The School Liberator
ccuthbert by way of Helen Hegener
Visit http://www.deschooling.org The site for what ifs...
July 4, '01 Vol. 1, No. 18
===============================================
T H E S C H O O L L I B E R A T O R
===============================================
Alliance for the Separation of School and State
* Independence Day * suspended animation *
* New family tradition * "Sheltered English immersion" *
* Dot Your I's and Cross Your T's *
* The Battle for Image *
--> It's Independence Day, the greatest single day
not only in our nation's history, but in the history
of modern civilization. But do American children know
this?
--> Fox news reports that "one in five U.S. teens doesn't
know from which country America declared its independence."
--> The article continues, "'When you look at these
numbers, it means that more than 5 million U.S. teenagers
don't understand the true meaning of Independence Day,'
said Colin Campbell, president of the foundation that
runs Colonial Williamsburg, the restored 18th-century
capital."
--> And why should they? Do teenagers--young adults
held in suspended animation--have the slightest taste of
independence in their own lives? Maybe, just maybe the
fault is not in the teenagers.
--> Give them Matthew Spalding's essay "Independence
Forever: The 225th Anniversary of the Fourth of July"
or better yet read it aloud with your family. Make it a
tradition every July 4th. Don't wait for your public
school personnel to do it. It may be a long wait.
http://www.heritage.org/library/backgrounder/bg1451.html
--> On July 5th from 6:30 to 8:30 pm, the good people at
the Independent Institute in Oakland are sponsoring an
evening discussion on public education--"Why Are the Public
Schools Failing and What Can Be Done about It." Authors
Richard Vedder (Can Teachers Own Their Own Schools) and James
Merrifield (The School Choice Wars) will be speaking.
For more information, follow the link.
http://www.independent.org/tii/forums/010705ipf.html
--> Bilingual opponents are making progress in Colorado,
the Rocky Mountain News reports. (California opponents
have gained ground recently, too.) Bilingual is out,
"sheltered English immersion" is in. That's one year
bilingual followed by sink or swim. Leave it to
public school employees to come up with such a term.
--> But should parents be forbidden from having their
children taught in whatever language they want? I am required
by law to teach my children in English. What would Patrick
Henry say about this? More on this next time...
--> And this from--where else?--California: A bill to
create a new statewide cursive handwriting competition to
encourage good penmanship. "'Not every young person is going
to grow up to be a doctor,' joked the author, state senator Ross
Johnson. He said schools have been neglecting penmanship
"in the rush to use technology."[AP] Wow, a state senator
and a comedian, too. Look out Jay Leno...
--> Alliance President Marshall Fritz will be on the Bob
Madrid Show, KIQ 1010am, at 4pm Mountain Daylight Time,
Tuesday, July 17. Krista Kafer of the Heritage Foundation
will also be interviewed.
--> Any more comments on our new format? Hearing from you
will help us serve you better. mailto:ccuthbert@...
================ ANNOUNCEMENTS =================
--> Sepschool.org's overhaul has begun. Take a look at our
new homepage http://www.sepschool.org We are on our way but
need $8,500 to pay our new webmaster to upgrade other areas
of the website. We are hoping for a $1,000 gift, three $500
gifts, and a whole bunch of gifts from $25 to $250. We need
your commitment of support by July 30 to be able to secure
Geoff Braun's services for the rest of the work. Email Morgen
with your pledge mailto:Morgen@... or call 559/292-1776.
Help us reach more people with our fast-spreading liberation
message. As always, we thank you for your generous support.
--> SepCon2001 is set for Nov. 16-18 in Arlington VA, the
weekend before Thanksgiving, at the Hilton DoubleTree
Hotel in Arlington VA. We have a SepCon2001 page
listing the speakers and topics. Registration information,
too. Go to
http://www.sepschool.org/sepcon.html
Mark your calendar now.
===============================================
The Battle for Image
by Cathy Cuthbert
Mom Held in Killing 5 Kids: Children May Have Died in Tub
Copyright 2001 Houston Chronicle
June 27, 2001Houston TX--In a heart-rending case that
may stem from postpartum depression, a Clear Lake woman
who attempted suicide in 1999 was charged in the deaths
of her five children Wednesday amid shocking evidence
that she drowned them at home in a bathtub. . .
