Educating children in public schools? Exactly like stealing!

[Burris]

If stupidity were an energy source, the following article would outshine the sun: visionarywomanhood.com/render-education-caesar

Leah Smith has written an article called, "Render Education Unto Caesar?" - a shallow, offensive study in what happens when people set ideological purity above common sense.

I don't even mean that as snark. This article is, without a word of hyperbole, perhaps one of the dumbest commentaries I've ever seen on the subject of schooling. Its author ought to be ashamed of herself. Judging by what she has written, however, I can only conclude she is as far beyond the reach of shame as she is beyond the reach of reason.

I do plan to deconstruct this article rather than merely slinging mud at it – perhaps later today. In the meantime, I have posted it here for others to contemplate because I don't think the asinine assumptions therein should be allowed to continue unchallenged for even a single second more.

Just to give you a foretaste of the intellectual assault you're about the experience, I must warn you: Her article is prefaced with a picture of Hitler apparently inspecting a group of Hitler Youth.

[emmiedahl]

I have not read the article yet, but I see they have mastered the art of godwinning without saying a single word.

eta: the whole "taxes are theft" thing is so overdone. Can't they dredge up a single unique thought?

[slickcat79]

I'm not sure I can make it past the title of the author's book:

Diapers, Dishes & Dominion is a product of that journey -- a summary record of the truths God can use to transform ordinary Christian housewives into His weapons of mass reconstruction. In simple and straightforward language, Leah exposes some of the most prevalent lies Satan uses to keep Christian women irrelevant in God's Kingdom, and she presents biblical truths these wives and mothers need to know in order to change the world -- one diaper at a time.

Weapons of mass reconstruction! Satanic lies! What a nail-biter :lol:

[slickcat79]

Many students graduate and cannot read. This is a fact.

O rly? If it is a fact, where are your citations? :?

The government system is not even close to adequate, not to mention that what they are learning is hostile to the Word of God (under the guise of “neutrality,†remember), right down to the supposedly mundane facts.

Yeah, those pesky facts are really getting in the way of christian indoctrination the Infallible Word of God, aren't they? :roll:

Government textbooks are written by people who are claiming to be neutral, when in reality, many textbook writers are unapologetically anti-Christian, secular humanists and hold to Marxist ideologies (if you don’t know what this is, just know it’s bad).

:doh: :doh: :doh:

[Markie]

I read over thsi post a couple of recent posts on that site and all I can do is shake my head. This woman and her ilk will never be convinced to think that perhaps not all publically educated people are illiterate and evil. I shake my head when I think of their children (and they all seem to have tons of children). I was raised in a Christian home, but we were always taught to help others less fortunate than ourselves and to show mercy. Why are these things missing in fundimentalist religions - not just Christian fundies?

I am sorry for these women, yet it only goes so far. I am much sorrier for the future generation of little fundy robots they are "training." As much as religions preach love, these people only seem to preach hatred and fear. Just. Plain. Sad. :(

[treemom]

When we were in tanzania a few weeks ago our safari guide asked us if we were going to have more kids (we have the one 12 year old boy who was with us). We said no and he congratulated us and talked about how hard it is to rise above poverty if you have many mouths to feed and educate. At this point he explained that primary government (the term they use over public apparently) are free you have to pay school fees and uniform fees, etc. But he said to go secondary (after grade 5) you have to pay for public schools as well.

He was shocked when we talked about how happy we were in public schools and that we didn't believe that the cost of the education in private schools here in Memphis (where the cost is well above the national average for tuition) was worth it when we can take that money and go to say Tanzania. He said that the public schools there regularly experience strikes, etc because goverment teachers are paid much less than private school teachers.

This belief that public schools are shitty and of the devil is such an elitist first world view of schools.

[Terrie]

Don't want to pay taxes? Fine. But don't use public roads, street lights, public sewers, the police, the fire department, the public library, parks or any other tax funded service or program.

[Conuly]

Government textbooks are written by people who are claiming to be neutral, when in reality, many textbook writers are unapologetically anti-Christian, secular humanists and hold to Marxist ideologies (if you don’t know what this is, just know it’s bad)

She's positively proud of her ignorance, isn't she? Well, that's just special.

You know, I might venture into the world of commenting on their posts to ask her WHY it's bad. Can she give me an answer? WILL she? (Will it even be posted?) Inquiring mind wants to know!

