Speaker 1: Hey everybody, and welcome to Everything's Political. I'm your host,
Speaker 1: Taya Shoemake. You can also find us online at Everything's
Speaker 1: Political dot substep dot com, Shout Out Too, Magicman. Joe
Speaker 1: Strecker the president John Tyler of Podcast Producers. He was
Speaker 1: born on this day in seventeen ninety wow, right before
Speaker 1: we mucked up the republic with the seventeen ninety one
Speaker 1: Judiciary Act. But I digress. So John Tyler was our
Speaker 1: tenth president, and if you're unaware, he stepped up after
Speaker 1: William Henry Harrison perished after one month of being in office.
Speaker 1: He was the guy that didn't wear the coat, and
Speaker 1: he came down with pneumonia and quite literally caught his death.
Speaker 1: So John Tyler stepped up. He had been a Democrat
Speaker 1: but switched to the Whig Party to run as Harrison's
Speaker 1: vice president. And you know, John Tyler gets a lot
Speaker 1: of criticism, Joe, he gets not a lot from me.
Speaker 1: But when people talk about John Tyler, they talk about
Speaker 1: him not doing anything noteworthy. And I have to shake
Speaker 1: my head because part of the conundrum in which we
Speaker 1: find ourselves is in large part due to the fact
Speaker 1: that elected employees get into office and think they have
Speaker 1: to do something.
Speaker 2: Well, no, you don't.
Speaker 1: And if a piece of legislation crosses your desk that
Speaker 1: has no authority or nothing to do with the Constitution,
Speaker 1: or expressly violates the Constitution, you put that baby in
Speaker 1: the shutter. I don't want government doing stuff. It either
Speaker 1: destroys existing programs or platforms or systems, or creates a
Speaker 1: new bureaucracy. For Leviathan, that just is a headache that
Speaker 1: never goes away. And so it's okay that John Tyler
Speaker 1: didn't do a lot he was I will say this, Joe,
Speaker 1: he was in favor of secession. So that's why they
Speaker 1: really hate him. In fact, I think he was elected
Speaker 1: to the Confederacy the Confederate States, but died in eighteen
Speaker 1: sixty two before he was seated in that government. So
Speaker 1: interesting character, John Tyler. Give him a second look, will you? You
Speaker 1: know that we've got every president that wants to be
Speaker 1: the education president, that wants to be the defense president,
Speaker 1: that wants to be da da da da da. No,
Speaker 1: there might be things powers, not powers, but issues that
Speaker 1: presidents have assumed. But I like to remind people that
Speaker 1: anyone who puts their hand on the Bible and swears
Speaker 1: to Almighty God to uphold and defend the Constitution. They
Speaker 1: have one job, and that is to keep us free
Speaker 1: from all the things that are going on now, Free
Speaker 1: from debt, free from scandal, free from big business, free
Speaker 1: from invasion. Government has allowed the very things it was
Speaker 1: instituted to keep free, or to keep us free from them.
Speaker 1: So again, give John Tyler a second look. I like
Speaker 1: that he didn't do much. I want my government to
Speaker 1: do very little, and that's why I want it to
Speaker 1: be very little.
Speaker 2: Okay, we're going to talk more about education today. I
Speaker 2: can't wait.
Speaker 1: We've got a great guest and she's gonna knock your
Speaker 1: socks off, Joe, let's take us out there.
Speaker 3: Yeah, same as the whole buss.
Speaker 1: Okay, many of you will be familiar with our next guest.
Speaker 1: She is amazing an actress, conservative pundit, radio show host, writer.
Speaker 1: My goodness, she is also a passionate advocate for home education.
Speaker 1: She's joining us today to talk about her new book,
Speaker 1: Sam Sorbo, Welcome and thanks for coming today.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for having me on. This is
Speaker 2: my favorite topic, so I'm happy to be here to
Speaker 2: talk about this.
Speaker 1: Fantastic We're ready to go. Lots of buzz about homeschooling lately,
Speaker 1: especially with a lot of the issues that have come
Speaker 1: out that I think started at COVID, Right, So a
Speaker 1: lot of stuff came out of backpacks or parents were
Speaker 1: looking at the zoom calls or teams and found out
Speaker 1: a lot of stuff they didn't know. Before we get
Speaker 1: into the book, let me ask how you all started
Speaker 1: with homeschooling.