In "The Revolution Was" Garet Garrett tells us that
"Lasswell and Blumenstock, in World Revolutionary Propaganda,
define propaganda as 'the manipulation of symbols to control
controversial attitudes.' Symbols they define as 'words and
word substitutes like pictures and gestures.' And the purpose
of revolutionary propaganda 'is to arouse hostile attitudes
toward symbols and practices of the established order.'"
(People's Pottage, Truth Seeker Books 1992, p. 26.)
There can be no doubt whatsoever that over my lifetime,
the revolutionary propaganda flame thrower has been turned on
full blast and aimed squarely at human familial relationships.
I will not use the hackneyed phrase "traditional family
values" because it is silly. It implies that familial
relationships are mere habit handed down from previous
generations and not based on the nature of our species.
After all, values can change and habits can be broken.
No, it isn't traditional family values that have been
in the revolutionary cross hairs, but the biological basis
of the family itself. In one generation's time, popular
sentiment toward the biological role of parents has
reversed so completely that it is now possible for a
editorial writer to seriously suggest that mothers who
stay home with their children to learn and work and live
their lives as a family are holding them "captive."
Despite the long history of the human race throughout
which children have spent their days at their parents'
side, such an arrangement can now be called aberrant,
isolating, prison-like.
How did this happen? It wasn't via a direct attack on
motherhood, as any bespectacled revolutionary would know
is impossible. Rather, other symbols were manipulated.
The image of the suited, executive woman dropping her
children off at daycare at 6:45 am on her way to work
comes to mind. The image of a dozen or so pre-school
children playing in a well-stocked, primary-colored
activities room under the watchful care of a certified
expert is another. The image of the homeschool mother
is yet a third.
These three key images are the main battleground in the
human familial relationship propaganda war. The revolutionaries
have had it all their way for 25 years or so. To most
people, executive mom and institutionalized pre-schooler
have become positive images and the homeschool mother
has become at best a tarnished one. But lately, some
inconvenient facts have been tripping the revolutionaries
up. A growing number of executive moms are realizing
that having a full-time career translates into being
less than even a part time mother. A recent study hinted
at what every stay-at-home mother knows, that children
who spend most of their time confined in a room with
agemates exhibit behavior problems as a result. And an
impressive amount of research and anecdotal evidence
show that homeschooling is successful.
Still, the war goes on and we homeschool mothers are
keenly aware that it will never end. Just one year
ago, I wrote:
Surely, the legislation is already written and
waiting for the perfect situation-a violently
abusive, mass murdering, crack addict of a
[homeschooling] parent found holdup in a house
with half a dozen twisted, little skeletons buried
in the basement. The neighbors say, "They seemed
like a nice family, kind of quiet. Said they homeschool.
We had no idea..."
There is no solace in being prophetic. Tonight, I
silently stood over my children, taking in their
peaceful faces as they dreamed their pleasant dreams,
and felt the sting of tears as I thought of what
happened in the Yates house that cruel morning. The
revolutionaries would have us believe that homeschooling
was the cause. So far, there have been two accusatory
editorials and, as a result, my inbox is jammed with
emails from homeschoolers across the country all saying
essentially the same thing-"Brace yourselves, here it
comes." We all knew it would.
It is the measure of how thoroughly politicized our
culture has become that the heinous crimes of one woman,
drugged and in abject despair, can be used to cast doubt
on the quintessential image of motherhood that is
homeschooling. That the sacrifices homeschool families
make can be perversely twisted into selfishness-or
worse, abuse-lays plain the ferocity of the propaganda war.
Is Froma Harrop's Seattle Times editorial
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/editorialsopinion/134311368_harrop28.html
an ignorant rant or excellent piece of coldly
calculated revolutionary propaganda? It hardly matters
for the effect is the same. Homeschool mothers have
witnessed her attack and are now on the offensive. Harrop
is likely to get more mail in response to that one editorial
than she has for all her previous editorials combined,
as the battle for image endlessly drags on.
Homeschoolers are not deterred by bad press-we cannot
afford the luxury. Yet every day we wonder why we are
trapped in this battle that we did not start and never
wanted. Why are we demonized for sharing our lives with
our sons and daughters? Why has mother become a political
symbol rather than a warm and safe apparition who checks
on children in the night, and drops a kiss on their
foreheads as they sleep?
