Lack of interest in Maxwell conferences

[blessalessi]

Need to sex it all up a tad Stevie-boy! Sex sells, ya know :D

But not the sort of sex that is getting your friends the Duggars into hot water, Steve... titus2.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=duggars :oops:

[Talitha Cumi]

I would say also that the women with kids who are attending don't find a common ground listening to Terri (who is their Mom's age) or to Steve (see also Dad's age and just another Preacher to them) They are going to want to listen to a younger homeschool mom who is currently going through what they are going through. Maybe the daughter in laws can fill the niche, if the Maxwell Virgins never wed, but the internet means I don't need to see your one family show to buy your stuff and I'll get more bang for my buck going to a larger conference.

At the conference I went to, someone submitted a question about how they dealt with kids not wanting to do their homework back when they were homeschooling. They all looked at each other, shrugged, and said it'd never been an issue. Thanks, guys. So helpful. It was like that with most of their questions, actually. The effect wasn't "here's how we faced problems and dealt with them," but "we're so awesome we never had those problems."

[MamaJunebug]

I honestly couldn't speculate on their sources of income, but I'll definitely agree that they need to marry off at least one daughter and shift gears with their road trips in order to keep interest up.

Given the discussion that some of us have had recently on the Moody book thread, could the Maxwells perhaps re-brand their road trips to provide assistance to those doing DIY home improvement projects at stops between conferences? They seem to have sufficient skills in this area that they could expand in that direction. :shrug: :think:

In my hazy memory, the house they helped out on was a nice brick two-story that needed a little face lifting, and the family that owned it looked healthy and prosperous.

I'm not sure how many well-off acolytes they have who need their genteel ministrations. Maybe a lot, maybe not many.

A very pagan friend used the Dave Ramsey method to get out of some 6-figure debt. Don't quite see the Maxwells having anything to rival Dave's system, much less compete with it. I could be wrong.

[MamaJunebug]

At the conference I went to, someone submitted a question about how they dealt with kids not wanting to do their homework back when they were homeschooling. They all looked at each other, shrugged, and said it'd never been an issue. Thanks, guys. So helpful. It was like that with most of their questions, actually. The effect wasn't "here's how we faced problems and dealt with them," but "we're so awesome we never had those problems."

Thus were the conferences free. One gets what one pays for.

Their non-answer reminds me of the time a dad asked Steve what to do about taking his family shopping where the store's Muzak played worldly, rock or pop music. Steve's reply, "You 'll have to figure that out yourself."

[blessalessi]

At the conference I went to, someone submitted a question about how they dealt with kids not wanting to do their homework back when they were homeschooling. They all looked at each other, shrugged, and said it'd never been an issue. Thanks, guys. So helpful. It was like that with most of their questions, actually. The effect wasn't "here's how we faced problems and dealt with them," but "we're so awesome we never had those problems."

That's a complete and utter lie they told. In the MOTH book, Teri admits that she struggled with anger and depression before and during homeschooling and that, at one point, she was so fed up with the confrontation from the kids, she only carried on with it when She and Steve agreed that Teri would simply "babysit" the children during the day, and the children would have to answer to Steve when he came home if they had not completed their work. Before they implemented that, it was pretty much full-on confrontation, depression and anger over schoolwork. I think Teri was quickly guilted back into doing school herself, but it was something that she often describes as being depressing for her.

Extract of the book free here: titus2.com/media/products/samples/schools.pdf

[salex]

That's a complete and utter lie they told. In the MOTH book, Teri admits that she struggled with anger and depression before and during homeschooling and that she only carried on with it when She and Steve agreed that Teri would simply "babysit" the children during the day, and the children would have to answer to Steve when he came home if they had not completed their work. Before they implemented that, it was pretty much full-on confrontation, depression and anger over schoolwork.

Extract of the book free here: com/media/products/samples/schools.pdf

Wow. So Terri got a retirement party for 30 years of babysitting her own kids. Awesome Mom Award. Mrs. Moody you are a great homeschooler!