Speaker 2: Oh gosh, okay, so that goes back to So my
Speaker 2: oldest is now twenty three, So this is what fifteen
Speaker 2: sixteen years ago, and he was in He did first
Speaker 2: and second grade. We moved for the schools to go
Speaker 2: to the good public schools, and he had this cute
Speaker 2: little red brick public school. And after during third grade,
Speaker 2: I started to wonder really what they were doing, Like
Speaker 2: this wasn't education as I thought education should be. He
Speaker 2: wasn't being challenged, and I just really didn't like a
Speaker 2: lot of the things that I saw happening, including his
Speaker 2: behavior that he was adopting from being in school. He
Speaker 2: was a very popular kid, and he started to sort
Speaker 2: of lord that over his younger siblings because they were
Speaker 2: stupid because they were younger, and you know, agism is
Speaker 2: taught in the classroom, and so I said to my husband,
Speaker 2: I think I could fail at homeschooling him and he
Speaker 2: would still be better off, which is really quite a statement,
Speaker 2: like he could end up dumb, but at least he'll
Speaker 2: be a good person. But I actually believed that, and
Speaker 2: so I started homeschooling him and then his younger brother,
Speaker 2: So he was third grade, Shane was first grade. And
Speaker 2: it went pretty well for about a year, a year
Speaker 2: and a half and a year and a half in
Speaker 2: I just felt like I was just a failure. His
Speaker 2: younger brother was a little math with He finished first
Speaker 2: grade math on Halloween, so it took him what two
Speaker 2: months to do first grade, and then he was in
Speaker 2: second grade, and then he moved to third grade. And
Speaker 2: by the time he was halfway through second grade, he
Speaker 2: was in fourth grade math. But he couldn't read very well.
Speaker 2: So I forced him to do the reading book over again,
Speaker 2: and you know, we did every lesson and even on vacation,
Speaker 2: and he still wasn't that good. And so I just
Speaker 2: felt like a failure. So I put them into a
Speaker 2: little private Christian school, very small, where they really believed
Speaker 2: in rigorous academics, which is what I believed in, and
Speaker 2: they stay that it was the hardest thing I'd ever done.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh. Driving home from school that day when
Speaker 2: I dropped them off, And the funny thing is when
Speaker 2: I when I brought them in, the headmistress said, we're
Speaker 2: going to test him to make sure that we put
Speaker 2: him in with the right group of students. And so
Speaker 2: she took Shane away and she tested him. She came
Speaker 2: back and she said, yeah, you're right, he's he's second grade.
Speaker 2: I said yeah. She said, well he is testing at
Speaker 2: a fourth grade math level, so you know, good for you, mom.
Speaker 2: And I had said to her, I told her he
Speaker 2: was remedial and reading he just really wasn't it just
Speaker 2: wasn't clicking. I don't know. She said, he is reading
Speaker 2: at a fifth grade level. And I looked at her
Speaker 2: and I said, so I'm the one with the problem.
Speaker 2: She was like, yeah, kind of.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: And I left him there. I still left the kids
Speaker 2: there because I'm still under this impression that there exists
Speaker 2: an expert who can educate properly. That is a chimera.
Speaker 2: That's a mirage. It doesn't exist. There is no such thing.
Speaker 2: And so, at least certainly not one size fits all,
Speaker 2: and so I left them there and after six weeks,
Speaker 2: and by the way, it was a hybrid, So a
Speaker 2: cautionary tale about hybrids for parents. This was, you know,
Speaker 2: two days of homeschooling, you do the work that the
Speaker 2: school sends home with you. You're the teacher those two
Speaker 2: days and then they're the teachers the other three days
Speaker 2: of the week or whatever. And I would try to
Speaker 2: download their homework and it wouldn't download. You know, there
Speaker 2: were always technical glitches. So it was the whole online
Speaker 2: learning thing was still new, and so it's not like
Speaker 2: I blame them that there were tech glitches, but why
Speaker 2: would call the teacher in the evening and I'd say, listen,
Speaker 2: I tried to download the homework and it just won't download,
Speaker 2: like I can't make it, you know, work, And her
Speaker 2: answer was always, well, then don't worry about it. Now
Speaker 2: wait a minute, hold on, because you assigned it. It
Speaker 2: has to be important. If it's not important, don't give
Speaker 2: me the assignment, do you know what I'm saying? Like,
Speaker 2: it was just so frustrating, and so after six weeks,
Speaker 2: I was like, do you guys like school? And they
Speaker 2: were both like, no, Mommy, I was like, okay, we're
Speaker 2: gonna quit. And I brought him back home and that Monday,
Speaker 2: I put math down in front of Shane and he
Speaker 2: started crying and he said, I can't, Mommy, it's too hard.
Speaker 2: I can't do it, which was words that he had
Speaker 2: never spoken about math ever, and it broke my heart.
Speaker 2: I was devastated. I was like, wow, they damaged him.
Speaker 2: And of course I didn't know how. I just had
Speaker 2: this boy who was melting down, afraid to do math.
Speaker 2: And so I pulled the math book away and I
Speaker 2: just very quietly, you know, closed it back up, put
Speaker 2: it to the side. I said, okay, let's do some grammar.
Speaker 2: Let's do some you know. A week later, I pulled
Speaker 2: the math book out again. I went back a couple
Speaker 2: chapters and I started from there and I said, hey,
Speaker 2: let's try this. No problem. He went right into it,
Speaker 2: no problem. And so I realized. It took me a
Speaker 2: couple of years to realize in actually somebody coming up
Speaker 2: to me at a speaking event and saying to me,
Speaker 2: isn't it beautiful that God allowed you to make the
Speaker 2: mistake putting your children in that little school for six
Speaker 2: weeks to prove to you that you are enough. And
Speaker 2: that's my message for parents is God gave you your children.