Cathy Cuthbert is a wife, mother and homeschool advocate
who captivates her children every day on California's
Central Coast. She is the editor of The School Liberator,
the email newsletter of the Alliance for the Separation
of School and State and the webmaster for deschooling.org
http://www.deschooling.org
===============================================
SCORECARD
Total Proclaimers (as of June 29, 2001): 12,886
New Proclaimers year-to-date: 1,342
Top three states in Proclaimers per million population:
Minnesota, 181; New Hampshire, 148; Utah, 126.
See all states at
http://www.sepschool.org/cgi/ranking.cgi/PPM0
===============================================
SIGN THE PROCLAMATION or get a family member to:
"I proclaim publicly that I favor ending government
involvement in education."
http://www.sepschool.org/Proclamation
WANT TO SOUND OFF? Discuss education issues with
fellow articulate School Liberators. Go to
http://www.sepschool.org/Other/eGroupsDiscussion.htm
COMMENTS OR QUESTIONS? Send us your message at
mailto:ccuthbert@...
WORD OF MOUTH is the most efficient means of marketing
the Separator philosophy. Please forward this newsletter
to your family, friends and associates.
===============================================
FINAL THOUGHT
I am concerned with the increasing numbers of school
children who are experiencing burnout as they go through
the year in traditional schools. They struggle to
remain in an educational system that professes to care
about the individual child, but refuses to recognize
individual talents and overlooks potential individual
goals in the name of team effort. A principle that
seems to have been forgotten by those in the academic
world is that the child is a person first and a student
second. --Shirley M.R. Minster, "Student Burnout - What's
at Stake?"
http://www.homeeducator.com/FamilyTimes/articles/9-3article2.htm
===============================================
THE SCHOOL LIBERATOR is currently a FREE service of
The Alliance for the Separation of School & State,
4578 N First #310, Fresno CA 93726 (559) 292-1776.
We are a non-profit, grass roots educational organization
dedicated to informing people worldwide how education can
be improved for all-not only the poor-by liberating schools
from politics. For more information go to
http://www.sepschool.org
Publisher: Marshall Fritz
Editor: Cathy Cuthbert
Copyright 2001, The Alliance for the Separation of
School & State, Inc. All rights reserved.
TO SUBSCRIBE to The School Liberator send an email message to
mailto:SchoolLiberator-list-request@...
with just one word, "subscribe," in the BODY of the message
(not the subject.)
TO UNSUBSCRIBE do the same but with the single word,
"unsubscribe" in the body.
July 4, '01 Vol. 1, No. 18
===============================================
T H E S C H O O L L I B E R A T O R
===============================================
Alliance for the Separation of School and State
* Independence Day * suspended animation *
* New family tradition * "Sheltered English immersion" *
* Dot Your I's and Cross Your T's *
* The Battle for Image *
--> It's Independence Day, the greatest single day
not only in our nation's history, but in the history
of modern civilization. But do American children know
this?
--> Fox news reports that "one in five U.S. teens doesn't
know from which country America declared its independence."
--> The article continues, "'When you look at these
numbers, it means that more than 5 million U.S. teenagers
don't understand the true meaning of Independence Day,'
said Colin Campbell, president of the foundation that
runs Colonial Williamsburg, the restored 18th-century
capital."
--> And why should they? Do teenagers--young adults
held in suspended animation--have the slightest taste of
independence in their own lives? Maybe, just maybe the
fault is not in the teenagers.
--> Give them Matthew Spalding's essay "Independence
Forever: The 225th Anniversary of the Fourth of July"
or better yet read it aloud with your family. Make it a
tradition every July 4th. Don't wait for your public
school personnel to do it. It may be a long wait.
http://www.heritage.org/library/backgrounder/bg1451.html
--> On July 5th from 6:30 to 8:30 pm, the good people at
the Independent Institute in Oakland are sponsoring an
evening discussion on public education--"Why Are the Public
Schools Failing and What Can Be Done about It." Authors
Richard Vedder (Can Teachers Own Their Own Schools) and James
Merrifield (The School Choice Wars) will be speaking.
For more information, follow the link.
http://www.independent.org/tii/forums/010705ipf.html
--> Bilingual opponents are making progress in Colorado,
the Rocky Mountain News reports. (California opponents
have gained ground recently, too.) Bilingual is out,
"sheltered English immersion" is in. That's one year
bilingual followed by sink or swim. Leave it to
public school employees to come up with such a term.
--> But should parents be forbidden from having their
children taught in whatever language they want? I am required
by law to teach my children in English. What would Patrick
Henry say about this? More on this next time...
