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Countries around the world are ignoring the media’s fearmongering and starting to reopen their schools. This is a positive development which shows that the Coronavirus’s psychic-grip on the population is gradually loosening. Once again, people are asserting control over their own lives and those of their children which is why reopening the schools has become a top priority.
Covid-19 poses little or no risk to children. They don’t get sick and they don’t die. If they contract the infection, they usually remain asymptomatic and, crucially, they do not pass it along to others. Most of what you have heard or read about Covid and children is disinformation disseminated by a corrupt and despicable media that is forever fueling public hysteria. The mainstream media is spearheading the war against the American people so, naturally, they have perpetuated the illusion that school poses a threat to our children’s health and safety. It does not. Attending school is safe and schools should be open. Check out this clip from an article at the National Review:
“Kari Stefansson, CEO of the Icelandic company deCODE genetics in Reykjavík, studied the spread of COVID-19 in Iceland with Iceland’s Directorate of Health and the National University Hospital. His project has tested 36,500 people; as of this writing:
Children under 10 are less likely to get infected than adults and if they get infected, they are less likely to get seriously ill.
What is interesting is that even if children do get infected, they are less likely to transmit the disease to others than adults. We have not found a single instance of a child infecting parents.” (“Icelandic Study: ‘We Have Not Found a Single Instance of a Child Infecting Parents.’“, National Review)
That sums it up perfectly. Now compare the Icelandic Report to the comments of Washington Post columnist Jonathan Capehart who appeared on Friday’s PBS News Hour with Judy Woodruff:
Judy Woodruff: “Jonathan… the president is now criticizing Dr. Fauci. And he’s insisting the schools open. He’s threatening to withhold federal money from the schools.”
Jonathan Capehart: “Yes, which, when you have a global pandemic that is spiking all over the country in most of the states, and then you have the president of the United States, who, as David was saying, is not following his own guidelines for helping to keep the pandemic in check, the idea that we are talking about opening schools and forcing schools to open, when there’s no national strategy, no vaccine, and 50 different ways of going about trying to tamp down the pandemic, strikes me — and I’m not a parent.
And I understand that parents are concerned about their children’s education. But sending children to schools in the middle of a pandemic with no national strategy, I think, is worrisome.” (“David Brooks and Jonathan Capehart on Trump’s school pressure, Biden’s economic plan“, PBS News Hour)
Capehart’s comments are part of an MSM script that is designed to spread disinformation and fear that school reopenings pose a threat to the safety of children. It is a deliberate attack of one of society’s primary institutions, an institution that not only educates and socializes our children but also provides the opportunity for both parents to join the workforce to maintain their standard of living. Capehart’s comments are not grounded in fact or science, but politics. They are intended to prolong critical parts of the lockdown in order to intensify public anxiety and, thus, undermine Donald Trump’s reelection prospects. Surprisingly, Capehart’s comments contrast dramatically from a report in his own newspaper (the Washington Post) that recently published a lengthy report on the same topic titled “Reopened schools in Europe and Asia have largely avoided coronavirus outbreaks. They have lessons for the U.S.” Here’s an excerpt:
“Public health officials and researchers say they have not detected much coronavirus transmission among students or significant spikes in community spread as a result of schools being in session...
In Finland, when public health researchers combed through test results of children under 16, they found no evidence of school spread and no change in the rate of infection for that age cohort after schools closed in March or reopened in May. In fact, Finland’s infection rate among children was similar to Sweden’s, even though Sweden never closed its schools, according to a report published Tuesday by researchers from the two countries…
“It really starts to add up to the fact that the risk of transmission, the number of outbreaks in which the index is a child, is very low, and this seems to be the picture everywhere else,” said Otto Helve, who worked on the report as a pediatric infectious-disease specialist at the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare. He said he sent his own children back to school.
“The scientific evidence for the effects of closing schools is weak and disputed,” said Camilla Stoltenberg, director general of the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, which has advised Norway’s pandemic response. She said that although she supported her country’s March lockdown, it was less clear that Norway needed to close schools. “We should all have second thoughts about whether it was really necessary,” she said. “We see now that, after having opened schools, we haven’t had any outbreaks.” (“Reopened schools in Europe and Asia have largely avoided coronavirus outbreaks. They have lessons for the U.S.”, Washington Post)
It’s clear now that closing the primary schools was a terrible mistake for which our children will pay dearly for years to come. Children need a secure environment with a responsible and engaged adult in order to meet their basic developmental needs. Online teaching is no substitute, in fact, a third of students never even log in to attend their daily online classes.