Speaker 2: You are enough, and if you're not enough, he will
Speaker 2: equip you. If you don't have patience, he will equip you.
Speaker 2: If you lack the skills, he will equip you. If
Speaker 2: you lack the knowledge, he will equip you somehow. But
Speaker 2: we have lost faith. We've lost faith in God. We've
Speaker 2: lost faith in ourselves because we went to school and
Speaker 2: we were trained to not have faith in ourselves. And
Speaker 2: we've lost faith in children that they are intrinsic learners.
Speaker 2: And so we not only have we lost faith in children,
Speaker 2: my goodness, our culture hates children. We hate children. We
Speaker 2: institutionalize them all day, we send homework home to make
Speaker 2: them continue working even in the evenings. We deprive them
Speaker 2: of their childhoods. We abort them and celebrate it. We
Speaker 2: put them into gender studies and call it health care.
Speaker 2: And I'm just here to try to wake people up
Speaker 2: and say, you know, your children are precious gifts and
Speaker 2: you should do everything you can to protect them. And
Speaker 2: when you do that, the rewards are astonishing.
Speaker 1: Amen. Thank you for that. I appreciate it. It's you know,
Speaker 1: we talk here often about reclaiming the blessings of liberty
Speaker 1: that we've outsourced. And first and foremost our family, the
Speaker 1: care of our children, the education of our children, are healthcare.
Speaker 1: You know. I was brought up the same way, trusting
Speaker 1: the experts. And I say that one of the great
Speaker 1: blessings that came out of COVID is that more and
Speaker 1: more people distrust the experts. They have all these degrees
Speaker 1: after their name and the Department of Education. People have
Speaker 1: all these degrees. And I like to say, after the
Speaker 1: last five years, Sam, I'm reminded that thermometers have a
Speaker 1: lot of degrees. And now I know why nurses stick
Speaker 1: them where they do for their most accurate readings. It's
Speaker 1: amazing to me the and I agree with you, the
Speaker 1: lack of faith in ourselves in of other things, and
Speaker 1: if we just put more money or more expensive schools.
Speaker 1: I had a friend that told me once we were
Speaker 1: going too hard in our home school. You know, enjoy.
Speaker 1: It was great advice, it was timely advice. And she said, Taya,
Speaker 1: your kids learn just by being with you. Yes, you know,
Speaker 1: you're a history buff, you love math, you know, and
Speaker 1: our situation and is ironically very similar to yours and
Speaker 1: she said, things that you do with your children will matter.
Speaker 2: I like this phrase because I think it encapsulates a lot,
Speaker 2: and people can sort of sit with it and revisit it. Often.
Speaker 2: You are the curriculum. And so children want to be
Speaker 2: like their parents. And you know, we've adopted in our
Speaker 2: culture this idea that children are well, they don't want
Speaker 2: to be like their parents. They kind of disdain their parents. Oh,
Speaker 2: the parents are older. And that's a cultural norm that
Speaker 2: we have adopted. That is highly suspicious. It's incorrect, and
Speaker 2: actually it's infectious and dangerous. Children want to be like
Speaker 2: their adults. So I wrote a piece the other day
Speaker 2: that I can't remember where it was published, but it
Speaker 2: pointed out that children should have their parents' values and
Speaker 2: if they don't grow up with the parents' values, if
Speaker 2: they don't grow up and retain the values of the parents,
Speaker 2: that's wrong. Like that is decidedly wrong. And of course
Speaker 2: we've seen that over the past several decades where the
Speaker 2: parents are like, yeah, my child's a liberal go figure.
Speaker 2: It's so weird. You know, it's not weird. It's that
Speaker 2: you didn't raise your child. It's that you sent your
Speaker 2: child to other authorities to have them pour out what
Speaker 2: they wanted in the child. You gave the child a
Speaker 2: different adult as the curricula, because the idea is education
Speaker 2: of a child is simply bringing a child from childhood
Speaker 2: into adulthood so that the child can be a productive, loving,
Speaker 2: giving adult, right, And so there are many different paths
Speaker 2: to get there, just like there are many different paths
Speaker 2: to find a job. So you know, you have to
Speaker 2: understand that just because school is the norm and people
Speaker 2: send their kids to school, a lot of people said,
Speaker 2: a lot of people are deep, and that doesn't mean
Speaker 2: you're going to jump off the cliff if everyone else
Speaker 2: jumps off the cliff, I would hope. So, you know,
Speaker 2: start thinking for yourself and stop thinking that you're incapable.
Speaker 2: That's what my book is about. It's about empowering the parents.
Speaker 2: It's it's you know, people say, well, what curriculum do
Speaker 2: you recommend. I recommend the parent as the curriculum. Yes,
Speaker 2: there are curricula, by the way, and I have recommendations
Speaker 2: in the book also because there are curricula that I
Speaker 2: pursued that I just found to be an extreme blessing
Speaker 2: for the family and the kids, and I just think
Speaker 2: they're great they don't pay me. But I've reached a point.
