Hello, , from NHERI.

It continues to amaze me how many people were warning Americans 30 to 50 years ago where state-run schooling was headed. Actually, many predicted it at the beginning of the emergence of the "common school" over 120 years ago.

During the next five days, I will be attending the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) in New Orleans, Louisiana. Amongst other things, a few other researchers and I will talk about how public/state school educators are out to change the thinking and behavior of all students in the public schools. My paper, that was accepted for presentation, is entitled Homeschooling: Beneficial Learner and Societal Outcomes but Educators do Not Promote It. (I will tell you more about AERA in the near future.)

Along these lines, Barbara M. Morris, in her book published in 1979, Change Agents in the Schools: Destroy Your Children, Betray Your Country, was far ahead of the many school watchers today [endnote 1]. Her book is fact-filled and quote-rich. She quotes, in-depth and in-context, those she is exposing and evaluating. She writes: "A change agent is a person, organization, or institution that changes or helps to change the beliefs, values, attitudes or behavior of people without their knowledge or consent" (p. 15).

A bit further, Morris claims the following:

So, what are government [i.e., state, public] schools? They are administrative government agencies that exist to promote change. What kinds of change? Social change, political change, economic change, cultural change, religious change, change in our form of government. Total change. But specifically, change from what to what? Change from a Christian, sovereign nation to a Humanist/Socialist interdependent nation-state in a dictatorship euphemistically called a "global community", with "world citizens" content with enslavement. (p. 17)

She does not have a problem with being vague.

Now, some might claim that Morris cannot support her thesis but she does an excellent job of presenting plenty of premises (e.g., documents and quotes) to support her theory. Hers is one of those "older" books, with simple text and no graphics, the kind that do not live up to many of today's standards for appealing to the eye. Morris does more, however, than appeal to the eye; she tells the facts straight and true and how much different things would be today if more Christians had read and heeded her words.

I do not like to report sad news but Barbara Morris did and I think what she wrote is important. Here is what she penned:

Why aren't more parents aware of the "change in students the curriculum is intended to bring about" [quoting from a change agent]? Because they are not aware of the mechanics and facets of the change process - - the use of misleading "educationese"; the federally funded curricula; the federally funded programs that transform teachers into zealous missionary change agents. Most of all, parents are not aware of the "change in students the curriculum is intended to bring about" because they really don't want to know what is happening behind those impenetrable closed classroom doors. If they "invaded" the alien territory of the classroom where they are not wanted, they might be forced y conscience to act upon what they see and hear. Sadly, many parents would rather not fight, not even for the welfare of their own children. (p. 68)

Research and experience over the past 30 years, however, tell us that an exploding number of parents have gone from stupor and apathy to vigor and action. They are the pioneers and settlers and current shakers and movers of the modern homeschool movement. They realize that all forms of schooling (education) are the teaching, training, and indoctrination of children. They know that whether they continue the home-based education of their young children or decide to send them away all day to a state-run or private intuitional school that someone will shape the minds and hearts of their children.

These parents and leaders know that the following is true:

And He also spoke a parable to them: "A blind man cannot guide a blind man, can he? Will they not both fall into a pit? A pupil is not above his teacher; but everyone, after he has been fully trained, will be like his teacher." (Luke 6:39-40, NAS).

Home educators know that the "teacher" is the whole of all to which their children are exposed - the textbooks, videos, peers, projects, attitudes, "extracurricular activities," music, and teachers, the change agents of their schooling environment. Today, just over 2 million school-age children are not under the sway of the change agents of state-controlled government schools [endnote 2]. And the number appears to continue growing.

P.S. Please feel free to send us your questions about homeschooling and we will try to answer them in upcoming messages.

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Endnotes:

1. Morris, Barbara M. (1979). Change agents in the schools: Destroy your children, betray your country. Upland, CA: The Barbara M. Morris Report.

2. 2.04 Million Homeschool Students in the United States in 2010; http://www.nheri.org/HomeschoolPopulationReport2010.html