only be used for a list of acceptable curriculum and activities. Again, sounds fine right? You'll just use your own money for the things that aren't approved on the list. But declining the funds can send up red flags for those that don't want it, and suddenly, they're getting home monthly visits to find out why they don't want the funding. Slippery slopes do exist. It's evident all around us. Be wary. The system will never put your kids' individual needs above those of the systems and the current factory education agenda. More and more parents are seeing this playing out and leaving the system to reclaim their rights and responsibility as parents, realizing that kids are not pets to be boarded and trained without their input and often against their values. We all need to urge new homeschoolers and remind ourselves to remain old school homeschoolers.
Our freedom is the ultimate homeschool advantage. Ignore the bait and fight to keep government tendrils out so that we can continue to steer our own ships without propaganda and agendas from whoever's in office, taking away the homeschool rights that we have. Yes, you will make mistakes. We all do and can correct them easier without Big Brother on our backs. Just like steering a ship through an ever changing sea, when we adjust and continue sailing on with resolve and faith, we teach our kids to do the same while helping to secure this perk of homeschooling for future generations. We already had a choice to homeschool. Homeschooling is not a school choice. It is a way of life for your family as Americans, and with the freedom to be your own individual family without some government agency overseeing you. Don't squander this for very small reward at the expense of huge losses of freedom with the oversight that will sneak in when the wrong person gets in office.
So explain this to your new homeschool friends that are just joining us in this freedom. Explain to them that homeschooling is old school homeschooling when we're bold enough to allow God to help us steer our own ship without reaching for oversights because of intimidation (which, by the way, I talked about in another of these episodes you can find on homeschooling.mom). But encourage them not to lose sight of why they decided to homeschool: to get out from under someone else's idea of how their family life and education should be run, and what goals should be set for their children instead of what plan God has for each of our families individually. Be bold, be courageous, stay weird and homeschool on.
Thank you for joining me here on the Homeschool Solutions Show again. You can find show notes and links to all the resources mentioned at homeschooling.mom. Don't forget to check out my friends at Medi-Share for healthcare you can trust. To learn more about why over 400,000 Christians have chosen Medi-share, go to greathomeschoolconventions.com/medishare.
Now, if you haven't already, please subscribe to the podcast, and while you are there, leave us a review. Tell us what you love about the show, and this will help other homeschooling parents like you get connected with our community. Also, you can find us on Instagram @HomeschoolingDotMom and on Facebook at Homeschooling.mom. So let us know what you thought of today's episode. Leave us a comment. Let us know what you think.
Lastly, have you joined us at one of the Great Homeschool Conventions? The Great Homeschool Conventions are the homeschooling event of the year offering outstanding speakers, hundreds of workshops covering today's top parenting and homeschooling topics and the largest homeschool curriculum exhibit hall in the United States. Find out more at greathomeschoolconventions.com. I hope to see you in Texas.
Also, if you'd like to connect with me, you can find me at Facebook at Hifalutin Homeschooler and on Instagram @hifalutinhomeschooler. That's H-I-F-A-L-U-T-I-N Homeschooler. Also, you can email me directly with any questions, concerns, anecdotes. I love to hear stories from other homeschoolers. That's [email protected]. Until next time, stay weird and homeschool on.