[blessalessi]

Sorry, I edited that post for clarity. The "babysitting episode" was short-lived and Teri went back to homeschooling. But it is a big fat lie to say that they didn't have problems with cooperation. The solution was that if the kids would not work for Teri in the day, then they would be isolated in their rooms and school with Dad when he came home from work.

Given that we know they also used an if/when consequence chart with pictures of sticks on it to represent the number of strokes they would get for certain behaviours, I don't doubt the threat of "wait til your dad gets home" would have been a harsh one in that household.

Teri carried on the homeschooling with increasing use of textbooks. In terms of "homework", pretty much all of their schooling was "on your own work" with set times for Teri to give instruction or reading to supplement the books.

[Sundaymorning]

Wow. So Terri got a retirement party for 30 years of babysitting her own kids. Awesome Mom Award. Mrs. Moody you are a great homeschooler!

According to their schedules on their website, Terri did work individually every day with each child, if you add that up, you get several hours .

I have to say, I do have some sympathy for Terri. From what I've gathered, she suffered from depression, which is a very serious illness. But instead of getting her the help she needed, Steve just forced her to have 5 more children, and to homeschool. It's no wonder that Terri was completely overstrained. Parenting and homeschooling so many kids is hard work for anyone, I can't imagine what it was like for Terri with her untreated depression.

[blessalessi]

I corrected my post to add that this was an example of a time when Teri faced confrontation from her children. I am not denying that Teri suffered depression or that homeschooling was hard for her. My point was that it was deceitful for the family to shrug and give no answer when asked at a conference if they ever had to deal with children who refused to do their homework.

[blessalessi]

I am binge-reading Teri's books this week and the hypocrisy burns. :liar:

[Talitha Cumi]

I am binge-reading Teri's books this week and the hypocrisy burns. :liar:

Uh-oh. I am searching for my notes and can't find them. I thought it was about homework, but it might have been about how to deal with siblings fighting? I don't know why I conflate the two. I remember hearing questions about both of them, but I know that only on one did they say "yeah, that's not a thing we've had to deal with."

So to be fair, the fault could be mine for misremembering. I don't want to accuse Teri of lying if it's my fault!

[Sundaymorning]

I corrected my post to add that this was an example of a time when Teri faced confrontation from her children. I am not denying that Teri suffered depression or that homeschooling was hard for her. My point was that it was deceitful for the family to shrug and give no answer when asked at a conference if they ever had to deal with children who refused to do their homework.

The Maxwells, as most fundies, are masters in hypocrisy. After all, they encounter so many cognitive dissonances in their lives, without it, they couldn't survive.

But I find it strange, that they didn't have better answers ready for those questions people asked them, because they must be pretty common. I'm sure it wasn't the first time they got asked about "disobedient" children or secular music in stores (or "defrauding" billboards or what not).

[IReallyAmHopewell]

Homeschooling has changed in the last 20 years and the Maxwell's have not. I know many homeschoolers, most are because they are religious and don't like the current state of public schools and we have no private school options. 10-15 years ago I saw several with chore packets and using Terri's schedule. Now most do at least part of the homeschool online and are involved in small groups for sports and extra learning. Now that online options are cheap or free and have so many choices , Terri's homeschooling one size fits all is not a fit for most families.

Maybe they need a merger between IonRamp and homeschool. Scary thought to have an online Maxwell homeschool!

They could have expanded on the debt free house book. Look at Dave Ramsey's following. I have noticed that Dave has "trained" individuals in our area that talk about the specifics of our economy, and how to avoid debt while living in an area with certain costs of living that are higher. I'm sure most American's are wanting a debt free house, but the Maxwell book applies to such a limited housing market, forget major metro areas , it wouldn't work in plenty of rural areas. I have a son ready to go off to college soon. I would have no problem if he wanted to live at home after college to save money for a home. I live in a lower cost of living area which is great for me but my son could never find a job that paid well in our economy to justify the free room and board I could give him.

