"they did not need to do schoolwork because they were going to be raptured,"

[Snarkoleptic]

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/texas-supreme-court-sidesteps-key-home-school-learning-40108883

Problems for Laura and Michael McIntyre, who once educated their nine children in an empty office at the family's motorcycle dealership in El Paso, arose after an uncle told the school district that he never saw the children do much of anything educational. According to court filings, he also overheard of the children tell a cousin "they did not need to do schoolwork because they were going to be raptured," or blessed by the second coming of Jesus Christ.

The family's eldest daughter, 17-year-old Tori, ran away from home in 2006 so she could return to school. The El Paso district put her in the ninth grade because officials weren't sure she could handle higher grade-level work — a claim her parents' dispute.

Attempting to investigate accusations of non-learning, school district attendance officer Michael Mendoza sought proof the children were being properly educated. That prompted the McIntyres to sue, arguing that their equal protection rights under the 14th Amendment had been violated and that the school district was anti-Christian.

The family said it used a religious curriculum similar to one offered in El Paso's Christian schools, and noted the uncle invented claims of waiting for the rapture because he was embroiled in a dispute over ownership of the since-defunct motorcycle dealership

[redstatebluegirl]

1. Good grief! What a bunch of morons!

[Hoppy]

18. Yeah? Who'se the Moran. You couldn't even spell Moran right.

[redstatebluegirl]

21. I think you need to check your dictionary...own one?

[pinboy3niner]

24. This should settle it once and for all...

[Hoppy]

36. Check the post below your response to mine. See? I was right.

[Lancero]

37. Whoosh.

[img][/img]

[Fritz Walter]

27. The truly moronic thing here: they didn't start a charter school

And thereby siphon off thousands of taxpayers' dollars from the local school system and accomplish the same result.

Before anyone chimes in about charter schools having to meet certain curriculum criteria that homes schools do not, I would point to what appears to be the business plan of many corporate charter schools here in Jacksonville FL that open and close more rapidly than a screen door on a trailer in a windstorm.

[Hoyt]

2. Never been much on homeschooling. Too many religious, right wing types doing it to keep their kids

isolated from god knows what.

[redstatebluegirl]

22. The home schooled kids I have dealt with lack social skills.

They have problems working in groups and tend to have issues working with kids who do not believe as they do. Some home schooled kids are home schooled because our schools here are so terrible, but most are home schooled to keep them away from "liberal thinking" and kids who don't look like them. Either way I really think they suffer not being in public school with other kids.

[Hoyt]

26. That's my experience. I know there are some ways that homeschooled kids can still participate in

public high school activities, but i just don't think it is the same.

[wickerwoman]

32. I know a few homeschooled kids

who were homeschooled because they were viciously bullied in public schools or they lived way out in the country and would have had an hour bus commute or because they moved so frequently and generally overseas there was no point enrolling them in public schools. They still picked up social skills from playing with family and neighbours, scouts, sports and other extra-curriculars. One of the best adjusted people I know grew up on a boat being homeschooled by her parents.

It's not "not being in public school with other kids" that makes for a bad homeschooling experience. It's when your parents deliberately isolate you so you won't be exposed to any ideas except theirs. Or where they use homeschooling as a cover for child labour exploitation by pulling their older kids out of school to "help" on the farm or with raising the younger kids. Or where they are grossly unqualified themselves and just sit the kid in front of "educational" computer games all day and take "field trips" to the park.

It's not the school environment itself that makes the difference. It's the ability of the "teachers" and their motivations for doing it.

[whistler162]

33. My cousin and his wife have homeschooled

their children. She does have a degree in education and had taught in schools before the kids came along. The children have socialized with other home school students and other children in different activities over the years.

It all depends on the parents.

[redstatebluegirl]

38. I am sure there are exceptions.

I also think it depends on where you live. Where we live the majority of home schooled kids are from very religious families and ones who don't want their kids in school with people of color. We have a few faculty at the university who home school because the schools are horrible.

We run a couple of summer programs for kids in my husband's department, I also dealt with college kids for 20 years. A pretty large majority of them have issues related to group work and getting along with others in a classroom. I am sure it would be different in a larger state with a different reason for home schooling.

[Wellstone ruled]

3. There are more of these families out there.

[dixiegrrrrl]

4. Well, that does it! I don't want to go to Heaven if it is filled with morons. n/t

[Aerows]

13. No kidding! n/t

[Ilsa]

15. Best laugh all day! I think

we need to come up with a different Heaven, or maybe build a wall in it and since they won't have much education, it'll be easy to get their inept, ignorant side to pay for it.

[Hayduke Bomgarte]

5. I one read an article, I don't recall where

That had a line that's stuck with me ever since.

