I used to sell books, oh, 30 years ago or so now.
The home schoolers were the scariest bunch of people you’ll encounter.
Had one guy ask where the weather control books were, and I was like “You mean seeding clouds to make it rain? I think we have…”
“No! I mean the government weather control programs!”
Had another lady convinced her electricity was going to give her cancer because it came from a nuclear power plant and was radioactive.
We are homeschooling one of our kids because his particular needs were not being met by the local school. Meeting other homeschool families is always nerve-wracking for me. I never know if they’re going to be a normal family adapting to an unusual situation, or tinfoil-hat nuts using homeschool as an excuse to hide their children from the outside world.
The non tinfoil hat group should develop a secret sign, like a manager telling a runner on first to steal, so you do not have to suffer fools.
Like ear tug, ear tug, nose scratch, and then adjust your belt. I want credit if you use this one 😂
Something like “Hey… where can I buy books that align with common core?”
The reaction for that one should do it
This is brilliant!!!
You know the tin foil hat people are going to pick up on this and think it’s all a conspiracy.
This us us exactly.
“No! I mean the government weather control programs!”
“Check the science fiction section.”
Careful. You might help create another religion.
“OK, my daughter loves Harriet Tubman. Tell me what you got!” she says. I explain our product, how we use historical women to teach girls about their worth and potential. The mother says: “But is it woke? I mean, I don’t want to teach my daughter about woke.”
And these people feel qualified as teachers of history
The follow-up paragraph is even more amazing, because (like all conservatives) she can’t even say what “woke” is.
And that’s the really insidious part. The teacher is too ignorant of what she is ignorant of. If Harriet Tubman “might be too woke” then how would this women teach the nuance of protests? Of sit ins? Letters from a Birmingham jail? Much less modern protests. Her daughter is going to grow confidently saying things like
“I know all about black history, just not the woke stuff.”
And not even understand the tragic irony.
I have a surprise for you, none of that stuff is regular curriculum in schools
Uhhhhh. Yes it is? My niece was going over all of that around 3rd grade. And that’s about the same time I did, this was all in the PNW. I think your school district just had some major omissions.
I went through California school a little under a decade ago and can tell you that the letters from Birmingham Jail and an at least somewhat decent overview of sit-ins were absolutely part of my standard curriculum
Though I’d bet there are plenty of places in this country where that’s not true
It was in my school in NJ.
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It’s just “what Trump tells me to hate”, there i defined it.
Fox news tells them as well. Either way, people too stupid to have a thought originate from themselves.
if defining words is that easy for you, can you tell me: “what is a woman?”
some words are more subjective then others and for many feelings and emotions are more important then objective facts to define anything.
Right, so give a vague definition then. Give a conditional definiton. Say “woke is when black people are treated like humans and stuff, you know, like when they say marital rape is bad”. They won’t though, because while that is exactly what it means, they also know they can’t say it out loud.
“Woke” is the thing that opposes their horrible and reprehensible ideas, and they know it. Hell, when DeSantis’ lawyer had to define it in court he went with “the belief there are systemic injustices in American society and the need to address them.” It’s weird though, why haven’t conservatives just grasped on to this definition? Because “woke” is a dogwhistle for “someone who isn’t a trash human like me”.
If you want to define “woman”, I can do way better than a vague definition though. Of course, the question itself is in bad faith, but I don’t give a shit. In terms of gender: “A woman is anyone who wants to call themselves a woman and wants to be called a woman by others.”
Just as an aside, I’m of the opinion gender is a stupid concept anyway and we should get rid of it entirely.
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I never said i can. I wanted to show how difficult it is to define something like that.
Dumbass Christian Karens
In America, right wing supporters are often the dullest tools in the shed. They’re sure they’re right, but they don’t understand how anything works, historical context, how to discern truth from bullshit, or what words mean.
“I Love the Poorly Educated” -Donald J. Trump
When I hear a woman say “I’m not a feminist” my first thought is “WHY THE HELL NOT??”