1. Homeschool curriculum--everyone and her sister-in-law seems to create a unit study or entire Prek--12 Curricula. The Maxwell's would look roughly like this: A Leather bound King James Bible (sent to the father of course) a length of plumbing supply line (sent to father), an appropriatly sized apron for each "enrolled" daughter, and a tool belt (real tools) for all "enrolled" guys. Guys can take ITonramp for "high school" Bible time would BE school. The rest is meaningless since knowledge puffs us up--they'll gain "wisdom" by doing gender--"appropriate" chores. Correct by the plumbing supply line when not done thoroughly, cheerfully and immediately.

2. On the Debt Free House thing. They SHOULD get a ghost writer to re-do it. It WOULD sell with "worldly" help. People ARE often sick of mountains of debt. They should do this.

3. For a small extra fee on any purchase, they'd get a full set of Moody books, a discount on Teri's junk and a copy of Debt Free House.....all to build enthusiasm.

Sarah could monitor the Mom's chat board to apply the wisdom she gained in homeschool to helping Moms solve their homeschool problems--most of which are simple--obey husban. Steve could talk to the husband about spousal discipline if he thinks the Mom is really out of it, like if she has yearnings to use b.c. or put the kids on the school bus.

THey should do this!

[blessalessi]

Uh-oh. I am searching for my notes and can't find them. I thought it was about homework, but it might have been about how to deal with siblings fighting? I don't know why I conflate the two. I remember hearing questions about both of them, but I know that only on one did they say "yeah, that's not a thing we've had to deal with."

So to be fair, the fault could be mine for misremembering. I don't want to accuse Teri of lying if it's my fault!

I can give examples for both of those, and that is from bingereading FJ, gentle christian mothering and now, Teri's books.

If you look on the wayback archive, there are 2 consecutive articles about dealing with A Difficult Child. John apparently was frequently difficult and as a consequence for not finishing his schoolwork he was made to work in his freetime, and on Saturday.

In regards to siblings fighting, Teri has given lots of examples but the ones that stick in my mind are (1) the occasion that the kids argued in the car about whether dogs are better than cats. As a punishment the boys involved were made to sit in the car and eat dry crackers in a carpark, while sitting in view of the rest of the family eat a meal in a restaurant. On another occasion, Teri describes making the children eat stale bread crusts as a punishment for squabbling and she gives a bible verse to justify this.

Whatever reason they shrugged the question off, it was a lie.

Be sure your sins will find you out, Mr Maxwell! :mrgreen:

[sparkles]

I can give examples for both of those, and that is from bingereading FJ, gentle christian mothering and now, Teri's books.

If you look on the wayback archive, there are 2 consecutive articles about dealing with A Difficult Child. John apparently was frequently difficult and as a consequence for not finishing his schoolwork he was made to work in his freetime, and on Saturday.

In regards to siblings fighting, Teri has given lots of examples but the ones that stick in my mind are (1) the occasion that the kids argued in the car about whether dogs are better than cats. As a punishment the boys involved were made to sit in the car and eat dry crackers in a carpark, while sitting in view of the rest of the family eat a meal in a restaurant. On another occasion, Teri describes making the children eat stale bread crusts as a punishment for squabbling and she gives a bible verse to justify this.

Whatever reason they shrugged the question off, it was a lie.

Be sure your sins will find you out, Mr Maxwell! :mrgreen:

Ah, the infamous Dogs vs Cats kerfuffle. Anna was the instigator and apparently it was bugging her so much that YEARS LATER she decided to make amends. Now in any other family, this would probably be one of those funny brother-sister anecdotes you'd bring up at family dinners and have a good laugh over. Not in Maxhell, however. Guilt, guilt, guilt and a bunch of sins thrown in for good measure.

blog.titus2.com/2011/07/24/making-right-the-wrong/

[AuntCloud]

Oh, I know exactly what went wrong. The Maxwells have fierce competition.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/fr ... st-culture

[kpmom]

That's a complete and utter lie they told. In the MOTH book, Teri admits that she struggled with anger and depression before and during homeschooling and that, at one point, she was so fed up with the confrontation from the kids, she only carried on with it when She and Steve agreed that Teri would simply "babysit" the children during the day, and the children would have to answer to Steve when he came home if they had not completed their work. Before they implemented that, it was pretty much full-on confrontation, depression and anger over schoolwork. I think Teri was quickly guilted back into doing school herself, but it was something that she often describes as being depressing for her.

