For Tea Baggers, the Future Looks Dumb

tea-bag-signOne thing tea baggers object to is “government schools,” or as normal people call them, public schools. You see, at the government schools, kids are forced to learn science, to associate with others not exactly like them, and every now and then, be subjected to an address from their president asking them to do their homework and become successful. And you know where all this leads. That’s right, buddy, the big “S.” Socialism with a capital…Well anyway. So following Trish’s Law of Coincidences, which states that there are no coincidences, a recent increase in home schooling must be correlated to rising numbers of tea baggers. In fact, one unscientific (how fitting!) online poll shows just that.

The people at the whyhomeschool blog came up with a poll that asks first if you support the Tea Party movement. Of the 99 people who responded in the affirmative, 88 percent selected this answer: “Yes, and I currently homeschool, have homeschooled in the past, or plan to homeschool my child(ren).” Slightly more than 5 percent (five votes) went with, “Yes, and I send, have sent, and plan to send my child(ren) exclusively to public school.” Another 4 percent checked, “Yes, and I send, have sent, or plan to send my child(ren) to private school.” And finally, 3 percent said that although they support tea bagging, they have no children.

On the other hand, only 36 readers said they do not support the Tea Party movement, but most of them also home school, and what with this being a blog for home schoolers, that’s not a huge surprise. Of those who felt negatively toward tea bagging, 89 percent still home school, and 3 percent each use private and public schools. A final 6 percent (two people) who don’t have kids also don’t like tea parties.

tebow-verseThe Orlando Sentinel recently published a story about the new-found popularity of home schooling, and linked it to the rock star popularity of home schooling’s most famous alumnus, University of Florida football quarterback Tim Tebow. Tebow, who sports a New Testament bible verse citation in his eye-black, was home schooled by his missionary parents until he showed promise in football. At that point, they enrolled him in a public high school, followed by a big fat football scholarship and four years at a public university.

This kind of self-reliance (yes, I’m being facetious) inspires both religious zealots and tea baggers alike, according to another poll published with the story. It asked, “If you home-school your children (or plan to), what is the primary reason you chose to do so?” While 18 percent answered that they would never consider such an option, the numbers were almost equal (16 percent each) for these three responses: “I want my child to receive an education that addresses spiritual issues that are important to my family,” “Traditional schools stifle creativity and frown upon nonconformists,” and most worrisome, “I don’t want the government involved in my child’s education.”

Anyone who has seen the movie Idiocracy knows where this is going. Over time, with even less exposure to challenging ideas, tea baggers will become stupider and stupider, until finally they will drown in a sea of dumb. The question is whether we will all get pulled under with them.

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12 thoughts on “For Tea Baggers, the Future Looks Dumb”

  1. Hey, we home school our kids and I was a public school teacher for 10 years. I’m a hardcore leftist, who supports single payer health care, reduced military budgets, and gay marriage. My kids meet or exceed the standardized testing every year (well except my daughter’s math scores, which must be genetic because I suck at math too). Not all homeschoolers are right wing religious fanatics.

  2. Trish:
    I can’t speak for Mike but have you actually spent time in a public school?
    Every educational study shows that a ratio of 5 students to one instructor is excellent for learning.
    For decades this has been known. Most public schools do anywhere from 23 (if they are lucky) to 40 students in a classroom. Now, that doesn’t seem “smart” if the goal is to really teach anything to anybody.

    The idea of the public school could be excellent but public school has ALWAYS been short changed.
    If the society really had an intention to educate children then it would pay for it to be effective.

    But that is not the intention of the public school. The intention of public education is to be a holding tank that provides basic skills for future employment of these students NOT to create an environment for learning where a student leaves the school “educated” and interested in learning.

    The fear has always been that if a student was “educated” that student would be an independent thinker and we all know the implied danger in that idea!

    1. I got a good education in government schools run by the socialist state of North Carolina. The student-teacher ratios were never below 25 to 1, that I can recall.

      My take is that it’s not about force-feeding information to children, it’s about teaching them how to learn. That’s what I got from school, with a big assist from my family.

