As a traditionalist Christian with children, I agree with the respect, understand, and pity approach.
However, I would caveat that we are still choosing to homeschool. There are plenty of good reasons to do so, but for our purposes there is one reason I want to specifically highlight: I don't want the school system to have authority over my children. Just because I want my children to understand the modern world does not mean that I need to grant the modern world the opportunity to do things to my children without my consent.
Obviously it is very important for children to have other adults in their life, people they can turn to besides their parents. However, public school teachers are only rarely worthy of that responsibility, and their job provides them a certain level of immunity from the consequences should they do harm.
Sending one's kids to a public school seems absolutely cruel. Like, even if they avoid the intellectual snares of their teachers, their peers are going to be ruined freaks. Never in 1 million years, would I send my daughters to the schools I went to, never. The introduction of smartphones to middle/high schools has also been a total disaster we never contended with. Parents seem to lack the imagination to foresee how teenagers might use a cell phone.
With the internet, you can homeschool with the least amount of isolation. The best thing about homeschooling is the quality of instruction. Unless you are really rich, most schools (even good middle class public schools or parochial schools) are just weak on education. Look at education majors you knew in college—they aren’t sending us their best.
Yarv, why aren’t you giving your kids full immersion in San Francisco Unified School District’s world renowned critical race theory and diversity equity inclusion?
I think he's in Nevada now, or has he moved back? Before then, he said his kids went to something called a "Chinese school" (that could mean a few different things, but I'm guessin they're not super woke)
Right, it’s not super woke and also not super cheap. That’s why I’m wondering what uncle yarv would have done had Chinese school not been an option? Would he really subject his student to the Maoist SFUSD and hope they came through alright? Even Lowell high school has fallen!
Where I live, even private schools are that way, and the more expensive they are, the worse they are in this regard (while obviously still keeping what somebody called "the freaks" - the violent, difficult children present in every public school classroom - at bay). Maybe not the Chinese schools. Never considered a Chinese school. But even the Catholic parish schools are crazy about the COVID protocols here (masks while outside, regardless of whether you're vaccinated or not, though they'll remove masks from kids 2-4 while they're sleeping - so impressive!). Although, I bet the Chinese schools are also mask-obsessed, but for their own reasons, which I understand.
TBH, the masking indoctrination is much more of a violation, IMO, than the land acknowledgements and so on. Kids intuitively know that stuff the adults are saying is total BS. I asked my kid if they did this a lot at his elementary school. He said yes. I asked him if he knew what it meant. He said no. He doesn't know and doesn't care. It's the same way my husband let his Catholic indoctrination roll off him. Curtis is right - if you don't reinforce it at home, the kids will know it's BS.
The principle of Macintyre's admonition of Rod Dreher can be applied to virtually anything. "the moment you consider yourself liberal or conservative you're done for". A truly vital force doesn't need critical insulation or propagandising. These are both actions taken by people who know in their guts that they're losing.
I am scanning the interwebz for any evidence that Uncle Yarv has a secret brother also purveying life tips to nerds, spergs, and incipient revolutionaries. Will our existence in century 21 remove the required Ann Landers factor to accompany our newly-minted Dear Abby?
My based opinion? Only history will know. All hail Uncle Yarv.
I have a six month old daughter, and I must admit I have no clue how I'm going to approach this can of worms. My wife and I are both extremely rebellious temperamentally, so I'm leaning towards the Yarv method (the idea being, our daughter will rebel against the system instead of leveraging the system to rebel against us). Does anyone have any experience with this / advice?
As a parent of 4, my advice is: Never forget that no teacher cares about your kid’s education as much as you. Homeschooling is not feasible or desirable for everyone, but at the end of the day, the work you do with your kids at home is the most important.
There are good teachers. But (using a baseball analogy) the Wins Above Replacement for any teacher is low if not negative. The best, life-changing teachers have a WAR of 2.0. Most teachers have a WAR of 0.0.
I’ve notice this phenomenon: teachers often find that the situation requires nothing from them. So, if your kid is advanced, well, he doesn’t need any help, he’s fine on his own (no additional work necessary). If he’s special needs, the standards for those kids are so low anyway (no additional work necessary). If he’s in the fat part of the bell curve, what else do you expect (no additional work necessary).
I’ve never seen a teacher take a kid’s Madden score from a 91 to a 95, or a 67 to a 75, etc. But I have witnessed it first hand with my kids. You have to put in the work to ensure your kid gets the best education.
Thanks for the reply. I'd prefer to homeschool, but not sure I'll be able to get my wife on board. I'll try.
I will definitely be reading good books to my kid(s). My mother did the same for me, and I think it went a long way towards my being capable of thinking for myself.
I have a nearly two-year-old son and worry about many of the same things. My wife works at a catholic school, so we hope to start to send him there in another year. Homeschooling isn't an option for us. Public school is out of the question. Catholic School seems like a good option because they do have to follow the state-mandated curriculum and some of the teachers are libs so he will ingest some of the blue-goop, but it's more spaced-out and hopefully he will be spared the worst excesses of the Cathedral (The wrong kind of Cathedral anyway, ha). I rebelled against my own family's faith (Evangelical Christian) and converted to Catholicism--I know Uncle Yarv recently said something about not trusting converts, haha. So, I have to expect my son might follow a similar path as a cradle Catholic. But, I hope with a combo of the Catholic schooling and some of the pity option, I can spare him from some of the worst the libs have to offer.
As a traditionalist Christian with children, I agree with the respect, understand, and pity approach.