Speaker 2: You know, I've got three grown kids now, and I
Speaker 2: was highly academic with the first two, and my third
Speaker 2: one is an artist. And I finally figured out that
Speaker 2: it's not about academics. It's about the whole picture, and
Speaker 2: so academics are one part of the picture. But I
Speaker 2: heard Marissa Strait, the CEO of Prager, you say, and
Speaker 2: I've been quoting her at nausea. You can't teach academics
Speaker 2: without character. You must pour into the character of the child.
Speaker 2: And actually you must do it first, because a child
Speaker 2: doesn't understand what integrity and honor and all of those virtue,
Speaker 2: all those good things are will not be interested in academics.
Speaker 2: But if you imbue the child with character, then you
Speaker 2: can say these are good things, and the child will go, well,
Speaker 2: I want to pursue good. Therefore I will pursue these
Speaker 2: things that you're telling me are good because it's in
Speaker 2: my interest.
Speaker 1: So I'm glad you mentioned that the about the soul.
Speaker 1: You know, there's a quote it says education is simply
Speaker 1: the soul of one generation passed to another. And when
Speaker 1: our youngest matriculated, I think it was a senior year
Speaker 1: for a particular program into a local school, and they
Speaker 1: knew we were homeschol but they were going to allow
Speaker 1: him to do this particular program. And it was a
Speaker 1: small private school, and so they were trying to sell
Speaker 1: me on academics. Well, he was pretty solid in the academics,
Speaker 1: and he was he's our math guy too. And finally
Speaker 1: I said, you know that, I'm sure your academics are fine.
Speaker 1: That is not my number one concern with our son.
Speaker 1: My number one concern is his soul.
Speaker 2: You're absolutely right, or concern should be for the soul
Speaker 2: of our child. If you give your children truth, beauty
Speaker 2: and goodness, if you give them character, if you give
Speaker 2: them virtue, if you if you set the bar for
Speaker 2: good living, they will And and you show them how
Speaker 2: to learn. You teach them to read, You show them
Speaker 2: how to read a textbook so that they can understand
Speaker 2: and interpret. Okay, this is what it's teaching me. They
Speaker 2: can learn anything. And then when you give them the
Speaker 2: free time that they should have, right, they should have
Speaker 2: maybe three hours of academics, but the rest of the
Speaker 2: day should be basically free time to pursue things that
Speaker 2: are good and virtuous. Not video games for eight hours
Speaker 2: a day or whatever. Then you'll have a child that
Speaker 2: is deeply motivated to pursue the things that interest them.
Speaker 2: And that's what you want for your child. You know,
Speaker 2: raise up a child in the way he should go.
Speaker 2: That proverb in Hebrew. The translation is much more like
Speaker 2: raise up a child to discover who he's meant to be.
Speaker 2: Inside basically, raise a child to be who God meant
Speaker 2: them to be, and then they will not depart from
Speaker 2: it because they will have found their calling in life.
Speaker 2: And so, you know, I want people to understand that
Speaker 2: we've been sold a bill of goods in our own schooling.
Speaker 2: We've been told that school is education. It's not. We've
Speaker 2: been told that education equals money, doesn't. We've been told
Speaker 2: that money is the greatest value. It's not. And anybody
Speaker 2: who's lived a life will tell you that the most
Speaker 2: important thing to them are their relationships. Relationship is the
Speaker 2: number one and if you're not a good person, you
Speaker 2: will not have those relationships. And unfortunately, we've done a
Speaker 2: tremendous disservice in our culture. I love Erica Komisar is
Speaker 2: going around. I just interviewed her for my podcast. You
Speaker 2: should have her on if you get an opportunity. She's
Speaker 2: talking about the zero to three of a child's life
Speaker 2: are the most important for learning how to bond and
Speaker 2: forming healthy relationships, and that when parents just subject their
Speaker 2: children to childcare at six weeks, I think it's child abuse,
Speaker 2: is what that is. It's not care. It's abuse that
Speaker 2: those children then grow up to have severe attachment deficient
Speaker 2: like disabilities and disorders. And uh so we have a
Speaker 2: we have a bunch of walking zombies now because they
Speaker 2: never learned how to form solid relationships, which is again,
Speaker 2: which is another sort of chink in the armor of
Speaker 2: marriage and the destruction of marriage, the destruction of the family.
Speaker 2: And then those women when they have children, they don't
Speaker 2: even want to attach to the children. They hire a
Speaker 2: nanny or they send them to child care, and the
Speaker 2: child's just an accessory. And it's this self perpetuating thing.
Speaker 1: So and it's frankly, Sam, it's it's straight out of
Speaker 1: the communist playbook. You know. I have a quote from
Speaker 1: the social the Communist education workers from I believe it
Speaker 1: was the thirties or forty teachers' unions, Yes, exactly, thank you.
Speaker 1: Modeled after that that says we must remove the child. No,
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, we must remove the infant from the crude
Speaker 1: influence of their families. Yeah, and get them away so
Speaker 1: that we can raise them to be good communists.
