The Fools are Truly Wise, and the Wise Fools

by Candy Summers

For years, the National Education Association has been brainwashing us to believe that parents are truly incapable of teaching their own children, therefore requiring massive task forces of "state certified" teachers to do the job. As my mother always says, "Consider the source." Public education faces tremendous financial loss for every child it loses to private and home schools. And with standardized test scores plummeting and humanism, spiritualism, values clarification, sex, violence, drugs, and suicide prevailing, the system continues to lose money and control at an alarming rate. As the Communists knew so well, if they won't stay, force them to, and in so-called republic, legislate they must. SB 380, HR 6, and SB 1513 all reek of the government's aggressive pursuit to take control of our children by outlawing what God ordained thousands of years ago and forcing our children to stay in the system's control.

We as parents are susceptible to this outlandish propaganda because we want what's best for our kids. For 13 years, we were brainwashed to believe that schools know more about children than do parents, so off to school our children go. This is all while God continues to say, "My people are perishing from lack of knowledge." See, the truth is that children learn best from their our loving, caring parents. I should know--I'm a "state certified" teacher.

I received the second highest score ever given to a student teacher from UMSL, graduated Magna Cum Laude, and was hailed by many for my teaching abilities, yet I'm convinced that each parent is more qualified than I to teach their own children. All parents want the best for their children academically, emotionally, physically, and spiritually and will work harder than anyone else to ensure their children's success and happiness.

While teaching first grade, I arrived early each day, worked through lunch, stayed after school, and worked for hours at home each night trying to ensure each child's success, But as hard as I tried, I could not give them what they needed most--their own parents' love, care, natural insight, and ability. The truth is that children learn best from their own loving, caring parents.

From my own life, I can remember the very first day my mom took me to kindergarten. I couldn't believe she was leaving me with a baby sitter who already had 39 other children. I cried the first day, longing for my own parents and my own home. On the second day, I surmised that the teacher couldn't possibly take care of 40 children properly, so I did what came naturally. As a result of the training I received at home, I rolled up my sleeves and helped where needed, spending the rest of the year wiping runny noses, tieing shoes, and hugging insecure kids. And for the next eleven years, I spent my days with people I didn't know who spent their days undermining the very things my parents had worked so hard to instill--allegiance to God, parents, and country. So I decided to make a difference in this system by becoming a teacher.

To be certified to teach your children, I spent four years learning that we all came from apes; our forefathers were immoral, selfish, chauvinist pigs; values were relevant, making stealing, lying, and murder okay; those who had more should share with the victims of society; many societies were dominated by women; and communism was a viable form of government. I was required to view a pornographic homosexual film. I watched an abortion--a good method of population control for an already overpopulated world. I was taught that restrictive parents should be restricted from their children and that early childhood education was a must for successful adulthood.

Clearly, schools have become a battleground for our children's very souls, teaching all religions but Christianity: evolution, humanism, values clarification, and graphic sex education. With drugs, profanity, and violence prevailing, doesn't it make you wonder why anyone would send their kids to school? Logically, isn't it truly absurd that parents give their children over to perfect strangers for the majority of their day? Schools also destroy self-esteem, creativity, independent thinking, and the way children learn naturally. Learning takes place naturally living life in a family setting, not in a room with 30 peers and one adult. Parents know their own child best and can personalize the lessons and approach to meet each child's individual needs. Teachers can't--I know, because I tried. Who wouldn't learn best from a loving parent?

After having a child of my own, I knew from my experience that I wasn't going to give my child over to perfect strangers to undermine all that I had instilled; besides, I enjoyed our time together and I knew I would do a better job. I don't need any research to convince me that homeschooling is the only way for all children, but because we live in an expert-driven society, here's the expert's research. According to Dr. Raymond Moore in What Educators Should Know About Home Schools, "The Smithsonian Institutions's recipe for genius and leadership specifies: (1) warm parent/adult educational responsiveness, (2) far more time spent with parents than with children outside the family, and (3) a great deal of freedom to explore."

According to John Gatto, "The Education Press reported amazing news that children schooled at home seem to be five or even ten years ahead of their formally trained peers in their ability to think."

Research done by The National Home Education Research Institute showed that homeschooled students on the average score 30 percentile points higher on standardized achievement tests than pupils taught in a conventional classroom.

In What Educators Should Know About Home Schools by Dr. Raymond Moore, "Research studies funded by Cornell University found that children who spend more time with their peers than their parents, become PEER DEPENDENT. This in turn brings loss of self-worth, optimism, respect for parents, and even trust in peers. The become age segregated, comfortable only with their age mates, developing essentially a me-first kind of sociability. For many children, such narcissism means depression, delinquency, or violence. On the other hand, in a home where children spend more time with their parents than with their peers and are made to feel needed, wanted, and depended upon as members of the family corporation, a positive sociability is built. In a national sampling of parent-educated children, John Taylor of Andrews University found that self-concept of homeschooled children was significantly higher than the conventionally schooled children measured on the Pier-Harris Children's Self-Concept Scale. Actually, more than half of all homeschoolers placed in the top ten percent; and the longer they were taught at home, the higher the self-concept."

Being a "state certified" teacher and in talking with many other homeschooling "state certified" teachers, we all agree that our certification has not made us better teachers. But it has convinced us that parents are their children's best teachers. And I believe God, Creator of us all, the Almighty, all knowing Mater, has given us as parents the sole responsibility to educate our own children. Psalm 127:3, "Beloved, children are a gift from the Lord." And the responsibility for these precious gifts lies entirely with the parents. Proverbs 1:8, "Hear my son your father's instruction and do not forsake your mother's teaching." Proverbs 22:6, "Train up a child in the way he should go." Deuteronomy 6:6-7, "And these words which I am commanding you today shall be on your heart and you shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up." The truth is, children are supposed to be taught by their own loving, caring parents.