Reply #63: When advising people to get thier facts straight, [View All]

[LeftyMom]

it is generally advisable to get one's facts straight. Racist assholes who moved thier kids out of public schools as a reaction to desegregation generally moved them to church schools. Homeschooling was generally illegal and nearly unknown at the time.

In the 60's and 70's a movement toward homeschooling (which was of course a much older concept, people have taught thier kids as long as peope have had kids) was led by people concerned primarily with school reform and the best ways to teach children, such as John Holt. This movement was largely concerned with high quality education, and there is very little mention of religion in homeschooling literature of this period. The focus in homeschooling literature of the period is on education methodology and improving the legal status of home education.

A change in tax law in the early 80's led to the closure of many church schools (some of these students may have been enrolled to avoid integration but likely most were just the children of religious families,) and started the fundie homeschooling movement in earnest. (Some people in the fundie community were promoting homeschoooling before then but the number of fundie homeschoolers even as a subsection of the then-tiny homeschooling community was very small.) The fundie homeschoolers set up paralel organizations and wrote thier own homeschooling guides, etc.

Bottom line: homeschooling is not the result of racism.