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Home-schooling under assault
Education Today
Stephen Winslow
It is arguably the fastest growing environment in education. The U.S. Department of Education released a report in August entitled "1.1 Million Home-schooled Students in the United States in 2003."
However, other estimates place the numbers somewhere between 1.7 to 2.1 million K-12 home-schooled students in the U.S. during the 2002-2003 school year. Findings consistently suggest that home-schooling has grown about 7 percent per year during the past four years.
Parents gave a wide variety of reasons for home-schooling their children. These reasons included being able to give their child a better education at home, for religious reasons, and because of a poor learning environment at school.
It seems the results of home-schooling have become a threat to the establishment. There are a growing number of officials and fanatical groups across America that have begun a mission to minimize the advertised successes of home-schooling. More alarming, however, is the growing number of stories of groups that are prepared to divide their communities over the educational issue. One such community in Michigan made a decision to suggest a possible link between home-schooling and terrorism.
Michelle Malkin, a national columnist, writes that "the public-school establishment hates home-schoolers. They've smeared the movement as a conspiracy of conservative Christian zealots. They've scoffed at home-schooled kids as social pariahs. They've painted home-schooling parents as uneducated and negligent."
The appalling story in Michigan started out innocently enough. School officials wanted to establish an emergency scenario in a school to assess their ability to respond to a crisis.
"Local school district transportation directors instigated the exercise because they wanted to test their abilities to respond to emergencies," said Tom Spoelman, transportation consultant for the Muskegon Area Intermediate School District in Michigan.
For about a year, school officials and the Muskegon County Emergency Services initiated plans for the event. The community was informed that "the exercise will test not only school transportation directors, but also the Muskegon County Emergency Operations Plan, which involves many agencies throughout the county. About 60 middle- and high-school students from Reeths-Puffer and Whitehall public schools will be part of the exercise," according to Kristin Tank, public-information coordinator for the MAISD.
It was also stated that local law-enforcement agencies, fire departments, human-service agencies, transportation services and medical services would participate.
Students from the local Muskegon Community College participated, and makeup was applied to the students to add to the reality of the gruesome scene.
"Between 200 and 300 people would observe the exercise, including school bus drivers, school administrators, emergency personnel and evaluators from agencies across the state who would provide feedback," Tank said.
What should stop you in your tracks is the description of the attackers in this simulation. In a document released by planning officials it was stated that "the exercise will simulate an attack by a fictitious radical group called Wackos Against Schools and Education who believe everyone should be home-schooled. Under the scenario, a bomb is placed on the bus and is detonated while the bus is traveling on Durham, causing the bus to land on its side and fill with smoke."
This was a taxpayer-funded drill that used public-school students to enforce anti-home-schooling bigotry under the guise of preparing for terrorism.
Michelle Malkin asks, "Terrorism by whom? By Islamic JihadistÕs who hijack planes and incinerate kids headed to Disneyworld? Islamic terrorists who take hundreds of children hostage in Beslan, force them to drink their own urine and shoot babies in the back, or Islamic terrorists who groom toddlers as suicide bombers? Our enemies are Islamic extremist murderers. Except if you happen to attend the Muskegon County, Mich., schools, where the menacing faces of terrorism belong to parents who make untold sacrifices to give their children the best education they know how in the loving environment of their own homes."
This is not the first time that leaders in education have taken it upon themselves to apply irresponsible statements to the educational environment. Education Secretary Rod Paige described the NEA as a "terrorist organization."
The teachers' union officials were understandably furious. Many parents and teachers asked how such an irresponsible, outrageous statement could be uttered from the lips of a government official. How could someone make light of the real terrorists that have attacked our nation and continue to threaten our way of life.
Reactions to the Paige remarks were rapid and pointed.
"I can tell you what my first response was: Scary. That's really frightening," Diana Garchow, a special-education teacher at Highland Elementary School in Bakersfield, Calif., told the Associated Press after Mr. Paige's remarks were made public.
She continued, "It's scary that you can't voice an opinion in this country without being called a terrorist. ... I don't care if it was a joke or what it was, that was a totally inappropriate comment."
Paige was forced to apologize to teachers. Will there be a forthcoming apology from the Muskegon County, Mich., school system? Ms. Malkin asks, "Will its public-education militants apologize to home-schoolers for taking an intolerant swipe at their beliefs? Or will this politicized Wackos Against Schools and Education terror drill be coming to a classroom near you?"
It is hard to define what possible motives the Michigan school officials had. However, it is hard to believe that this was an accident. The scenario was specific, the titles used were calculated, and the insinuation is hideous. Have we deteriorated to such an extent that that there are no labels off limits?
This was an uncontainable attack based on fears, insecurities and ignorance. The same elements of prejudice fueled attacks on citizens for decades because people didnÕt accept the color of their skin. Today, it seems there are some that are interested in directing hate toward others because of the books they read and the education they receive.
It was my hope that Sept. 11, 2001, would forever bring this nation together. Instead, it seems we are investing in energies to tear one another apart. Stories like these make me ashamed of where we have come.
Stephen Winslow is a regular contributor to The Augusta Free Press. Look for Education Today every Tuesday in The Augusta Free Press.
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