Perhaps their understanding of feminism has come from the violently extreme “kill all men” types of feminists or the opposing “get back in the kitchen” type of conservative shitbags making up all sorts of scary and mean things about them.
Their understanding of feminism comes from right wing media.
Or possibly from extreme left wing media
I think it’s more likely to be from things that actually exist
Those first type of feminists do not exist, it’s a strawman
They absolutely do. They are by no means the majority, but extremes exist in any movement. There are “feminists” who think it’s all about sticking it to the man (literally) or proving feminine superiority. It’s like Christians who don’t read the Bible and think it’s all about damning the gross icky people to hell. That doesn’t mean they’re common (they aren’t), but I’ve seen a few crazies on Tumblr and Twitter.
Edit: J.K.Rowling is one of them (kinda).
who don’t read the Bible and think it’s all about damning the gross icky people to hell
Not all but that is a pretty decent description of most of the NT. The OT god(s) would kill you because you annoyed them but they wouldn’t send you to hell.
And you’re someone who has read the New Testament?
I’ve read maybe 10% and have yet to encounter a single line about damning the gross icky people to hell.
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I don’t consider myself a Christian anymore, but based on what I was taught as a kid, I’d personally take anything that wasn’t explicitly stated to be spoken by God or Jesus with a grain of salt, especially when it comes to books that weren’t written by Jesus’ disciples (excluding Saul/Paul, who never actually met Jesus).
As a kid, I was taught to read the Bible and use my brain (god gave you one, use it) to figure out what it was trying to say, not blindly follow it without question. The reason for that is because I was taught that the Bible is inspired by God, not written by him (unless explicitly stated that the passage came directly from God or Jesus’ mouth). As such, you have humans attempting to understand God’s (and later Jesus’) commands, which means they aren’t always going to be 100% correct and/or there may be historical context that is missing when you take it literally and at face value.
You’re supposed to not just read, but also think about the Bible and decide what parts make sense when taken in context with what is said to be explicitly said by God (it’s part of the reason why some Bibles mark anything said by God/Jesus in red).
For an example, the passage you’ve quoted could be interpreted as a warning about pagans larping as Christians to take advantage of christian kindness and distort the word of God into something else (similar to the merchants in the temple, or like what is happening in Christianity now). You could also read it as an almost complete reversal to what Jesus taught in the early NT.
Which one of these makes more sense?
A) Jesus comes to earth, teaches people about kindness and goodness, hang out with prostitutes and untouchables, dies on the cross for everyone’s sins, becomes a zombie, and declares that the laws of the Old testament had been fulfilled through him so all could be saved. Then a few years later, he changes his mind and inspires Jude to write a letter about how the gays should be cast out and are going to hell.
B) Jude was writing the letter as a warning to keep your guard up around non-christians in case they might persuade you to distort the teachings of Jesus and/or hijack Christianity to turn it into a money-making scheme. It wouldn’t be the first time it happened (the merchants in the temple immediately springs to mind again).
Or C) Jude didn’t really know what he was talking about and the book/letter is included because it’s referenced in other places of the Bible and theologians would rather err on the side of caution and allow a non-canon book to be included in the Bible than delete something that might be important (iirc the Bible states that you’re not supposed to remove, change or add to anything said in scripture, so from a Christian perspective, I’d imagine if you’re not sure about something then it’s probably better to include something than exclude it).
Imo, B) seems the most likely. If you believe the Christian God is real, then A) is absurd, and C) seems unlikely due to Jude’s proximity to James. It seems like if C) were true, then there would be records of Jude being refuted or rebuked.
because the word feminism has different meanings for different people. for some it means equality and a way to get there. for others it means men are bad and women should get priority treatment. communication is hard when there is no objective meaning for any of the words we are using.
For the same reason they oppose public health, public school, trans rights, diversity, equity, and inclusion. They literally don’t know what they are.
I know at least 2 Republicans that when you actually talk about individual policy preferences it comes across as moderate democrat. One of them was a virulent PRO masker because of their job.
I think people just don’t pay attention to actual policies, it’s all just the soundbites and controversy.