Distance learning is not learning, it’s a scam aimed at destroying public education and creating a dumbed-down workforce incapable of doing anything beyond flipping burgers or mowing lawns. Not surprisingly, it’s mostly Democrats that oppose the reopening the schools because they see it as another stick for beating Trump. Even so, Trump can claim the moral high-ground on this issue because he has been particularly straightforward and unwavering in his approach. Here’s Trump on Twitter last week:
“Corrupt Joe Biden and the Democrats don’t want to open schools in the Fall for political reasons, not for health reasons! They think it will help them in November. Wrong, the people get it!
Trump is right, in fact, even Doctor Anthony Fauci admitted as much in a heated exchange he had with Senator Rand Paul last month on Capitol Hill. Here’s what Fauci said:
“I feel very strongly we need to do whatever we can to get the children back to school. I think we are in complete agreement on that.”
In-home learning generates feelings of depression, anxiety and alienation. It is not a substitute for person-to-person direct education. Also, there’s been a significant rise in sexual and physical abuse in the last three months that will likely decrease when school resumes and things return to normal. We also should not underestimate the impact of friendship and personal interaction on the mental health of young people who need to be around other children their own age. The lockdowns have robbed the children of that essential experience. Here’s an excerpt from an opinion piece by Australian Government’s Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Nick Coatsworth, who arrived at the same conclusion as virtually all the leaders in the EU:
“COVID-19 is not the flu. Far fewer children are affected by COVID-19, and the number of transmissions from children to children and children to adults is far less.
Some have said the evidence on this is not clear. In any health debate, evidence can be cherry-picked to support a particular view. As an infectious diseases specialist, I have examined all of the available evidence from within Australia and around the world and, as it stands, it does not support avoiding classroom learning as a means to control COVID-19.
The national position remains that face-to-face teaching is safe, particularly given the current very low rates of community transmission of SARS-CoV-2.” (“Getting our kids back to school – a matter of trust”, Department of Health, Australian Government)
Finally, there’s this from CDC Director Robert Redfield:
“The CDC encourages all schools to do whatever they need to reopen. Nothing would cause me greater sadness than to see any school or school district use our guidance as a reason not to reopen.
I think it’s worth noting that the CDC never recommended general school closure throughout this pandemic…I’m not critical of it. I’m just saying that from a public health point of view, we didn’t see that schools needed to be closed.” (“DeVos blasts school districts that hesitate at reopening”, Politico)
There it is in black and white: Open the schools now. Full Stop.
Along with the media, Trump is opposed by leaders in the teachers unions and the PTA which claimed that the Trump has “zero credibility in the minds of educators and parents when it comes to this major decision.” But Trump is right and the experts have admitted he’s right, the schools must reopen and they must reopen ASAP.
The results in Europe and elsewhere show there’s no need for distancing guidelines, limits on class size or any of the other ridiculous safety measures that protect no one from anything. The children are not at risk and they don’t pass the infection along to others. The whole thing is a hoax concocted by scheming political opportunists to attack Trump and spread mayhem across the country.
There’s a special place in hell for people who use kids to advance their own self-serving political agenda.
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Pelosi today said Trump is “messing with the health of our children” with his push to reopen the schools.
Nothing works better in the fear mongering political textbook than to invoke the tried and true “something’s going happen to THE CHILDREN!”.
And public schools with their overpaid education majors and hordes of minorities are secure? A child’s own home and parents are not more secure than a government education camp?
Self directed learning is much superior to lectures that do more to put kids to sleep than anything else. What are those kids who are not logging in doing in the physical classroom? I doubt they are learning anything there and are distracting the kids who do want to learn.
A false assertion and a lie that needs to be true. Public education is the scam and all property owners are forced at the point of a gun to pay for it.
Exactly what public schools are currently doing with their Prussian model based on creating obedient cannon fodder and factory drones.
Public schools that re-open this fall will be spending most of their time attacking White Americans and promoting “1619” and BLM. No thanks. Shut them all down, salt the earth on which they stand and force the “teachers” and administrators to find honest work. I doubt any of them would even be qualified to flip burgers and mowing laws is hard work so that leaves most public employees out.
I favor reopening schools for all the reasons cited. However, the political argument that the entire COVID 19 debacle can be framed within a U.S. centered partisan politics division about an upcoming election is myopic and misguided. It’s much larger than that.
