HATING HOMESCHOOLERS AT HARVARD

By: David Almasi

If people are allowed to leave their homes by June, the scolds at Harvard will be hosting a private, by-invitation-only conference examining the prospects for locking homeschoolers out of their in-house classrooms. Organizers are contending that parents teaching their own children pose “problems of educational deprivation and child maltreatment that too often occur under the guise of homeschooling.”

Project 21 member Rich Holt, who homeschools his two kids, begs to differ. And this black conservative is taking on their assumptions of inherent racism, sexism and religious extremism with his own experience and the simple, telling fact that even Harvard admissions officers understand the value of a good homeschooled student.

As first reported by the Daily Caller, Harvard Law School’s Child Advocacy Program (CAP) is set to play host to the “Homeschooling Summit: Politics, Problems and Prospects for Reform” on June 18 and 19. Under the guise of “child rights,” selected scholars will come to the private institution to hear from the likes of conference co-organizer Elizabeth Bartholet – a Harvard Law professor and director of the CAP.

Bartholet has decidedly negative opinions about parents who choose themselves over schools to teach their children. In a paper suggested as advance reading for summit attendees, she calls homeschooling a “threat… to children and society.” Homeschooling parents, she contends, “want to isolate their children,” “promote racial segregation and female subservience” and “keep their children from exposure to views that might enable choice about their future lives.”

Harvard Magazine, highlighting Bartholet’s work, also quoted her saying that she wants kids to “grow up exposed to community values, social values, democratic values, ideas about nondiscrimination and tolerance of other people’s viewpoints.” Parents apparently cannot be trusted to raise good citizens. But that’s not a stretch for someone who has suggested a “presumptive ban” on homeschooling.

And her very strong feelings are in spite of the fact that Harvard has sought out homeschoolers. Education expert Dr. Susan Berry told Alpha Omega in 2013 that “Schools such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard, Stanford, and Duke University all actively recruit homeschoolers.” In a 2017 Harvard Crimson article, Harvard Dean of Freshmen Thomas A. Dingman said, “We’ve had lots of success with students who identify as homeschooled.”

At this time, it’s unclear if anyone from the Harvard admissions office will be attending the law school’s conference to offer a dissenting opinion on the value of homeschooling.

But Rich would like to offer one! Not only has he found success in learning, but he also says that his homeschooled kids are more independent in their thoughts and actions as a by-product of not being in a traditional classroom under the heavy hand of teachers. Rich says:

Leave it to a liberal to solve our nation’s educational woes by ending a private plan that’s working in favor of a public plan that isn’t. Homeschoolers are sought after by major universities for a reason. They are more ready for college than their peers, better adaptable to the diversity on campus and excel in their studies. Homeschoolers are a national treasure. Their quality of education and upbringing make them among the most capable and talented students in the nation. Only leftist demagogues like those in the Ivy League would seek to distance a family’s natural right to educate their young. It’s only more ironic because Harvard is itself trying to admit homeschooling students, knowing these students are best prepared for the rigors of the workload at its university. The sad reality is that these leftists don’t care about the education of America’s youth. They only care about what they get to put in their heads over years of mechanized schooling. Through 13 long years of indoctrination, the pupil is deprived of critical thinking. She is put into an environment where she is forced to face forward, be quiet and repeat what the teacher says she needs to know. If she whispers to a peer next to her – as children do – she is punished. If she asks a question, she’s told what to think. If she dares to challenge the assumption of the government agent, she is quickly ridiculed or punished. We don’t need less homeschooling. We need more. In the home environment, a student is free to ask questions. The student is rewarded for creativity, for asking questions and for daring to think differently. In the school, this student sits in detention. In the homeschool, this student uses her curiosity to do a science project. In the school, a student is punished for speaking to her neighbor. In the homeschool, social time is a part of the day and highly encouraged. As I see it, public schools are slavery. Public schools are made to create good drones for a heartless society that needs more cogs in the machine – not people who ask questions. The public school is an institution whose only true value is in the deprivation of the growth of the human spirit. This government institution seeks not to challenge a student to grow, but to thwart that growth at every corner. The public school fights against the very soul of the American identity. To the liberal, might makes right. But, to the conservative – well, we punch the bully in the nose. And liberals just can’t have that kind of thinking in their oppressive Utopian ideal.

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To schedule an interview with a member of Project 21, contact Judy Kent at (703) 759-0269.

BLACK LEADERSHIP NETWORK

Project 21, a leading voice of black conservatives for over 25 years, is sponsored by the National Center for Public Policy Research. Its members have been quoted, interviewed or published over 40,000 times since the program was created in 1992. Contributions to the National Center are tax-deductible and greatly appreciated, and may be earmarked exclusively for the use of Project 21. Founded in 1982, the National Center for Public Policy Research is a non-partisan, free-market, independent conservative think-tank. Ninety-four percent of its support comes from some 60,000 individuals, less than four percent from foundations and less than two percent from corporations. Sign up for email updates here. Follow Project 21 on Twitter at @Project21News for general announcements. To be alerted to upcoming media appearances by Project 21 members, follow our media Twitter at @NCPPRMedia.

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This above article (HATING HOMESCHOOLERS AT HARVARD) was originally created and published by Project 21 and is republished here with permission and with attribution to the author David Almasi and nationalcenter.org/project21/

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