Speaker 2: I mean that's well, that's how you enslave a populace.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, because if you're taught what to think, not how
Speaker 1: to think, then you are maliable, and you are you know,
Speaker 1: under the under the pressure of the of the majority,
Speaker 1: or however they want to put it in the herd,
Speaker 1: I guess. But I'm hoping we're reaching a point where
Speaker 1: where at least we're stopping it, like to get it
Speaker 1: turned around. And I want to get into the book now,
Speaker 1: Parents Guide to homeschool making education fun and easy, which
Speaker 1: is not two things people who haven't homeschooled would Those
Speaker 1: are not two attributes they would ascribe to homeschooling. So
Speaker 1: tell us a little bit. It's a labor of love,
Speaker 1: you describe it, So tell us a little bit about that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So teaching a child is fun, if it's hard,
Speaker 2: if it's too hard, if it's if it's uh, anxiety
Speaker 2: provoking or antagonistic. Stop. I know that there are lots
Speaker 2: of moms who yell at their kids. I will say,
Speaker 2: you shouldn't ever be in a position to yell at
Speaker 2: your children unless unless what they're doing is is severely
Speaker 2: dangerous and they're gonna harm themselves or someone. Right. Look,
Speaker 2: parents have to understand that they have all the power
Speaker 2: and so all they have to do is administer consequences.
Speaker 2: The problem is we don't want to administer consequences. So
Speaker 2: that's where the hardship comes is. And the challenge is you.
Speaker 2: You have to be able to stick to your guns.
Speaker 2: You have to be able to lay down the law
Speaker 2: and make it stick. But you don't have to shout
Speaker 2: about it. It's you know, you can actually laugh about it.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry that you're not going
Speaker 2: to be able to go out tonight. You're supposed to
Speaker 2: do this thing and now you can't go with your friends,
Speaker 2: or now you can't go to the movie or whatever. Right,
Speaker 2: But all you have to do is be be strong
Speaker 2: about it. Your no has to mean no. All my
Speaker 2: kids at one point wanted to quit piano. The answer
Speaker 2: was no, is that simple. No, I'm so sorry that's
Speaker 2: not going to happen. But mom, I'd rather play guitar.
Speaker 2: Guitar is a great instrument, yeah, and it's a really
Speaker 2: good accompaniment for piano, so you can study both of
Speaker 2: them at the same time. No, that's not what I
Speaker 2: wanted to do. So, you know, you just have to.
Speaker 2: You have to, and you have to pick your battles.
Speaker 2: You have to pick which hills you need to die
Speaker 2: on and which hills are just not worth fighting about. Yes,
Speaker 2: And when my daughter was in tenth grade, math had
Speaker 2: become very contentious between us, and so for her, math
Speaker 2: is more confusing, and the rules don't really at that
Speaker 2: point weren't really sticking, and so she was getting things wrong,
Speaker 2: and I was getting very frustrated because I I mean,
Speaker 2: at one point I thought she was just you know,
Speaker 2: toying with me, you know, I mean, it just got
Speaker 2: it was too contentious. And so for tenth grade, I
Speaker 2: said to her, you know what, We're gonna let trigonometry go.
Speaker 2: There's just it's not worth it. There's no reason for
Speaker 2: me to provoke your anxiety, for you to provoke my aggravation.
Speaker 2: Life is too short, and frankly, I don't understand how
Speaker 2: important trigonometry really is for a budding artist. Now, did
Speaker 2: I at some point go, how is she ever going
Speaker 2: to make a living. Yeah, yeah, it takes a leap
Speaker 2: of faith. But God created an artist in her, and
Speaker 2: she's she'll get it figured out eventually. And and by
Speaker 2: the way, the following year we went back to math.
Speaker 2: But will she ever get through calculus? Probably not. And
Speaker 2: you know what, that's okay. Much as I love calculus
Speaker 2: and I wish that all my kids love calculus like
Speaker 2: I do. They don't, but more they play piano a
Speaker 2: lot better than I ever did. So you know, there
Speaker 2: are these trade offs and you just have to figure out.
Speaker 2: You know, we aren't taught. There's so much that school
Speaker 2: fails to teach that we need. For instance, discernment we
Speaker 2: don't learn discernment in school. Prioritizing we don't learn. In fact,
Speaker 2: schools teach us make pros and cons lists. Have you
Speaker 2: ever made a pros and cons list? You sit there
Speaker 2: with the two lists and you're going back and forth
Speaker 2: between the two, and you're like, but this doesn't get
Speaker 2: me any closer to a decision at all. When all
Speaker 2: you have to do is make a list of priorities.
Speaker 2: What's your number one priority. If that's a deciding factor,
Speaker 2: there's your decision. If it's not go to number two.
Speaker 2: If that decides it, there's your decision. If not, you know,
Speaker 2: rinse and repeat. So there are these life skills that
Speaker 2: our schools fail to teach, and we don't even like
Speaker 2: recognize that they're missing. We don't say, oh, my gosh,
Speaker 2: I really should have learned that in school. You don't
Speaker 2: know what you're missing until it's until it's too late.