Edit: or maybe I won't. Why the hell can't I find the comment form?

[Guest Anonymous]

Don't want to pay taxes? Fine. But don't use public roads, street lights, public sewers, the police, the fire department, the public library, parks or any other tax funded service or program.

Oh,and please DON'T vote. You have no right to influence the course of a society that you have chosen to divorce yourself from. The rest of us have to live in that same society.

Edited because I left a couple of words out. Sorry!

[Terrie]

Oh. and please DON'T vote. You have no right to influence the course of a society that you have chosen to divorce yourself. The rest of us have to live in that same society.

Ballots and tallying equipment are paid for by taxes, so, yeah, voting is off the list of allowed stuff.

[meda]

Reading this drivel reminds me of the historical accounts I've read of medieval peasants who were distrustful of change and refused to grow new kinds of crops even when it would have prevented starvation, thought illness was caused by demons, killed cats because they were satanic, and believed bathing caused the plague.

These women are so very, very, proud of their ignorance. I can't think of a time in recent history when people have been so fucking proud of knowing so very little.

[Conuly]

I'll give the medieval peasants a pass on growing new crops. Why risk a sure harvest on a risky enterprise? (Of course, maybe those peasants could've benefited from a little socialism, evil or not. I'm just saying.)

[FlorenceHamilton]

I will start with a very basic question.

If the public schools are not able to teach the children to read, what is the point of handing out textbooks and teaching what is inside them? ((evil socialist, satan worshipping sciences)?

[meda]

I'll give the medieval peasants a pass on growing new crops. Why risk a sure harvest on a risky enterprise? (Of course, maybe those peasants could've benefited from a little socialism, evil or not. I'm just saying.)

Very true. I guess I was thinking of Little Ice Age type crop failures when the harvest failed year after year and they refused to plant hardier grain. I still hold to the premise that it takes real work and dedication to be as ignorant as the ladies of Visionary Womanhood.

[Gizmola]

The way it works is that the government takes money from people by force to pay for the education of other people’s children.

After I saw the bolded section I can't read anymore. She's saying the same bullshit stuff that Objectivists say. They don't believe in any taxation at all. They believe in privatizing everything: all schools, roads, fire service, hospitals, etc. If you can name it then it should be privatized. Interesting that she is agreeing with a group of people who are often militantly atheistic. That makes me giggle.

[Maggie Mae]

Why is there a picture of Hitler youth? I might be a little dense, but I'm just not making the connection other than she wants to point out that she's edgy/white/not afraid to be racist? Or is she trying to compare public schools to hitler youth programs? /confused

Has she read the bible? specifically the parts about giving to ceasar and that part about submitting to the government?

Also, has she read the parts about Jesus helping other people? (I don't know for sure, i've never read much beyond the birth story as that was the only thing interesting to a child)

And "oh, you don't know what Marxism is? Well, don't worry your pretty little head, just know it's bad! So when ever your husband is listening to am talk radio in the car and you overhear people talking about how the president is a Marxist, you know it's bad and you have to vote against anything he says, okay?" SO frustrating! I'm so annoyed with the deliberate ignorance in our country. When did we start this path of being jerks to each other and being proud of being ignorant? We need schools! We should give more money to schools! Better education = lower crime rates and higher standards of living! People should want to encourage learning and exploring in their children, not pushing them on a path to a technical career at age 2. /rant

[patsymae]

"“We oppose the teaching of Higher Order Thinking Skills ... critical thinking skills and similar programs that are simply a relabeling of Outcome-Based Education ... which focus on behavior modification and have the purpose of challenging the student’s fixed beliefs and undermining parental authority.â€

-Texas GOP's 2012 platform

[YPestis]

Good grief. Fundie argument against public schools are beginning to sound like a tired old record. The vast majority of people in this country attended public schools. Are they saying that all the accountants, lawyers and doctors in this country are illiterate Marxists who can't add?

[Arete]

Why is there a picture of Hitler youth? I might be a little dense, but I'm just not making the connection other than she wants to point out that she's edgy/white/not afraid to be racist? Or is she trying to compare public schools to hitler youth programs? /confused

She is definitely comparing the public schools to the Hitler Youth program. This and the the irony that she believes she is raising soldiers for Christ an can refer to diapers, dishes, and dominion in the same sentence is peerless.