The U.S. is under attack, and the enemy is not just Russia, China, Iran or the “democrats”. The enemy is a consortium of global corporations (and their various governmental partners) who wish to destroy the American concept of individual liberty and freedom, and replace it with a form of totalitarian transhumanist collectivism.
Trump, Bannon, and the various populist / nationalist figureheads who resist further consolidation under the order of global techno-fascism are definite obstacles for the “Davos Corporatists”, but countries are not the only KINGS on today’s chessboard. Financialization and the fiat dollar have made new KINGS (trillionaires) of generational wealth dynasties, as well as China.
https://roacheforque.blogspot.com/2020/07/the-transhumanist-dystopia.html
Yep, got to get dem kids to back to their “education” [i.e. ritualized brainwashing] day care centers, quick, before they all start to unlearn some of that brainwashing [via homeschooling] and, heavens above, start to actually think for themselves! Can’t have that now, can we? So come on kids, its time for y’all to git back to your local friendly government indoctrination center, pronto!, and fergit all the new interesting stuff you learned while out of school [such as, in the real world outside of government schools, 2+2 actually = 4, there are only 2 sexes, Marxism sucks, etc. etc.].
“Regards” onebornfree
100% agree. Whitney provides a parodic example of the degenerate liberal view that children should be educated by and spend the majority of their waking hours with anyone but their own families b/c credentials.
Contrary to popular belief, Amish oppose public education of their children not mainly on religious grounds but on the grounds that public education takes children away from their families too often and too long.
Is it somehow a mystery that parental influence is less important to modern children than their “peers?”
Agreed.
If the kids don’t log in, the parents have lost control or don’t care.
Sending them to the classroom will not force the kid to log in mentally.
They can’t open the schools because they’re not done “reorganizing” the curriculum yet. Common Core is already building units around Robin DiAngelo’s “White Fragility”. That takes time if you get a bunch of blacks together in a room and try to develop or innovate a lesson. Be patient! Your kids will be taught to hate you soon enough.
Why is it so important that schools reopen? At this point actual sodomy would be less gay than public education.
How ’bout: “Stop Fu**Ing Around and Close All the G**Damn Government-Run Schools PLUS The Dept. of Education! NOW “, instead?
The Marxist/woke/ Black lives matter riots and statue destructs nationwide are a DIRECT RESULT OF YOUR SACRED COW, GOVERNMENT-RUN “EDUCATION” [ ie Marxist indoctrination] that all you suckers paid for , and apparently want even more of.
If you think the recent “woke” riots were bad, be warned, you ain’t seen nothing yet, suckers! The useful idiots are just getting warmed up! Enjoy!
“Regards, onebornfree.
Little children are easily and totally brainwashed and indoctrinated by face-to-face teaching. It is totally unnatural and totally impossible to doubt what the big person is saying.
And it goes way beyond Santa Claus and the tooth fairy. It’s why the Jews and the Roman “Catholic” Church have their own elementary schools.
So, though propaganda on TV is deceiving adults, kids might actually do much better with electronic learning than with face to face teaching. Their parents can pass on their culture, the kids can study the rest from a distance.
And a new and great peril arrived with the introduction of sex education in schools, which coincided with the sudden rise of an invincible homosexual lobby, which before then had not existed. Leave it to the parents.
ooooh, I must respectfully disagree with you on that Meester Wheetney. Multiple factors must be considered, obviously, but for many children distance learning / e-learning is more beneficial.
The students (I almost wrote ‘learners’) who need to be at public schools in the Jew.S.A. are the ones will end up flipping burgers or mowing lawns in any case.
I strongly agree that there’s more to this fake plague than US partisan politics. But where I differ is on the idea that Trump is actually fighting the globalists. Often times, he comes across as a covert globalist, saying one thing to the masses while quietly doing something very different at the level of actual policy.
On the subject of the Corona-hoax, what he’s done is announce that we’re defunding the WHO, which would be good, while stealthily giving that money to GAVI–Bill Gate’s vaccine alliance, which also happens to be a major donor to the WHO:
And he also signed off on ‘Operation Warp Speed‘:
That’s even faster than Bill Gates demanded! Yet it’s still not fast enough to prevent the specter of mail-in elections in November. Oh: and this will aparently involve the military:
Now I know all the Qanons will insist that this is simply more ‘500D chess,’ and that Trump is just ‘keeping his friends close and his enemies closer,’ and all the other usual clichées. But isn’t that the exact opposite of what we would want from an anti-globalist?