--> And this from--where else?--California: A bill to
create a new statewide cursive handwriting competition to
encourage good penmanship. "'Not every young person is going
to grow up to be a doctor,' joked the author, state senator Ross
Johnson. He said schools have been neglecting penmanship
"in the rush to use technology."[AP] Wow, a state senator
and a comedian, too. Look out Jay Leno...
--> Alliance President Marshall Fritz will be on the Bob
Madrid Show, KIQ 1010am, at 4pm Mountain Daylight Time,
Tuesday, July 17. Krista Kafer of the Heritage Foundation
will also be interviewed.
--> Any more comments on our new format? Hearing from you
will help us serve you better. mailto:ccuthbert@...
================ ANNOUNCEMENTS =================
--> Sepschool.org's overhaul has begun. Take a look at our
new homepage http://www.sepschool.org We are on our way but
need $8,500 to pay our new webmaster to upgrade other areas
of the website. We are hoping for a $1,000 gift, three $500
gifts, and a whole bunch of gifts from $25 to $250. We need
your commitment of support by July 30 to be able to secure
Geoff Braun's services for the rest of the work. Email Morgen
with your pledge mailto:Morgen@... or call 559/292-1776.
Help us reach more people with our fast-spreading liberation
message. As always, we thank you for your generous support.
--> SepCon2001 is set for Nov. 16-18 in Arlington VA, the
weekend before Thanksgiving, at the Hilton DoubleTree
Hotel in Arlington VA. We have a SepCon2001 page
listing the speakers and topics. Registration information,
too. Go to
http://www.sepschool.org/sepcon.html
Mark your calendar now.
===============================================
The Battle for Image
by Cathy Cuthbert
Mom Held in Killing 5 Kids: Children May Have Died in Tub
Copyright 2001 Houston Chronicle
June 27, 2001Houston TX--In a heart-rending case that
may stem from postpartum depression, a Clear Lake woman
who attempted suicide in 1999 was charged in the deaths
of her five children Wednesday amid shocking evidence
that she drowned them at home in a bathtub. . .
In "The Revolution Was" Garet Garrett tells us that
"Lasswell and Blumenstock, in World Revolutionary Propaganda,
define propaganda as 'the manipulation of symbols to control
controversial attitudes.' Symbols they define as 'words and
word substitutes like pictures and gestures.' And the purpose
of revolutionary propaganda 'is to arouse hostile attitudes
toward symbols and practices of the established order.'"
(People's Pottage, Truth Seeker Books 1992, p. 26.)
There can be no doubt whatsoever that over my lifetime,
the revolutionary propaganda flame thrower has been turned on
full blast and aimed squarely at human familial relationships.
I will not use the hackneyed phrase "traditional family
values" because it is silly. It implies that familial
relationships are mere habit handed down from previous
generations and not based on the nature of our species.
After all, values can change and habits can be broken.
No, it isn't traditional family values that have been
in the revolutionary cross hairs, but the biological basis
of the family itself. In one generation's time, popular
sentiment toward the biological role of parents has
reversed so completely that it is now possible for a
editorial writer to seriously suggest that mothers who
stay home with their children to learn and work and live
their lives as a family are holding them "captive."
Despite the long history of the human race throughout
which children have spent their days at their parents'
side, such an arrangement can now be called aberrant,
isolating, prison-like.
How did this happen? It wasn't via a direct attack on
motherhood, as any bespectacled revolutionary would know
is impossible. Rather, other symbols were manipulated.
The image of the suited, executive woman dropping her
children off at daycare at 6:45 am on her way to work
comes to mind. The image of a dozen or so pre-school
children playing in a well-stocked, primary-colored
activities room under the watchful care of a certified
expert is another. The image of the homeschool mother
is yet a third.
These three key images are the main battleground in the
human familial relationship propaganda war. The revolutionaries
have had it all their way for 25 years or so. To most
people, executive mom and institutionalized pre-schooler
have become positive images and the homeschool mother
has become at best a tarnished one. But lately, some
inconvenient facts have been tripping the revolutionaries
up. A growing number of executive moms are realizing
that having a full-time career translates into being
less than even a part time mother. A recent study hinted
at what every stay-at-home mother knows, that children
who spend most of their time confined in a room with
agemates exhibit behavior problems as a result. And an
impressive amount of research and anecdotal evidence
show that homeschooling is successful.