Extract of the book free here: titus2.com/media/products/samples/schools.pdf

Re. the bolded, I believe this is the reason 1. Steve came home from corporate America. 2. They started the MOTH system so Teri didn't have to think. 3. They started using textbooks so Teri didn't have to think or teach.

I think homeschooling completely overwhelmed Teri and they are lying through their teeth presenting her as this titus2 mentor who put her time in and now can mentor other young moms.

[blessalessi]

So first Steve "came home" from corporate America.

Then he "came home" from driving Uriah around conservative homeschooling America.

And now, he is entering his next career phase as a business consultant and mentor!

itonramp.com/courses/business-jump-start/62?utm_source=162&utm_medium=288&utm_campaign=421

Anyone want Steve Maxwell to jump them, eh laydeez? :lol:

There seems to be no prohibition on female course participants so for $250 you can have 5 weeks on 1 on 1 Skype sessions with Steve to help develop your own home business. :popcorn2:

[Jezebel]

Why on earth would anybody want to take a class on running a business from Steve Maxwell? You might as well take a class on pedagogy from Teri, while you're at it.

This is a guy who, at one time, came up with a couple of products that met the needs of a certain niche popuation (conservative Christian homeschoolers). They succeeded--and he and Teri did well on the lecture/workshop circuit--because there wasn't much else available at the time.

Their polite, orderly, well-trained kids were the other product Tightass2 sold; follow Steve and Teri Maxwell's advice, and you too could have kids who worked cheerfully all day and never fought. Unfortunately, a significant proportion of that product line has failed to launch as promised, and the ones that have only did so after long delays and false starts. Yet Steve would have you believe there is absolutely nothing wrong,

When pressed to come up with a new product line that would meet the needs of his and Teri's followers, the result (unveiled after much hoopla) was Making Great Conversationalists. [sadtrombone.wav] That book has been a rousing success--at sitting in cartons stacked in their garage, that is.

Oh, and then there were the Excite! conferences, which clearly excited nobody, because there aren't any more being offered. Again, understanding his market and meeting the needs of his customer base just isn't Steve Maxwell's strong suit.

Social media? Why not hand the blog posting to one of your poorly-homeschooled kids, where her pitifully stunted vocabulary, imagination, and worldview can be on display for all to see--and thus judge the results of the perfect lifestyle you're selling instruction manuals for? Selling yourself as homeschooling experts when your still-unwed, now-thirtysomething daughter can barely put together a coherent blog post and possesses all the intellectual capability of a public-schooled first-grader, is a great way to build your brand!

And who needs good customer relations when a terse, rude reply to a blog comment (that you've edited to suit your own purposes) is perfectly adequate?

Then there's getting your untalented, untrained, incompetent children to earn their keep by doing things they're patently lousy at. Sarah's writing. Christopher's photography. Anna's singing. Yeah, I want a genius like that telling me hiw to run a business.

And let's not forget the dead websites of past Maxwell business ventures that never got off the ground.

Honestly, what great business advice could Steve Maxwell possibly offer, other than, "Don't be like me?" At least we know that this will be another Maxwell dud.

[pega127]

If I remember right, last year they only had a handful of weekend conferences booked at the start of their tour. They filled weeknight "shows" along the way. I think they had a couple of times when they had nearly a week off between shows. Another such "tour" could prove to be quite expensive when paying for hotel rooms and eating out.

I think they stay in people's homes, not in hotels. They probably cook in often , so food and lodging is not a major expense . Of course, if there are weeklong breaks in the "tour", not sure where they would stay?

[blessalessi]

I think they stay in people's homes, not in hotels. They probably cook in often , so food and lodging is not a major expense . Of course, if there are weeklong breaks in the "tour", not sure where they would stay?