  3. I went to public school in the 70’s. The ratio was about 28 – 30 to 1. I also graduated from the University of California with a degree in Molecular Biology. I have an AA in Accounting and certificates in Computer Information Systems, Technical Writing, and Film/Video.
    The problem I see more and more is the lack of involvement by the parents in their child’s education. This is by no means a determining factor, but if kids are left to their own devices they will do what kids like. So, that being said I don’t think that home schooling is bad, in that sense. However, the lack of socialization and standards of education can lead those children towards intolerance (racism and theism) and down a biased educational road where all of the traditional red-herrings (communism, socialism, race, and culture) are given a polish and re-purposed for today (to quote Tea baggers “Indoctrination”).
    That being said, I am more fearful of the lack of scientific standards, which can, if taught, erode many of the aforementioned biases. Where does this all lead? A lack of American technical skills, knowledge of history, knowledge of science and math and therefore gross unemployment and global marginalization…oh, never mind.

  4. I was schooled by the gubmint in the 70s, too. No complaints. But now I am a parent. I would have sent her to public school, but in Alabama, everything is decided by Unions and ignorant redneck commissioners with a single-digit collective IQ. I would have had to drive my daughter 20 miles away from my house, my job, my wife’s job and any other semblance of civilization. To bus a 5-year-old to kindergarten in this backwards county and state to a county school where the main subjects are meth production and Christian prayers, is out of the question. So, we are gladly ponying up tuition in the city where I work, and in a school where the ratio is 7 to 1. All the teachers are atheists, so that eliminates the religiofascist ignorance rampant even in public schools. Instead, my daughter is learning a foreign language at 5 (she’ll need it to get out of Amerika and survive), math, science and above all, critical thinking. All that stuff that I had in the 70s but that has been thrown out with the bathwater by conservatard school board activists since that time.

  5. I, too, am a product of government schools, all the way through my MPA. I disagree that 5:1 is a perfect learning ratio — I wonder if you got the muffed that up a bit, Tubularsock? I think 5:1 would produce group-think, and would discourage diversity of every type, which is the main thing one takes from a public school education. I have watched my 12-year-old niece proceed through private (Catholic) school, and I see none of the lessons in life’s rich syllabus being passed along to her. I think that’s a shame.

  6. I was sent to public schools for all of my schooling. While it was sometimes troublesome due to the bullying I endured I think it was worthwhile in the long run. Home schooled kids just don’t have the opportunity to meet other kids, make friends with kids in other racial & ethnic groups, learn social skills and understand how to fit into an organizational structure. Short term, home schooling might seem like a good choice but long term? I don’t think so.

  7. My children were all forced out of public school by religous fanatics and the children of those fanatics . Each of my children earned their GED’s and each have gone to college. We played games with the dictionary when they were of pre-school age and instead of TV we allowed them to read all the 1000+ books in our home library. We as parents have the duty to instill the desire for knowledge in our children. One must lead/teach by example.

  8. “…that is not the intention of the public school. The intention of public education is to be a holding tank that provides basic skills for future employment of these students NOT to create an environment for learning where a student leaves the school “educated” and interested in learning.”

    Trish, this quote by Tubularsock is one of the main reasons we have chosen to home school our kids and why I am no longer teaching in public school.

  9. “Home schooled kids just don’t have the opportunity to meet other kids, make friends with kids in other racial & ethnic groups, learn social skills and understand how to fit into an organizational structure. ”
    GarryInNola, My kids receive all the things that you mention because we make sure they participate in their community via taking orchestra classes at the local high school, being a part of Girl Scouts, Swim team, and volunteering at the local soup kitchen. There are myriad ways to foster social skills that aren’t limited by having to attend public schools.

    Skip Roth, congratulations on your success! We haven’t had T.V. in the house since we moved to AK 11 years ago, and although I went through a period of withdrawal having been raised on T.V. in the ’60s, the lack of exposure to the corporate swill that passes for entertainment has been nothing but a benefit to the whole household. BTW, I still rent The Simpsons episodes and we all love them.

  10. Hello, for all students (at least high-school and the undergraduates) and others with an interest or enrolled in economics, homeschoolers esp., I have started a blog which will comprise study literature in a more entertaining form than standard textbooks, see
    CrisisMaven’s Economics Study Guide. It also contains a Reference List which aspires to eventually become the “one stop shop” for all economic data series, history, bibliographies etc.

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