Speaker 1: Basically, well, I cried my way through calculus. But to
Speaker 1: your point about artists, our son is an our artist,
Speaker 1: and it was I too, was like, okay, it's in
Speaker 1: the inbox, the Lord's inbox, right, because wow. But again,
Speaker 1: we raised them to understand priorities and what was necessary
Speaker 1: at each stage of life. And I was praying one
Speaker 1: morning and what came to mind was, you know, I
Speaker 1: complain often about the state of politics and about the
Speaker 1: state of the entertainment or whatever the case may be.
Speaker 1: And the conclusion to which I came at the end
Speaker 1: of this, can't my people be artists? Can't God's people
Speaker 1: be artists? Can't? Of course they can't. Your family is
Speaker 1: living proof. And some of the dysfunction, I would say
Speaker 1: a lot of the dysfunction that we see in certain
Speaker 1: realms and society is because God's people left.
Speaker 2: Oh gosh, yes God's people left. We've allowed a cultural
Speaker 2: takeover for sure. And yes, God's people can be artists.
Speaker 2: But why do I not value art because I went
Speaker 2: to school. School taught me not to value art. School,
Speaker 2: stupid school has has imbued the culture with stupid values.
Speaker 2: And that's that's when I went to school. Right, I'm older,
Speaker 2: so that was my schooling, and schooling today is off
Speaker 2: the hook, like their values are so skewed and so wrong,
Speaker 2: and so we need to go back. That's and that's
Speaker 2: partly what this book does is it goes back to
Speaker 2: impeach how you were taught, what you were taught a
Speaker 2: little bit, but more importantly, how how the management of
Speaker 2: the schooling for you, which informs what you think homeschool
Speaker 2: should be, and it impeaches that, and it teaches you
Speaker 2: what home education really should be and that it should
Speaker 2: be easy and fun. And you know, we need to
Speaker 2: give ourselves a break. We like the story that I
Speaker 2: told you where I thought my son was remedial. What
Speaker 2: was my metric? I don't know, I just had in
Speaker 2: my mind, Well, he can't read well and he's in
Speaker 2: second grade. Shouldn't he be reading at a I don't
Speaker 2: know collegiate level by now, I don't. I have no
Speaker 2: idea why I had that idea in my head. Well
Speaker 2: that's not true. I know exactly why I had that
Speaker 2: idea in my head. The school put in these parameters,
Speaker 2: these assumptions that these things are natural and necessary. It
Speaker 2: is natural and necessary for a five year old to
Speaker 2: leave his parents and go to a complete stranger every day,
Speaker 2: even though the parents have taught him out of tie
Speaker 2: his shoes, how to use a knife and fork, how
Speaker 2: to brush his teeth, how to wash his hands, how
Speaker 2: to get dressed in the morning. The parents have taught
Speaker 2: the child everything. All of a sudden, at age five,
Speaker 2: the parents are useless. Now we have to bring in
Speaker 2: the expert. And the expert, by the way, is some
Speaker 2: twenty two year olds who just graduated from some Marxist
Speaker 2: training college who majored in behavior management somehow. That's the
Speaker 2: person needs to be teaching your child.
Speaker 1: Well, some of the greatest minds in Western civilization didn't
Speaker 1: leave the house till they were eight. I mean in
Speaker 1: ancient Greece that you know, you were taught to read,
Speaker 1: and you were taught to do basic math before you
Speaker 1: even got I mean, that's.
Speaker 2: What pa In that case, they went to a tutor,
Speaker 2: and there weren't a lot of them. And by the way,
Speaker 2: the founders of this nation, the brilliant men who founded
Speaker 2: the greatest nation in the world, the greatest nation in
Speaker 2: the world, were all homeschooled. All of them were self taught.
Speaker 1: That's a huge part that people miss when you teach.
Speaker 1: When we teach how to learn, they become lifelong learners.
Speaker 2: And that's what you mean. Franklin was completely self taught.
Speaker 2: He actually ran away from his indentured servitude. He was
Speaker 2: the most famous man in the world. He was more
Speaker 2: famous than Michael Jackson at a time when we had
Speaker 2: printed documents to share information. But everybody knew Ben Franklin.
Speaker 2: He was known on both sides of the ocean.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 2: And he actually was the only individual to sign all
Speaker 2: four of the founding documents of the United States. And
Speaker 2: he was an inventor who captured lightning in a bottle.
Speaker 2: Like the guy was unstoppable, and they never went to school.
Speaker 2: Yale gave him an honorary degree because Yale wanted to
Speaker 2: claim that he was educated by Yale, right, but he wasn't.
Speaker 2: He was self taught. And somehow we think, oh, but
Speaker 2: we do it better now with this grand experiment. And
Speaker 2: it's an experiment that is schooling. Somehow we think that
Speaker 2: we've got it solved. It's an experiment. It's a failed experiment.
Speaker 2: It's time that we realize that it's a failed experiment.
