Texas Homeschoolers: We Shouldn’t Have To Educate Our Kids If They’ll Be Raptured Soon Anyways

[liberal N proud]

The parents of nine Texas children are suing the state over the fact that they were asked to educate their children in subjects like math and spelling and not just church hymns and theology. Their argument: Why waste our time on education, when the second coming of Jesus Christ is upon us.

Like many homeschoolers, the McIntyre family in El Paso was given wide latitude in their children’s education. They had almost no oversight from educators. They were never required to follow a curriculum or have their children take standardized tests like children in public (and most private) schools do. The results weren’t pretty: The children learned almost nothing they couldn’t learn in Sunday school.

Even when one of the children tried to flee, the ignorance made escaping the situation difficult. The family’s 17-year-old daughter ran away from home after years of social and educational neglect. The state found a public school to place her in, but while her peers were starting their senior year, she was sent to 9th grade, where educators worried she would struggle to keep up.


http://www.addictinginfo.org/2015/11/01/texas-homeschoolers-we-shouldnt-have-to-educate-our-kids-if-theyll-be-raptured-soon-anyways/

[bkkyosemite]

1. Religion can be such control and abuse

[valerief]

2. Religion kills. nt

[TlalocW]

3. I wonder if they've even considered the possibility they're wrong

Because if they're not bothering to educate their kids because of an impending rapture, then they're probably not putting anything away for retirement so they've set themselves up for an old age full of hardships which their kids aren't going to be able to help with much since they're only going to be qualified for low-paying jobs.

TlalocW

[annabanana]

12. never, not once

too scarely

[madinmaryland]

15. All their savings are going to the church. Morans.

[Gothmog]

4. It is tough living in Texas at times

[Zing Zing Zingbah]

5. It's good the 17 year old got out of there

At least she has a chance now. If there are other kids younger than her, the state should force them to send the kids to school. Texas must have bad laws about homeschooling. In my state, home schooling kids have to take the same annual standardized test that the public school kids take or have the your kids work at least reviewed and signed off by someone holding a state certificate in teaching. Most home schoolers just take the standardized test.

[BlueJazz]

6. I talk to God all the time and he told me the other day: "Remind me to bypass that part of Texas"

[Baitball Blogger]

7. Left Behind. There's more than one meaning.

[tk2kewl]

8. Religion is the opiate of the asses

(Yes, I deliberately left off the M)

[KamaAina]

9. Are you sure that isn't from The Onion?

[surrealAmerican]

10. How far do they intend to take this argument?

It could just as easily be argued that there's no need to feed, clothe, or house your children if they are about to be "raptured", yet any of those would lead to the removal of your children from your custody - just like this should.

[hunter]

11. Rapture...

[liberal N proud]

18. I get inspired every time I see that clip

Get some inflatable dolls and some helium and sit across from a church on Sunday morning. As the people are leaving, release the dolls.

[dembotoz]

13. home schoolers can be a bit on the nutso side

admit we did homechool one child for one year.
mom a certified elementary school teach...long story...

lets just say we went to a state homeschoolers conference and boy it was an eyeopener.

no standards
no
none
zippo

they babble about how good some sample students do while i do not know how that happens
was shocked

[hifiguy]

14. Religion is a mental illness.

Fundy religion is a profound and usually incurable mental illness. How does this not make these mouth-breathing duck-fuckers unfit parents under the law?

This kind of stupid cannot be fixed.

Those poor, poor kids.

[smirkymonkey]

16. I weep for the future. These kids have no chance.

The lack of a real education puts them at a severe disadvantage. Having complete nutcases for parents don't really help either.

[gratuitous]

17. While these parents are clearly deranged

I wonder if the Texas court will feel compelled to agree with the plaintiffs?

This isn't a new problem, either. Paul had to deal with this attitude in the church he founded at Thessalonica. Some of the folks there were convinced that Jesus was going to come back soon, so why do anything? Just sit back and wait for God to magically end all this mess and unpleasantness of life. If someone else got screwed, that was just bad timing or bad luck.

Paul had to upbraid these folks by instituting a rule among the small congregation: If you don't work, you don't eat (2 Thess 3:10). Unfortunately, down through the ages, the context of this rule has been lost, and it has been turned into a bludgeon against helping anyone, and a salve for the greedy and selfish to avoid any eleeomosynary activity: "The Bible says you should just starve to death if you can't support yourself," which is decidedly NOT what Paul was talking about.

The plaintiffs are similarly hiding behind bad theology and looking to dodge their parental responsibilities with the blessing of the state. The correct ruling is not just no, but hell no.

[Ilsa]

19. This idea of a rapture soon doesn't even fit

with their theology. Supposedly, the rapture, etc, cannot occur until everyone on earth has heard the gospel.

[hunter]

20. On the other hand, I know someone who was accepted to a PhD program entirely "home schooled."

Her parents were scientists, most frequently living in very remote places of Africa, etc.

Her teachers and daycare providers were scientists and graduate students working in the field.

Unwashed Humans, all of them. Stinky.

My own parents are artists and I enjoyed a similar feral childhood, chasing my own interests.

I quit high school for college. I was very done with high school the very first day, but it took some time to escape.

Nevertheless, I recognize many "home-schooler" parents are rather dim and intensely fearful that their children might learn some biology in school, most especially human biology, or maybe worse, evolutionary biology, or God Forbid, SEX!

My parents are artists but they've never had any trouble with science. As a kid all my questions about sex or science were answered, if not by my mom's words, then by my dad's drawings.