Reason to homeschool, number 10,001

You pick your own textbooks.

According to Rasmussen this morning: 60% say their kids’ textbooks place political correctness above accuracy.

Why it matters that crazy lefties like Bill Ayers teach indoctrinate in college education departments:

When asked who should have the final say on what textbooks are used in the classroom, 34% of Americans say teachers, but 24% say parents should have the final say. Fifteen percent (15%) prefer giving the final say on textbooks to local government. Nine percent (9%) each designate federal and state governments as the final word.

Among those with children in the schools, 28% say teachers should have the final decision on textbooks, but just 21% say that decision should be made by parents.

Sixty-one percent (61%) of all adults say parents, if they don’t approve of the textbooks selected by a school, should be allowed to transfer their child to another school that uses other textbooks.

Odds are, the teachers will pick the p.c. swill over substantive history.

A homeschooling dad on teaching history to his kids:

Still, when I teach my children about our nation’s history, I will be teaching from three different texts. The first is The Great Republic : A History of America by Sir Winston Churchill. The others, America: The Last Best Hope: Volumes I and II, are by Dr. William J. Bennett, former secretary of education under President Ronald Reagan.

Both of these authors know America’s history and have created fantastic texts from which to teach it. While I may not be a history major, or a certified teacher, I can read these books, teach from them, and supplement the text with additional curriculum of my choosing.

And what do kids get in lieu of accurate history in “real” schools?  Hollywood’s favorite historian:

One of the more popular texts is The People’s History of the United States by the late Howard Zinn, a radical Marxist.

As noted on Big Hollywood, Zinn not only admitted his text is biased, he said he wanted it to be “part of the social struggle”:

“I wanted my writing  of history and my teaching of history to be a part of the social struggle. I wanted to be a part of history and not just a recorder of history and a teacher of history. So that kind of attitude towards history, history itself is a political act, has always informed my writing and my teaching.”

For an example of how bizarre Zinn’s accounting of history is, consider his take on World War II. According to Zinn, America was at fault. We provoked Japan.

Zinn also fails to mention “Washington’s Farewell Address, Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address and Reagans’ speech at the Brandenburg Gate.” D-Day’s Normandy Beach invasion isn’t covered by Zinn, but he dedicates several pages to the My Lai Massacre. His efforts to paint America as an evil country are visible on every page of the text.

While the untrained homeschool dad is teaching his children about American history from two authors who focus on facts, the trained teacher is busy educating students about how terrible America has been from its creation, because the author of their text “wanted to be a part of history.”

But then again, the students in the all important “brick and mortar” school may not even be burdened with learning history.  North Carolina state education leaders recently floated the idea of starting high school level American history at 1877, foregoing all that unnecessary learning about the Revolutionary War or even the Civil War.

How better to erase all meaning of what it means to be an American and how unique our struggle for freedom and founding documents are than to just stop teaching it completely.  This is why homeschooling has earned the derision of liberals who openly question whether parents should have the “right” to educate their children. 

Hat tip: Pundette