Speaker 2: And if you don't mind, I want to take a
Speaker 2: few minutes to talk about school choice. Oh. Absolutely, they're
Speaker 2: disbanding the Department of Education. They're taking it down. That
Speaker 2: actually doesn't mean that much. So there won't be an
Speaker 2: entity called the Department of Education. Four thousand people in
Speaker 2: theory won't have jobs anymore, but the money will still
Speaker 2: be going through the federal government. And so it's not
Speaker 2: really what we think it is. But at the same time,
Speaker 2: there's an initiative to promote school choice. And we have
Speaker 2: twelve or fourteen states now that have implemented some form
Speaker 2: of school choice. The rest of the states already have
Speaker 2: school choice, and the states that implemented school choice already
Speaker 2: had school choice because you do have the option to
Speaker 2: take your child to any school of your choice already.
Speaker 2: But the new version of school choice that they are
Speaker 2: promoting and that they have installed in even in my
Speaker 2: state in Florida, is a form of voucher or ESA,
Speaker 2: education savings account or some kind of program where the
Speaker 2: parents have access to the money to fund the education
Speaker 2: of their child. Unfortunately, that money comes from the government,
Speaker 2: and whenever the money comes from the government, it is tinged. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it is tinged. Now the promise in for instance, in
Speaker 2: Arizona and in Florida, actually I know these two states
Speaker 2: pretty intimately, it was no strings attached. You cannot have
Speaker 2: government money flowing with no strings attached. That's USAID, right,
Speaker 2: and look where that got it right. You must have
Speaker 2: strings attached, because otherwise it's taxation without representation. We fought
Speaker 2: a whole war about that. So the idea that they
Speaker 2: could actually pull the wool over people's eyes and people
Speaker 2: would vote for yay, no strings attached like idiots is
Speaker 2: beyond me. But of course in year two strings were attached,
Speaker 2: and so in the state of Florida, the string was, oh,
Speaker 2: but we need to see the test results of your child.
Speaker 2: I know one parent who was like, heck, no, I
Speaker 2: will not give you my child's data, because of course
Speaker 2: they're data mining and what homeschoolers have to understand, and
Speaker 2: I hope there are more and more homeschoolers, is when
Speaker 2: you take the government funds, you become no longer an
Speaker 2: independent homesore. You are now schooling with government funds. So
Speaker 2: you are a government schooler. You're a public schooler. But
Speaker 2: the other thing that I want people to understand, and
Speaker 2: particularly parochial schools, Christian schools, religious schools of any kind, frankly,
Speaker 2: is when they take the money, they are no longer
Speaker 2: a private school. They become a government school. So school
Speaker 2: choice is not what you think is actually the opposite.
Speaker 1: Sorry, government is still in control.
Speaker 2: If you're taking government funds, the government has to have oversight,
Speaker 2: and the moment that there's government oversight, you are under
Speaker 2: the thumb of government. And so what they're doing with
Speaker 2: school choice, they're saying, oh, but it's great, we're taking
Speaker 2: the funds away from the public schools and putting them
Speaker 2: in the private sector. No, you're making the private sector
Speaker 2: government monopoly. And so we will. Now there's one other piece.
Speaker 2: There are entities like the one that I pursued with
Speaker 2: classical conversations. It's a Christian homes school will co op
Speaker 2: that organization will never will never ask for government accreditation.
Speaker 2: They don't want it. They do not want to be
Speaker 2: on the so they will not take the funds, so
Speaker 2: they will be out of business. So what this does
Speaker 2: is it pollutes all the private entities that will take
Speaker 2: the money and puts all the other private entities out
Speaker 2: of business. It is a full government takeover of schools.
Speaker 2: It is the exact opposite of what we are trying
Speaker 2: to do with disbanding the Department of Education. It is
Speaker 2: actually going to make children's schools like our colleges today.
Speaker 2: And that's a scary thought, yes, because look at what
Speaker 2: the colleges have become, right right it useless.
Speaker 1: We've been warning about this for a long time. You know,
Speaker 1: our children are grown too. But I've been involved in
Speaker 1: Ohio politics for quite a bit and we saw the
Speaker 1: penetration through the public school into the private schools, and
Speaker 1: I knew homeschools were next, and that was a lot
Speaker 1: of the impetus for my involvement. And it was just
Speaker 1: a matter of time before new groups of homeschoolers got
Speaker 1: in and say, well, why am I paying double Why
Speaker 1: aren't our property taxes going to my homeschool? So there
Speaker 1: are and lots of different versions that legislative state legislators
Speaker 1: are trying to pass, but it's all the same. And
Speaker 1: I just remind people government whether it's well intended or not.
Speaker 1: And I don't give government the judgment of charity ever
Speaker 1: they get.
Speaker 2: The of the people. Some of the people are just misguided.
Speaker 2: Some of them are nefarious.
Speaker 1: Well on the Gammus that is my eighty twenty rule.