I can’t say this better than Chris Mallory and a few others on the thread already. However, let me put it differently:
Your premise, Mr. Whitney, that this Infotainment Panic-Fest, now in its 2nd season, is totalitarian government bullshit, is right on the money. Yes, the talking dickheads on TV, the purported experts such as Fauci, etc. are in the wrong and should not be listened to. However, the government schools are nothing but propaganda camps these days. Kids and parents (who, if they are decent and not lazy) have to spend lots of effort to counteract the propaganda, are better off staying out of these schools.
I am not being accelerationist on this, by any mean, though that’s what this sounds like at first. No, I see the closing of grade schools as a silver lining inside this ridiculous economy-crashing, Big-Biz,Big-Gov effort at shutting down any more independence of the American people. It’s time for the Conservative side to “not let a “crisis” go to waste”, for one time.
If American parents weren’t so lazy (some of them) or lacking in independent thinking (more of them) this would be a great time to seriously ramp up homeschooling or small independent school efforts. As Peak Stupidity noted, homeschooling is akin to poking the Beast in the eye with a big stick. See also Part 2 and Part 3.
Sorry, Mike, I agree completely with your whole take on the problem, but not at all with the solution, which is your title, in fact. Let’s take some advantage of this for a change, Americans!
• Fuckin’ A!: Achmed E.Newman
Education is usually overrated. Syllabi etc are changed every couple years. But nothing changes. Funding is argued 24/7 but nothing changes. Education administrators are THE pissant-ist people on the earth.
If kids were committed to learning the school day need be but 4 hours long.
What % of kids are basically unsuited for a school-based education? And who then go ahead for 10 years to fuck up school for everyone else?
Unlike Mike, I can live with kids at home. (qualification — those in the last couple of years of high school are a special problem. Perhaps school would be better for them….)
Most countries of the world don’t have the hubris to conjure up money out of thin air or from the Magic Money Tree to endlessly fund total lockdowns.
Or not. Look at all the student loans which they will avoid incurring for University.
I’m sure there are plenty of responsible parents who will stay at home and engage in their childrens’ education, sans indoctrination of Statist and SJW religion. And don’t kid me about helping the underprivileged … I went to an inner city school, and very few around me had the slightest inclination to better themselves by schooling; and I was not inspired by a teacher, rather by the example of hard working adults I met in my everyday life outside of public schools. If anything, public schools are motivation and healthy-development killers.
Free education for all children in government schools is the tenth plank to the communist manifesto.
☮
How many children have you, Ann?
Most CEOs don’t even know what transhumanism is. Doubt you do either.
China’s much more of a nation state than America, and Chinese corporations are less likely to censor you than American ones.
Many of the parents are far too stupid to be trusted.
I send my child to a small Christian school. Right around 200 students for the whole school k-12.
This school usually beats 95% of all other schools in the state on the ACT. Tuition is $5000, the public schools spend about $12,5000 per student. The number of NAM students can be counted on one hand. Any student that causes more than a set number of disciplinary issues a school year is asked to leave and the parent does not get a refund. In her 10 years at the school, there have only been 4 students asked to leave. 3 of those were transfers from public high schools who did not like having actual discipline. The 4th was in 3rd grade at the time and smacked a fellow student in the head with a pair of shoes. Every teacher my child had in k-5 gave us their home phone number and told us to call if we had any concerns. School administration knows every child and parent by name and sight.
Last year, the public high school had a string of sex scandals involving both students and staff. The Fishing coach just committed suicide by cop the day before he was to be sentenced in one of those cases.
During the last 3 months of the school year, she did do online classes. She learned just as much as she did in the physical school. I try to teach her something every day. Basic carpentry, cooking, shooting and firearm safety, how to change the oil in the lawn mower, how to balance a checkbook. Skills every adult should have. She planted a garden this summer, on her own initiative and using only her own labor.
I have made a lot of mistakes in my life. But I have trained up a pretty good kid. I wouldn’t let the government train my dog, why would I let them have my child?
I had no idea public education was such a controversial issue….
That might sound like I’ve been living under a rock, but I am paying attention to the comments here
and I appreciate the input…
You’re blessed to have a bright kid. Being bright, she is able to learn through a variety of methods. She may not need much teacher guidance.