I thought they stayed in the bus when they had it? They bought the bus to save money on hotels. It is one thing for a church family to offer them a place to park the bus, and to invite them in for meals or provide them with packed lunches, but it is a big ask for an already large homeschooling family to invite 7 adults in to stay the night (or week) in their homes.

[VodouDoll]

The thing about Teri's not wanting to homeschool and Steve saying that their going back to school was out of the question, and that if she didn't want to teach she would just babysit and he would teach in the evening? It wasn't just babysitting.

He made her shut Nathan, Christopher, and Sarah in their rooms alone for the entire day. He said, "If you can't handle being around the kids all day then I'll shut them up by themselves and we'll see how you like it. Isn't this what you want, Teri? Isn't it?"

That is a monsterous thing to do to your small children. He said he was relieved when she only lasted a couple days before feeling too terrible for the kids each being shut up alone for eight hours a day to continue like this, and she told Steve she'd teach again. He hadn't really wanted to do the teaching, so he intimidated her into continuing by torturing their children with forced isolation, and then made going back to homeschooling seem like her idea instead of something she was forced to do to protect her kids from his psychological abuse and manipulation.

He's a monster.

[ILoveJellybeans]

The thing about Teri's not wanting to homeschool and Steve saying that their going back to school was out of the question, and that if she didn't want to teach she would just babysit and he would teach in the evening? It wasn't just babysitting.

He made her shut Nathan, Christopher, and Sarah in their rooms alone for the entire day. He said, "If you can't handle being around the kids all day then I'll shut them up by themselves and we'll see how you like it. Isn't this what you want, Teri? Isn't it?"

That is a monsterous thing to do to your small children. He said he was relieved when she only lasted a couple days before feeling too terrible for the kids each being shut up alone for eight hours a day to continue like this, and she told Steve she'd teach again. He hadn't really wanted to do the teaching, so he intimidated her into continuing by torturing their children with forced isolation, and then made going back to homeschooling seem like her idea instead of something she was forced to do to protect her kids from his psychological abuse and manipulation.

He's a monster.

OMG those poor kids :( That is just wrong. If Teri didn't feel she could teach her kids, send them to school, she shouldn't be forced to teach them herself, especially with her depression. How old were they at the time? That is just pure neglect. How could he make Teri do that to her children to manipulate her :( The cruel, sick man. Steve is a monster. How could someone be so cruel to their own children, and how could someone use their own children to manipulate their partner in this way.

[Elegant Mess]

Social media? Why not hand the blog posting to one of your poorly-homeschooled kids, where her pitifully stunted vocabulary, imagination, and worldview can be on display for all to see--and thus judge the results of the perfect lifestyle you're selling instruction manuals for? Selling yourself as homeschooling experts when your still-unwed, now-thirtysomething daughter can barely put together a coherent blog post and possesses all the intellectual capability of a public-schooled first-grader, is a great way to build your brand!

And who needs good customer relations when a terse, rude reply to a blog comment (that you've edited to suit your own purposes) is perfectly adequate?

Thanks, Jezebel!!!! :clap:

Not to mention the blatant narcissism in many of the blog entries (seventeen photos of the concrete pouring of Joseph's back porch!), the scrubbing of blog entries of courtships (plural!) that didn't work out, and the obnoxious withholding of information that the fans would be really interested in (the Joseph/Elissa courtship, the country to which John traveled).

Yes, Maxwells, you're on one sweet journey - to obscurity!

[blessalessi]

OMG those poor kids :( That is just wrong. If Teri didn't feel she could teach her kids, send them to school, she shouldn't be forced to teach them herself, especially with her depression. How old were they at the time? That is just pure neglect. How could he make Teri do that to her children to manipulate her :( The cruel, sick man. Steve is a monster. How could someone be so cruel to their own children, and how could someone use their own children to manipulate their partner in this way.

The thing that gets me is that we are not exposing hidden secrets here. This is all available in the free samples available on the public website.

No fucking wonder that now there are alternatives, the homeschooling community aren't buying this shit anymore.