“Not all women are good,” he explains.
“Not all men are good,” I respond.
That’s an amazingly pithy pair of lines
Sounds like something from an unpublished Frog and Toad book
Thank goodness homeschooling is illegal in this country. The best effect is that crazy nutjob parents are not able to install their delusions on their kids as much as they can in the US.
Homeschooling is also illegal in Brazil, and you can bet the mf of Bolsonaro and his government tried to make it legal. The Supreme Court strike them down, with the argument that socializing was a fundamental part of education and a kid’s right and the law passed by the government couldn’t guarantee that the kids would have it.
While it would help with the crazies, it would very much hurt people who genuinely need it. I was one of those: I was, to put it mildly, a “wild child” with horrible social skills, no matter the efforts, so public school was out of the question. It would have been nothing but bullying for me and gray hairs for teachers. And while I didn’t go to school, mom did her best to socialize me.
I ended up going to a very good middle school, an AMAZING high school and now in a good uni. And yes, now putting my best effort into socializing, so might very well end up having friends now!
I will say homeschooling can be a good teaching style… With oversight. I am slightly biased because I was home schooled through the 7th grade. My mom wasn’t a religion nut, I was homeschooled because the regular public school didn’t have the to services for my IEP. So I went to a Charter home school program that had what I needed. To be honest I think I turned out far better than I would have at any regular school.
But yours is the exception not the rule. Most home schoolers are corn pone conservatives who want their kids to embrace the same ignorance, mistrust, and hate that they embrace.
Right that’s why I specified a difference. With oversight. Such a thing would be good because one on one student and teacher, and proof of what was learned is given to a teacher every month or so.
Sellers market with that group of people.
We are planning to homeschool because school isn’t liberal and woke enough.
Kidding aside, it’s mostly because of the abuses of teachers, bullying, and school shootings.
I homeschooled for a few years in an area without school shootings (not the USA). It was weird for me because I don’t think kids belong in factories and want/ed to get my kids real critical thinking and media literacy.
I’m apparently a gigantic weirdo and struggled to hold conversations with other homeschooling parents because they were most definitely not interested in helping their kids have independent thought.
That’s something I’m concerned about too. I want to get away from the academic factory model, but I don’t want to associate with the religious loonies to do it.
As a person who homeschools his three kids, it is tough but it is possible to find folks. We’ve lived in some pretty remote places and there’s usually at least a few families within a half-hour drive. In cities, it’s a lot easier.
Independent thought for many people is deciding whether Miller Lite tastes great OR is less filling
Great article, thanks
“I do have one question, though ― do you teach feminism? I mean, I believe in equality, but I am not a feminist, and I don’t want to teach it to my daughter.”
I take the approach I used in Missouri.
“What do you mean?” I ask her.
“Well, do you teach that women are better than men?”
“No, I teach all genders are equal and should be treated as such.”
She buys three kits.
Jesus wept.
This is the problem with the kind of disinformation the right wing media pushes. If you describe something in as objective truthful a way as possible, suddenly none of this shit is controversial.
I’ve seen people totally on board with a description of public health turn around and just rail against how Obama care is Communist.
So much of this just depends entirely on ignorance. Kinda why these people are homeschooling in the first place.
Literally every place where children are educated is a battleground for the political ideologies of the parents. I’ve seen the exact same stuff described in this article in public schools as well.
Homeschooling has increased by 51% nationwide, while public school attendance has decreased by 4%. Prepare to meet a lot more Karens and their snot-nosed monster kids.
Source: I have two young kids who aren’t so bad
I thought this was a News website but it feels like a blog. Not only that but when I tried to exit the article it crashed my Sync app.
I worked at a homeschool public charter school for a few years. A good chunk of the parents were only in it because they wanted to use Christian curriculum and other conservative garbage to teach their children.
The school even had me go to a professional development event that ended up being a Christian leadership conference held at a church. One of my coworkers walked out once she realized it was religious and she was forced to use her PTO for the remaining days of the conference. I should have done the same.