Still, the war goes on and we homeschool mothers are
keenly aware that it will never end. Just one year
ago, I wrote:
Surely, the legislation is already written and
waiting for the perfect situation-a violently
abusive, mass murdering, crack addict of a
[homeschooling] parent found holdup in a house
with half a dozen twisted, little skeletons buried
in the basement. The neighbors say, "They seemed
like a nice family, kind of quiet. Said they homeschool.
We had no idea..."
There is no solace in being prophetic. Tonight, I
silently stood over my children, taking in their
peaceful faces as they dreamed their pleasant dreams,
and felt the sting of tears as I thought of what
happened in the Yates house that cruel morning. The
revolutionaries would have us believe that homeschooling
was the cause. So far, there have been two accusatory
editorials and, as a result, my inbox is jammed with
emails from homeschoolers across the country all saying
essentially the same thing-"Brace yourselves, here it
comes." We all knew it would.
It is the measure of how thoroughly politicized our
culture has become that the heinous crimes of one woman,
drugged and in abject despair, can be used to cast doubt
on the quintessential image of motherhood that is
homeschooling. That the sacrifices homeschool families
make can be perversely twisted into selfishness-or
worse, abuse-lays plain the ferocity of the propaganda war.
Is Froma Harrop's Seattle Times editorial
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/editorialsopinion/134311368_harrop28.html
an ignorant rant or excellent piece of coldly
calculated revolutionary propaganda? It hardly matters
for the effect is the same. Homeschool mothers have
witnessed her attack and are now on the offensive. Harrop
is likely to get more mail in response to that one editorial
than she has for all her previous editorials combined,
as the battle for image endlessly drags on.
Homeschoolers are not deterred by bad press-we cannot
afford the luxury. Yet every day we wonder why we are
trapped in this battle that we did not start and never
wanted. Why are we demonized for sharing our lives with
our sons and daughters? Why has mother become a political
symbol rather than a warm and safe apparition who checks
on children in the night, and drops a kiss on their
foreheads as they sleep?
Cathy Cuthbert is a wife, mother and homeschool advocate
who captivates her children every day on California's
Central Coast. She is the editor of The School Liberator,
the email newsletter of the Alliance for the Separation
of School and State and the webmaster for deschooling.org
http://www.deschooling.org
===============================================
SCORECARD
Total Proclaimers (as of June 29, 2001): 12,886
New Proclaimers year-to-date: 1,342
Top three states in Proclaimers per million population:
Minnesota, 181; New Hampshire, 148; Utah, 126.
See all states at
http://www.sepschool.org/cgi/ranking.cgi/PPM0
===============================================
SIGN THE PROCLAMATION or get a family member to:
"I proclaim publicly that I favor ending government
involvement in education."
http://www.sepschool.org/Proclamation
WANT TO SOUND OFF? Discuss education issues with
fellow articulate School Liberators. Go to
http://www.sepschool.org/Other/eGroupsDiscussion.htm
COMMENTS OR QUESTIONS? Send us your message at
mailto:ccuthbert@...
WORD OF MOUTH is the most efficient means of marketing
the Separator philosophy. Please forward this newsletter
to your family, friends and associates.
===============================================
FINAL THOUGHT
I am concerned with the increasing numbers of school
children who are experiencing burnout as they go through
the year in traditional schools. They struggle to
remain in an educational system that professes to care
about the individual child, but refuses to recognize
individual talents and overlooks potential individual
goals in the name of team effort. A principle that
seems to have been forgotten by those in the academic
world is that the child is a person first and a student
second. --Shirley M.R. Minster, "Student Burnout - What's
at Stake?"
http://www.homeeducator.com/FamilyTimes/articles/9-3article2.htm
===============================================
THE SCHOOL LIBERATOR is currently a FREE service of
The Alliance for the Separation of School & State,
4578 N First #310, Fresno CA 93726 (559) 292-1776.
We are a non-profit, grass roots educational organization
dedicated to informing people worldwide how education can
be improved for all-not only the poor-by liberating schools
from politics. For more information go to
http://www.sepschool.org
Publisher: Marshall Fritz
Editor: Cathy Cuthbert
Copyright 2001, The Alliance for the Separation of
School & State, Inc. All rights reserved.
TO SUBSCRIBE to The School Liberator send an email message to
mailto:SchoolLiberator-list-request@...
with just one word, "subscribe," in the BODY of the message
(not the subject.)
TO UNSUBSCRIBE do the same but with the single word,
"unsubscribe" in the body.