Not so many parents are so blessed. Their children need repetition and a lot of supervision to grasp and master concepts. James Thompson discusses that here:
https://www.unz.com/jthompson/the-7-tribes-of-intellect/
Like it or not, public schools are for the public at large. Most kids need the classroom to really learn well. Many parents need the classroom in order to be able to work and earn a living to support their average children.
Some of us can’t afford the $5k tuition for a private school education. Some of us don’t feel qualified to home school. Some of us don’t want to home school, for a variety of good reasons. All our tax dollars support public schools as a public good and we need those schools to re-open – desperately, TBH.
Mike, yes we did hit you pretty hard. But for those of use with kids, raising them right is the most important thing we do. I want only the best for my daughter. I drive 20 year old cars and don’t take vacations so I can afford to send my child to the school she attends.
I suggest that you read some of the works of John Taylor Gatto. He passed away back in 2018. Some of his specifics might be dated, but his critiques of public education are still true. At one time he was the New York State Teacher of the Year and the New York City Teacher of the Year for 3 straight years.
This quote was taken from Gatto’s wiki page:
“Wade A. Carpenter, associate professor of education at Berry College, has called his (Gatto’s) books “scathing” and “one-sided and hyperbolic, [but] not inaccurate” and describes himself as in agreement with Gatto.”
Not trying to insult or belittle you, but it all comes down to choices. Do you drive the new car or do you pay tuition? Do you have the Apple phone or do you pay tuition. My wife and I are at right about 200% of the Federal poverty line. But we make sure that tuition is paid.
One reason you can’t pay it is because the state would rather spend three times the amount to force your child into an inferior product that the state and the teacher’s union controls.
Yes, I know I have a bright child. My IQ is in the 97%. My wife’s is in the 93%. The last time my daughter was tested she was in the 95%. She is worth more than a “public school”. Raising her to be a good woman and protecting her from the dangers of the world are my sole reason for existing. I would walk through fire for her.
Thank you for that, Mr. Smith. I never took the time to read the ten planks. It’s about time for the Commies in this country to get some planks .. upside their heads.
The world may have over reacted to the Covidia but since I am retired and live on a little farm in Texas I don’t especially give a good dogdangit. Most schools are not going to open for fall, teaching is a union job and the unions aren’t going to go to work in what they perceive to be a hazardous situation. So, no government daycare for a few more months.
Back when schools were still
goodadequate, one didn’t “pay tuition”. One paid for tuition. Just another example of the slide in standards.Uh, Mike…
It’s July.
You know the old saying about how it’s great when the town whore gets religion, but when she’s telling the pastor what to say, you know they’ve gone too far?
Well, it’s great when these “anti-Zionists” discovery the duplicity and hypocrisy of the parentheticals. But we can’t let ourselves forget that they’re not us. Their vision is essentially globalist, deeply at odds with our own.
A lot of Christians have this funny idea that only married, responsible middle class Christians have kids, so of course they can be trusted.
Not to mention the peril of boys with them there long hair!
I think Christians really believe that their religious ideology is the only possible way to fight the homosexual lobby. Secular countries like Russia and Japan which have much more successfully resisted it than America did don’t figure into their worldview because most of them have never traveled outside the country. Nor do they know much about history. They know of two worlds: Red America and Blue America, and even there they don’t know much.
Thanks for that one. ;^)
Chris – am I correct in assuming you only have one child? If so, that makes a tremendous difference. Try having three, all going in different directions, having different interests, different abilities, different values. Then add in the brotherly/sisterly competition and fighting! And for many people, coming up with the tuition fee for three children is just not doable.
An only-child, having the full attention of both parents, often ends up being a third adult. I am glad you are teaching her to be a well-rounded person, though. Sounds like you’re doing a good job.
I just wanted to point out that each child added to the mix does make it that much harder.
While I agree the Conrona virus is way overblown as a way to cover, and hasten the economic collapse. Why anyone would want to hurry their kids back to guvment indoctrination centers is beyond me.
Last night I watched a documentary on the Congo. The plight of one fisherman was part of the program. He has 3 wives and 13 children and then wonders why he can’t make ends meet.
I thought to myself that the culture in some places just makes people so stupid they can’t figure out that having more kids than you can afford is never going to turn out well.
So I have to ask, why do supposedly educated westerners have more kids than they can afford to raise properly?
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/download/pdf/Manifesto.pdf
You’ll find the ten planks on page 26.
