Thursday, May 28, 2015

Speaking of the Duggars. . .


I think this whole horrible molestation story is a pretty good argument for banning home-schooling.

Hear me out.

For one thing, there's no way to control what kind of crazy shit these people are teaching their kids.

Why do you think the Duggars home-schooled their kids? Because Michelle Duggar was such a gifted educator? I mean, even if she was, she's got a dozen or more school-aged children at any one time, all at different grade levels. She's trying to teach all of them while cooking for a small army battalion with a toddler around her ankles and an infant on her breast. Do you think any of those kids got any sort of a decent education?

Not that a decent education is really the goal. Especially for the girls. What are the odds that any of those girls learns more than the basic arithmetic needed to treble a recipe meant for a normal family and enough language skills to get through the Bible?

And, look, if they're just being poorly educated, that's not necessarily the end of the world. If they grow up believing that the world is a few thousand years old, the sun revolves around the earth, and Jesus rode on a dinosaur, that just means none of them are going to have a career in the sciences. And what are the odds that that was going to happen anyway? No real harm done.

But in the last several days, we've been seeing some of the more horrific parts of the home-school curriculum the Duggars and other like-minded families have been using.



Duggar Family: Sexual Abuse Counseling Form

Maybe scientific ignorance is fairly harmless, but teaching young girls that they brought sexual molestation onto themselves by failing to dress modestly enough - that is criminal.

Look at # 6: IF the abused was not at fault. Because most of the time, according to this mindset, obviously it's the fault of the victim. So, according to this curriculum, maybe being molested isn't so bad, because God compensates for the abuse with "spiritual power." You know, IF you weren't at fault, which you probably were, what with not wearing a burqa around your brother, Lolita! And point #8 pretty strongly implies that, given a choice, it's better to have been sexually assaulted, because otherwise God wouldn't have given you this spiritual gift because apparently the god they worship is a pretty sick bastard.

And this brings me back to my original question. Why do people like the Duggars homeschool their kids? Not because they think they'll do a better job than a real school, but because it's the best way to keep them from being exposed to the outside world.

If the Duggar daughters had been sent to an actual school, there might have been a teacher, or counselor or school nurse that they could have told about the abuse and the authorities could have been notified (the real authorities, not a family friend who happens to be a state trooper and has a thing for child pornography) and they could have put a stop to it.

To be clear, I'm not saying that the Duggars made the decision to home-school with the idea that should their son molest their daughter(s) this would help keep them from reporting the abuse. But this is an unintended consequence of keeping their children isolated from the modern world. I'm sure that the intent is to keep the children from being "led astray" by a teacher who mentions Darwin, or a classmate who smokes cigarettes, or a friend who tells them that it's not actually normal to be beaten with a rod by your parents.

And yes, I'm sure that there are many perfectly good parents who homeschool their kids for perfectly legitimate reasons. But too bad. Send your fucking kid to school. A real school.  Because even though you may be giving your kids a legitimate education,. there's no way to know that. There's no way of knowing who is home-schooling because they're over-indulgent new-age dorks who think that their special snowflake kids should be able to choose what they want to learn about even if that means going to look at dinosaur skeletons every damn day, or if you're the kind of psycho nut that's teaching your kids shit like this:









11 comments:

Debra She Who Seeks said...

Controlling, cult-addled families like the Duggars would indoctrinate their kids with all this BS even if they weren't homeschooled, so I don't think banning homeschooling would really solve anything. And sometimes there are good reasons to homeschool a kid.

jadedj said...

I agree totally with your points regards the home schooler parent's real ability (or lack of) to school their kids.

We know two couples who home school their "darlings". In both cases, they are nut jobs and yes, fundamentalist Christians. In addition to the points you make, my feeling is that a grand disservice is being done to them by not allowing them to learn how to interact with others in the world on a daily basis. To me, this is as important as a formal education.

Home schooling is a piss poor idea...especially one based on hard shell religion...IMO.























the dogs' mother said...

I was the PTA president, on several district committees and knew the superintendent well. I pulled my kindergartener out of school and homeschooled him. It is a long story but sometimes school is the worst place for some kids. For my child they had no idea what he needed. I looked, I investigated and I found out what he needed. School wanted him on drugs. Not. Going. To. Happen. Think of the kids who are bullied to suicide at school. Happened when my twins were in 8th grade. School is not for everyone and there are really, really good homeschoolers out there.
:-)

the dogs' mother said...

PS Happy ending. Youngest just graduated from college, recruited for his job a year and a half before graduation :-)

Abu Scooter said...

Not much to add to the dogs' mother's story -- congrats on the great news! -- except to note that the one guy I know who was homeschooled (for similar reasons) also turned out more than okay. :-)

As for the Duggars, two things occur to me:

(1) Disgusting as the homeschool curriculum the Duggars use is, it didn't originate with them. How many other families are also using it? If the answer is in even triple digits, we're in much worse trouble than I thought.

(2) Tying back to the last post, what really needs to be nuked from orbit aren't the Duggars, but their enablers over at TLC. Any network that also offers Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, Sister Wives and Toddlers & Tiaras can only be labeled a repeat offender.

Bob said...

Brilliant argument.

And I, too, agree that families like the Duggars think the girls don't matter as long as they can be subservient to their menfolk and pump out more Christian drones.

Professor Chaos said...

Dog's mother - you're right. I hadn't thought about that. Sorry.

the dogs' mother said...

xoxoxox :-)

brewella deville said...

Calling what religious cults like the Quiverfull Movement do to “educate” their children home schooling is like calling watching Fox News every night going to college. A bunch of sick twists huddle together and figure out how to fuel their obsession for young girls. They use religion to shield themselves from scrutiny, then build a culture that oppresses women and demonizes the outside world and anyone that would show interest in it. The Duggar sideshow is disgusting, and the people rushing to defend the sister diddling Josh and his parents even more so.

jadedj said...

Dogs Mother...I second what the Professor said. After reading your comment, I realized that I am judging all based on my limited experience with two. Your points are well taken :) Sorry.

the dogs' mother said...

Thanks :-)
but also agree there are problems
and they concern me.