However, I would caveat that we are still choosing to homeschool. There are plenty of good reasons to do so, but for our purposes there is one reason I want to specifically highlight: I don't want the school system to have authority over my children. Just because I want my children to understand the modern world does not mean that I need to grant the modern world the opportunity to do things to my children without my consent.
Obviously it is very important for children to have other adults in their life, people they can turn to besides their parents. However, public school teachers are only rarely worthy of that responsibility, and their job provides them a certain level of immunity from the consequences should they do harm.
Sending one's kids to a public school seems absolutely cruel. Like, even if they avoid the intellectual snares of their teachers, their peers are going to be ruined freaks. Never in 1 million years, would I send my daughters to the schools I went to, never. The introduction of smartphones to middle/high schools has also been a total disaster we never contended with. Parents seem to lack the imagination to foresee how teenagers might use a cell phone.
If you must, one suggestion is to ensure the kids are in the orchestra/band, to avoid the freaks. Music nerds are the best nerds.
With the internet, you can homeschool with the least amount of isolation. The best thing about homeschooling is the quality of instruction. Unless you are really rich, most schools (even good middle class public schools or parochial schools) are just weak on education. Look at education majors you knew in college—they aren’t sending us their best.
Yarv, why aren’t you giving your kids full immersion in San Francisco Unified School District’s world renowned critical race theory and diversity equity inclusion?
I think he's in Nevada now, or has he moved back? Before then, he said his kids went to something called a "Chinese school" (that could mean a few different things, but I'm guessin they're not super woke)
Right, it’s not super woke and also not super cheap. That’s why I’m wondering what uncle yarv would have done had Chinese school not been an option? Would he really subject his student to the Maoist SFUSD and hope they came through alright? Even Lowell high school has fallen!
Where I live, even private schools are that way, and the more expensive they are, the worse they are in this regard (while obviously still keeping what somebody called "the freaks" - the violent, difficult children present in every public school classroom - at bay). Maybe not the Chinese schools. Never considered a Chinese school. But even the Catholic parish schools are crazy about the COVID protocols here (masks while outside, regardless of whether you're vaccinated or not, though they'll remove masks from kids 2-4 while they're sleeping - so impressive!). Although, I bet the Chinese schools are also mask-obsessed, but for their own reasons, which I understand.
TBH, the masking indoctrination is much more of a violation, IMO, than the land acknowledgements and so on. Kids intuitively know that stuff the adults are saying is total BS. I asked my kid if they did this a lot at his elementary school. He said yes. I asked him if he knew what it meant. He said no. He doesn't know and doesn't care. It's the same way my husband let his Catholic indoctrination roll off him. Curtis is right - if you don't reinforce it at home, the kids will know it's BS.
The principle of Macintyre's admonition of Rod Dreher can be applied to virtually anything. "the moment you consider yourself liberal or conservative you're done for". A truly vital force doesn't need critical insulation or propagandising. These are both actions taken by people who know in their guts that they're losing.
I am scanning the interwebz for any evidence that Uncle Yarv has a secret brother also purveying life tips to nerds, spergs, and incipient revolutionaries. Will our existence in century 21 remove the required Ann Landers factor to accompany our newly-minted Dear Abby?
My based opinion? Only history will know. All hail Uncle Yarv.
I have a six month old daughter, and I must admit I have no clue how I'm going to approach this can of worms. My wife and I are both extremely rebellious temperamentally, so I'm leaning towards the Yarv method (the idea being, our daughter will rebel against the system instead of leveraging the system to rebel against us). Does anyone have any experience with this / advice?
As a parent of 4, my advice is: Never forget that no teacher cares about your kid’s education as much as you. Homeschooling is not feasible or desirable for everyone, but at the end of the day, the work you do with your kids at home is the most important.
There are good teachers. But (using a baseball analogy) the Wins Above Replacement for any teacher is low if not negative. The best, life-changing teachers have a WAR of 2.0. Most teachers have a WAR of 0.0.
I’ve notice this phenomenon: teachers often find that the situation requires nothing from them. So, if your kid is advanced, well, he doesn’t need any help, he’s fine on his own (no additional work necessary). If he’s special needs, the standards for those kids are so low anyway (no additional work necessary). If he’s in the fat part of the bell curve, what else do you expect (no additional work necessary).
I’ve never seen a teacher take a kid’s Madden score from a 91 to a 95, or a 67 to a 75, etc. But I have witnessed it first hand with my kids. You have to put in the work to ensure your kid gets the best education.
Thanks for the reply. I'd prefer to homeschool, but not sure I'll be able to get my wife on board. I'll try.
I will definitely be reading good books to my kid(s). My mother did the same for me, and I think it went a long way towards my being capable of thinking for myself.
I have a nearly two-year-old son and worry about many of the same things. My wife works at a catholic school, so we hope to start to send him there in another year. Homeschooling isn't an option for us. Public school is out of the question. Catholic School seems like a good option because they do have to follow the state-mandated curriculum and some of the teachers are libs so he will ingest some of the blue-goop, but it's more spaced-out and hopefully he will be spared the worst excesses of the Cathedral (The wrong kind of Cathedral anyway, ha). I rebelled against my own family's faith (Evangelical Christian) and converted to Catholicism--I know Uncle Yarv recently said something about not trusting converts, haha. So, I have to expect my son might follow a similar path as a cradle Catholic. But, I hope with a combo of the Catholic schooling and some of the pity option, I can spare him from some of the worst the libs have to offer.
Are all these "Uncle Yarvs" an elaborate troll?
I am at first annoyed, but I just can't get enough of them!
just send more brandy