America practices all of them.
Be careful if you tell Americans that they’re communists, it makes some of them angry.
☮
We’re speaking about K-12 education. You’ve proposed that the value proposition of private school is self evidently better than that of public school.
My child is bright, too. My income is comparatively high. Because my child is bright, I know she can learn in a public school classroom. Little would prevent her learning. I don’t think the educational quality of private school will materially affect her educational outcome. Private schools still have a bell curve of abilities and my daughter will always be on the rightward tail. Perhaps to a lesser extent in an elite private school, but those can cost $30k/year. That money would be better spent in a college savings plan, probably.
If my kid’s public school was lousy with troublemakers, then my calculus might be different. If the schools began heavy indoctrination of identity issues I might make a change.
Your basic premise is that the quality of k-12 education makes a difference in the future socioeconomic status of your child. Maybe you’d argue that it’s not about socioeconomic status, but something else like being a well rounded, well read citizen. Nevertheless, socioeconomic status is something we can measure. It’s something we can predict in early childhood. The cold truth is that, for bright kids, where they go to school doesn’t make a difference.
I’m not saying you are wasting your money in private tuition. I’m just suggesting that you are not impacting your bright kid’s future socioeconomic status by doing so.
I need the schools to re-open. I need my kid engaged in socializing with kids her age. I need her day to be structured. I need her surrounded by educators of all quality levels who are engaged and interested in her as a student and citizen. I don’t need private school for that. Homeschooling can’t provide that.
Children in this country can not afford to miss one day of school…as bad as it is.
As re countries that stop lockdowns vs. those that extend them ad infinitum, I am sure that there is a direct correlation between their exposure to MSM. The greater the MSM exposure, the more likely the lockdown extension.
R.C.
They are doing fine without it, after missing about 60 days already. It’s the adults, in particular the black thugs and the antifa Commies, that can’t handle being let loose. We’ll be OK without government indoc. Lighten up.
I 100% disagree.
The schools fail in their prime directive (e.g. to provide basic skills).
But more directly to the author’s erroneous point, the schools are breeding grounds for communicable diseases, and they’re low-security juvenile halls, where bullying is the rule and physical assaults are pretty common.
Keeping kids home, for whatever reason — even if it’s alone learning zilch [or playing networked video games with foul-mouthed, screaming strangers] is still less sucky than sending (drafting) them to public schools and thereby ruining them for life.
I’ve been posting anti- public school comments (~20,000 in all) for about 15 years.
As much as I oppose the public school, political imperative of testing, Testing, TESTING, it’s too bad that the numerous, lengthy, school shutdowns (that I love so much) will exempt the schools from testing in 2019-2021.
I’d bet that overall, results of standardized tests, administered to kids whose schools had been closed by CV-19, for periods > 90 days/year, would show no significant difference from the dismal results that those same kids had attained in years when their schools had been open the full, 180 days.
What would have been glorious is had the test scores of such kids actually gone UP.
Even if that Congolese man COULD afford to feed, clothe, house and educate his 13 children, it’s still a stupid, short-sighted thing to do. If it’s a cultural thing to have more than one wife (and I know it’s a practice in some parts of Africa), then he can’t be the only one doing this. You can see why Nigeria’s population is set to eclipse the U.S. population in the not too distant future. That’s just Nigeria.
Apparently Africa will have a population of FOUR BILLION people by the turn of the century. OMG! There aren’t enough fish to feed all of those mouths.
“Why do supposedly educated westerners have more kids than they can afford to raise properly?”
I think most people start off having children when times are good for them, they’ve got decent jobs, reasonable housing costs, etc. Then things happen. Maybe the husband loses his job, maybe the wife gets sick, depressed. And it’s not like there hasn’t been a ton of inflation in everything (even though the government statistics hide this fact): health care, higher education, housing, transportation costs, you name it. The middle class is being crushed and falling behind.
They’ve been sucked into thinking that they must give their children this, that and the other thing, but have lost sight that all their children want is them. Instead of trying to keep up with the Jones, they should cut their losses, get off the treadmill as much as possible, downsize, and get simple. Everybody would be happier.
But nobody should be having more than 2 kids these days, whether they can afford more or not. We live on a finite planet.
We homeschooled > 2.2 kids (close in age).
Our experience was that 4 <= age < 14 needed supervision.
The multi-kid workload increased in linear fashion, but due to experience, routine, and reuse of materials, the rate of increase (slope) flattened.