"Home schooling, is in large part, a mechanism with which stupid people create more stupid people."

[mercuryblues]

6. They should sue

on the grounds of their "deeply held religious beliefs."

[love_katz]

7. The only thing fright-wing home schooling seems to propagate is more ignorance.

. Huge kudos to the daughter who ran away in an effort to go to a real school.

[Snarkoleptic]

8. That had to take a mountain of courage!

Good on her for developing critical thinking skills in an environment hostile to free thought.

[milestogo]

9. There are a number of reasons children are schooled at home

other than fundamentalism.

Some live in the inner city where it is dangerous for children to go back and forth to school.

Some live in rural areas where it takes a long time for children to get to school and back; if living on a farm they may be needed for chores.

There are also children with psychological issues or disabilities that do better in a home environment.

I have known of people who had parents with PhDs that chose to home school their kids to give them a better education.

Home schooling is not equivalent to no schooling, in most cases.

[Dustlawyer]

12. Two of my kids were taught at home. Later when we enrolled them in school they wanted to

place my daughter 1 year ahead and my son 2 years ahead. We kept them at their peers level and they all graduated with honors from both HS and college. My son just finished his Masters in English with a perfect 4.0 at the University of Texas.

My step-daughter suffers from brain damage since birth and was a continual disruption in class until she was kicked out. She has been taking a curriculum sponsored by Texas Tech University and her tutor administers everything. She has become a wonderful young lady, and though behind her peer group, she was just elected the Chairperson over 15 4-H Chapters.

There are way too many who abuse Home School and give it a bad name, but there are some who greatly benefit from it. It depends upon the parents.

[keithbvadu2]

23. Those who do a good job of homeschooling would have no problems with auditing and testing.

Congrats!

[kcr]

17. Well, I'd say if they're on the farm doing chores, that's equivalent to no schooling.

But, you're right, it isn't just fundies who homeschool. It should be a hell of a lot more regulated, though. Parents should have to prove they're actually educating their children to the same standards as children who are attending school.

[Dustlawyer]

35. For sure!!!

[Cassiopeia]

28. None of that applies to this particular case.

[Binkie The Clown]

10. And we all know that god prefers them ignorant. n/t

[OutNow]

11. Yes, there are really people that stupid - I worked for one

In 1990 I was an application programmer/analyst. In the first week of January several of our applications stopped working. They were written in the 1980s, and some sloppy programmer had hard coded an "8" as the decade for order processing. I found the problem and suggested that all the existing applications should be checked and a new subroutine be used to calculate dates based on the system date rather than a hard coded number (so that the applications would continue to work as we moved from the 1990s to a new century in 2000).

My boss, already known as a dumb ass, rejected my solution. "Just change the code from 8 to 9 he replied. We would not have to worry about the applications running in 2000 because the world was going to end before that and all Christians would be raptured."

I did everything I could not to laugh in his face and then enlisted my fellow programmers to change everything to the new subroutine.

[3catwoman3]

14. That must have been...

...extraordinarily difficult.

[keithbvadu2]

25. Didn't God say no one knows when he would come back?

How do these people know it with such certainty?

They are mocking God.

[dixiegrrrrl]

30. I know where the fundies in my neighborhood live.

I am keeping a list of their cars, so when the day comes that they all disappear............

On a slightly more serious note, there was....is?....a group who planned to sell insurance to the rapture bound, said policy covered taking care of any pets left behind. Policy had a specific end date of a year or 2 in the future, then you could buy another one.

Sheer marketing genius, and I am so envious I did not think of it first.

[Javaman]

16. morons for jesus. poor kids. nt

[neeksgeek]

19. I believe the uncle's claims. Here's why...

Here I go with another personal anecdote. I think it has some relevance...

In the mid-90's I dated a woman from a fairly conservative, and very religious, family. She was the oldest of seven children, and was 21 at the time. Her youngest brother was 6 years old. One time, attempting to make conversation with him, I asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up. His answer stunned me: "I don't have to worry about that, because Jesus will come back before then and we'll all go to heaven." (Or words to that effect, I'm paraphrasing.) The conversation didn't go much further. What do you say to a 6-year-old child who believes the world will end before he grows up? I often wonder how his life has turned out and how he feels about these things now. I'll never know, of course.

[ErikJ]

20. I wonder what kind of history they learned,

Jesus was one of the Founding Fathers? Or science. Frightening.

[3catwoman3]

29. Is this the updated...

...version of, "The dog ate my homework?"

[keithbvadu2]

31. Homeschooling is also a way to hide family secrets like the Duggars

[Rex]

34. That is the ultimate 'my dog ate my homework'.