[meda]

Good grief. Fundie argument against public schools are beginning to sound like a tired old record. The vast majority of people in this country attended public schools. Are they saying that all the accountants, lawyers and doctors in this country are illiterate Marxists who can't add?

Only if they went to godless accredited public universities. People should just apprentice if they want to practice law or deliver babies. :roll:

I'll admit I can't spell to save my life, but I can blame that on my LD, not my public school.

[slickcat79]

After I saw the bolded section I can't read anymore. She's saying the same bullshit stuff that Objectivists say. They don't believe in any taxation at all. They believe in privatizing everything: all schools, roads, fire service, hospitals, etc. If you can name it then it should be privatized. Interesting that she is agreeing with a group of people who are often militantly atheistic. That makes me giggle.

You'd think that, at some point, it would occur to them that we actually tried that privatizing thing, and it didn't really work. She really loves rewriting history too:

Secondly, people were successfully educated for centuries out of their homes and out of private, one-room schoolhouses. These methods cost nothing compared to what it costs to educate a child in any given public school.

Yes, people were successfully educated by those methods, except of course for all the people who weren't.

[Burris]

Indeed this whole "taxation is slavery" argument has been done do death. I remember discussing this with Handcuff here, and I wrote about Zsuzsanna's selfish error here.

As other posters have pointed out, people who believe taxation or slavery really don't have a leg to stand on - and nor would they have sidewalks or roads to stand on either, if they ever somehow managed to create the dystopia they envision.

I really want to take this piece apart. Right now, however, I'll have to content myself with pointing out hos this woman's whining is merely another variation of, "I've got mine, bitchez, so I don't really care if other people suffer.â€

This, unfortunately, is the new face of Christianity to a lot of people: The admixture of religion with a completely incompatible economic philosophy has created generations of greedy misers - for example, the woman under discussion here - who love Caesar's coin and hold it so dearly they'd rather see their fellow dust creatures die than ever having to do anything that might smack of *gasp* "Marxism" (which is bad, 'because I told you so').

And for a crop of people who demand instant obedience from their children merely because parents are “God's ordained authority,†they sure don't let that belief – impervious hierarchy - get in the way of their bitter harangue of lawful government.

[crawfishgirl]

She really needs to realize that an educated populace benefits society as a whole. Without an educated workforce, the standard of living would go down and we would fail to grow new technologies and industries. Even though an individual person may not need everything our government provides (such as public schools), we need to look at the bigger picture, and see what is needed to thrive as a community/nation/world. Few people really enjoy paying taxes, but if it helps to better society in the long run, then it is worthwhile. In addition, if public schools were eliminated, it would eventually eliminate the middle class as well, since only the more well-to-do people could afford private education, and it would be difficult to climb out of poverty if educational opportunities were severely limited.

[Witsec1]

Oh, Leah. She's the one who bragged about "disciplining" her highchair-bound toddler for hours. A lot of aggression, paranoia and narcissism, not a lot of critical thinking or empathy.

And Natalie, the Visionary Womanhood blog owner, is awfully fond of the Hitler youth photos and the "Libruls R Hitler" meme.

ETA: Looking forward to the point-by-point takedown, Burris.

[Rowan]

She really needs to realize that an educated populace benefits society as a whole. Without an educated workforce, the standard of living would go down and we would fail to grow new technologies and industries. Even though an individual person may not need everything our government provides (such as public schools), we need to look at the bigger picture, and see what is needed to thrive as a community/nation/world.

What she and so many others of her ilk also seem to always forget is that the society she depends on is based in the public schools. My mom was a teacher and had a little sign that said "Teachers make all professions possible." She never had the guts to put it out during conferences to spite the high-opinion of themselves businessmen and such who looked down on her and her coworkers - but there is some major truth to it. Everyone benefits from an educated society and the public schools are responsible for educating the majority of society. If she is so against public schooling, she needs to give up the benefits in her life that are a result of it - computers, for sure, some of the developers of the modern computer and the internet surely went to public school! Thomas Edison did too (of sorts) - oops, no more electric lights for you!

So while she might not send her kids to public schools (the horror!), she benefits from the people around her who have gone to public schools. She is not isolated in a tiny little bubble separate from everyone else like she thinks she is.