My kids went to public school, and I’m sitting here trying to think of something good to say about them. I suppose the socialization factor is a positive, but only very slightly. There are a lot of downsides with letting your kids loose in the jungle. If anything, I think the peer pressure decreases their self-esteem/confidence in the end.
And the endless homework, assignments and testing! I spent hours every night helping them. I was like a second teacher and, quite frankly, I was exhausted when they graduated (which wasn’t long ago). Sure, they learned a lot, but it was almost too much! As they are highly creative, it was sometimes a struggle to get them to finish another useless assignment. And it seems that half of their day was spent in some assembly learning the newest politically-correct way to be.
I’m just trying to envision left-of-the-bell-curve parents home-schooling their left-of-the-bell-curve children and wondering how that’s going to turn out. The people who come to this site are intelligent, curious people, no doubt good parents, but not everybody is like that, not even close.
I’ll have to think about it more. Take care.
Public education used to be a great idea when it focused on the basics–teaching kids how to read and do basic math.
Today it is brainwashing–part of the problem rather than part of the solution.
No education is better than mis-education.
If the parents are both away from home trying to work and feed their family, too messed up on drugs or alcohol to work, or a single-parent household with no other source of income than work, the kids aren’t likely to have at least one concerned parent at home to help them benefit from online learning. This article is fairly correct IMHO.
Based on an admittedly small sample set, our conclusion is that for home schools, outcomes do not correlate (positively) with the education level of the parents.
We know some highly educated homeschoolers with f’d-up kids, and poorly educated ones whose kids turned out great.
Sadly, I just learned of the murder of a poor, inner-city, homeschooled young person whose guardian I had become acquainted with (via meetups).
The Guardian-relative did not have much formal education, but was unwilling to risk the boy going to public school and winding up into drugs or gangs, and uneducated (like his non-custodial parents).
When I last saw the kid (several years ago), he was a perfect gentleman.
The schools have the kids for 6+ hours per day @ 180 days, @$20K/kid/yr. Never has so much time and money been spent to accomplish so little.
Congratulations on your being a successful, de facto homeschooler.
Yes, I agree there are so many variables that come into play. Does the child feel safe and secure in the home? Does he feel loved, seen, valuable? Is the child just trying to please, or is the parent living vicariously through the children? Is the child able to truly see his parents and rise above them? What do the parents value?
I like what Einstein said: “It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education.” He was bored in school and wanted to learn what he wanted to learn, but the teachers wanted him to learn only what was on the exam. He said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge.” I agree. That’s what schools knock out of you – imagination, curiosity, creativity.
My children had so much homework. The main reason I helped them was because I wanted them to have creative time, time to follow where their imagination led them, time to think.
“The schools have the kids for 6+ hours per day @ 180 days, @$20K/kid/yr. Never has so much time and money been spent to accomplish so little.”
I thought about it overnight, and reflecting on my education and that of my children, I think you’re right. I know you’re right. Getting children away from the forced indoctrination camp and the peer pressure would probably do a world of good for them. I think they would gain a clearer view of who they are, what they value, and where they’re going.
Imagine if that money, or some of it, was given to parents (one parent was able to stay home). Not only would the children benefit, but the parents would too.
Good talking to you. I’ll continue thinking about it. Sorry to hear about the young gentleman dying. What a shame.
Agreed that self-directed learning is superior. But that only applies to kids who are motivated to learn and can read with comprehension. What happens to the unmotivated majority, and those who can barely read?
My children are grown and have been out of school for years. But I still have a stake in what’s going on because I pay several thousand a year in school property taxes.
From every thing I’ve read, if schools do re-open on time, the kids will be forced to wear masks all day, and there are elaborate plans to ensure social distancing, like putting plexiglass around each desk. It is child abuse to force kids to endure these conditions, and I would refuse to send my kids today. And wouldn’t the teachers, instead of teaching, be spending all day telling Johnny to put his mask on, and enforcing social distancing?
The bottom line is that schools will be coming after property owners for more and more money to pay for these new scams – all unnecessary as kids almost never get sick and die from this overblown plan-demic. More money for poorer results. That’s today’s America. Property owners should band together and refuse to pay their school taxes unless schools get their act together.
That was too good a comment for just an [Agree], FoW. Thank you! I am worried about what’s going to go down when the schools open up. I am worried about how much hell I may raise, actually. This is really getting stupid. As I wrote above, I agree with Mr. Whitney on all his writing about the stupidity of the Kung Flu Infotainment Panic-Fest itself.
Regarding your last part, it’s unfortunate that most property “owners” don’t pay taxes directly, as they are paid out of the escrow accounts (along with insurance, etc), containing the money from their monthly payments. The escrow holders are perfectly glad to pay any amount of money. They’ll write you back at the beginning of the next payment year telling you about the shortfall and why your payments are going up. Most homeowners don’t believe they have any say in all this, even though they can. (I was told I MUST have an escrow account, but I believe now that they were full of it.)
This is the way many taxes are arranged in this country, such as income tax with its withholding plan. They make it hard to fight on these tax issues.
Thanks to both of you, Thomasina and A_P_E, for the great conversation, which hopefully readers can learn from. If only half of the parents in America could go through this kind of thinking and take action, we’d be a hell of a better country soon enough.
https://rall.com/comic/whats-the-difference-between-a-trump-rally-and-a-public-school
It’s unfortunately true that indirections, like tax withholding, can help the government to conceal its tax thefts.
One April 15th I bumped into a neighbor who was all smiles.
“What’s up?”, I asked.
“I didn’t have to pay anything!”
Now I knew that the gal had a regular, full-time job with no unusual tax deductions to speak of. I could guess that she had paid ~$10,000.
“But what was your total bill?”
“Nothing.”
Hmm.
“What are those always-increasing numbers on the bottom of your weekly paystub?”
“I don’t know.”
I kid you not.
It has to true that escrow accounts leave some homeowners clueless about how much they pay in property taxes.
Cancel my [disagree]!
I guess as a whole, Americans are going to get what they deserve. However, the decent, thrifty, thinking, liberty-loving, patriotic Americans will be dragged down with the rest.
(BTW, I don’t care about accumulating “LIKE”s like a 14 y/o girl of Faceboot, but just as a tip on unz, I learned you can go back and change the “response” thingy to another option some time after you have hit the wrong one. You can’t take all responses out, though. I don’t know for how much longer afterward it works like this.)
Property ownersPersons who hold equitable interest in real estate should band together and refuse to pay their school taxes.unless schools get their act together☮
When my idiot lefty friends talk about how opening schools is “dangerous,” I go along with it. I never argue with them. The longer the schools are closed, the closer we get to destroying them completely.
How is it that even the esteemed journalist Mike Whitney- who we admire- can miss the essentials and write a scathing piece without speaking with frontline physicians who have endured official persecution and demonetization
What remains missing are the following points:
the hospital industry and Bpharma collaboration with govt insiders enabled widespread misuse of ventilators and remdesivir, during the official campaign of lockdowns and mandates. All this while a deliberate marginalization of frontline physicians who pushed for primary and early ambulatory care of asymptomatic patients with modestly morbidity
you may NOT write about science and medical issues without noting the obvious dissent such as the AAPSONLINE physicians letter signed by hundreds of practicing physicians printed around march 2020.
you may not ignore the Rome Declaration authored by Dr Robt Malone and Dr Peter McCullough
you may not ignore the Great Barrington Declaration authored by physicians at Stanford and Oxford, endorsed by a long list of frontline physicians
you must ignore the inflammatory rhetoric of Chiropractors voicing their dissent on tabloid vlogs. who cares…
you may ignore ICU nurses, hospital executives operating ventilators without attending physician supervision. hospitals are incentivized with $39000 for loading elders with co-morbidities. Crushing complications that caused unnecessary fatalities. no body has been charged with manslaughter – hospital ceos , ICU nurses spared despite festering ignorance, over-ruling clinical science and reason
you may ignore the takeover of metropolitan hospital networks by non-physician = fauxsicians (nurse practitioners, physician assistants), who are billing for medical services, without attending physician supervision
………………………………………………….
excuse me, you are here offered a modest re-think before the same cabal recasts with the next disinformation- lockdown, possibly every flu season. Have patriots organize to buy back essential county and city hospitals established as locally owned vested institutions. Demand a protected space which refuses to bow to the next 1984 campaign foisted on you. The trend to privatize local water, local hospitals requires a firm push back. Local hospitals, mom-pop pharmacists, local roads parks and school must be supported. Vote on that. force the rejuvenation of the lost middle class
If you see a nurse wearing clinical scrubs at the local markets gas stations airports restaurants, scream obscenities at these philistines and snowflakes