Speaker 1: I do say that eighty percent are ignorant, and I
Speaker 1: don't mean that pejoratively. I just mean they don't know,
Speaker 1: and twenty percent are complicit and they know exactly what
Speaker 1: they're doing.
Speaker 2: Some people that I really like and admire are on
Speaker 2: the wrong side of this issue. Yeah, and I'm and
Speaker 2: it makes me sad because I don't want to be
Speaker 2: antagonistic to them, but they are on the wrong side
Speaker 2: of this issue, and they cannot see two steps down
Speaker 2: the road. They can only see what's in front of
Speaker 2: them now. Some of them are just happy because they're
Speaker 2: making buck, they're making bank, because they're taking government money
Speaker 2: for their private schools or whatever their entity is, right,
Speaker 2: and that makes me sad. But we have to be
Speaker 2: clear on this. And one of the things I just
Speaker 2: wrote another piece about this one of the moms that
Speaker 2: I know who took the money she needed to spend.
Speaker 2: You have to spend the whole amount before the end
Speaker 2: of the year.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and so they did public schools.
Speaker 2: Yeah right, And so she bought two flat screen TVs
Speaker 2: because she didn't she couldn't find enough you know, curricula
Speaker 2: or whatever for her child. Another mom bought a ginormous
Speaker 2: beanbag for her kids because why not. And it's available.
Speaker 2: And by the way, those things are available for purchase
Speaker 2: with your government money on the site. You have to
Speaker 2: understand when you're in a hardship situation and you go
Speaker 2: to the church and you ask for some money because
Speaker 2: you're in a hardship situation, and it brings you to
Speaker 2: your knees. Right when the church gets together, your community
Speaker 2: gets together to help you out. You're not going to
Speaker 2: take that money and go get a manicure, I would hope, right.
Speaker 2: But if the government cuts you a check, that's free money.
Speaker 2: That is found money. That is Disneyland tickets. And by
Speaker 2: the way, you can get tickets to Disneyland and Disney World.
Speaker 2: Oh absolutely. And here's what's funny, Taya in the state
Speaker 2: of Arizona, because I was studying Arizona because they were
Speaker 2: one of the first states that did this no strings attached.
Speaker 2: In fact, I spoke to a legislative community, the Christian
Speaker 2: Legislator's community. Anyway, I spoke at one of their meetings,
Speaker 2: and after I finished speaking, the first guy who answered
Speaker 2: me was from Arizona, and he said, well, in Arizona,
Speaker 2: we have these great essays we just implemented there are
Speaker 2: no strings attached. It's a great program. And I'm like,
Speaker 2: you literally didn't hear anything. I just said, okay, fine.
Speaker 2: Within a year or two, their tuition rates had shot
Speaker 2: up as much as forty percent in some schools, because
Speaker 2: when there's more money in the marketplace, the rates go up.
Speaker 2: That's just how it happens. It happened with our colleges. Okay. Now,
Speaker 2: if you try to search it online, it is very
Speaker 2: hard to find evidence that tuition rates went up. So
Speaker 2: they are scrubbing the Internet of history to prove that
Speaker 2: Arizona is actually popular and successful. But also I want
Speaker 2: people to understand we because this is one of the
Speaker 2: things that we're not taught in school. Along with discernment,
Speaker 2: is understand defining our terms, understanding the terms that the
Speaker 2: people you are listening to, are using and their meanings,
Speaker 2: their definitions. So they say the program is immensely popular. Okay,
Speaker 2: define popular, successful, define successful. Their definition of success is
Speaker 2: parents love it. But that is not what we would
Speaker 2: define success as we would define success as test scores
Speaker 2: for kids are rising, right, literacy is improving. Those are
Speaker 2: definitions of success or popularity.
Speaker 1: And we remain free citizens.
Speaker 2: But here's the thing. When is it not popular to
Speaker 2: send people checks? Oh my gosh, they got a check
Speaker 2: for seven grand and they were very upset. No. No,
Speaker 2: So unfortunately, they've got language and they're misusing language to
Speaker 2: mean things that don't translate into what they're actually supposed
Speaker 2: to be talking about. And so this is a very
Speaker 2: h this is a very dangerous place, and people have
Speaker 2: to understand why school choice is actually the cheese in
Speaker 2: the trap.
Speaker 1: With the protests that went on in Illinois, I was thinking,
Speaker 1: this is exactly and this goes to your point. Protest
Speaker 1: and stop it now before they create the infrastructure for it. Now,
Speaker 1: you know Race to the Top that created a lot
Speaker 1: of infrastructure for public and private schools, and the surreptitious
Speaker 1: data mining and all of the crap that came with that.
Speaker 1: But and again it was the homeschoolers, and this parlayed
Speaker 1: my involvement into politics. Years ago, someone told me at
Speaker 1: the state capitol that homeschoolers are always a target. We've
Speaker 1: just not gotten to them yet. Yes, and so it's
Speaker 1: like we know they're coming. So it was a blessing
Speaker 1: and a curse because I knew I had to pay
Speaker 1: attention from that moment on.
Speaker 2: Unfortunately, there are many homeschool entities. In fact, there are
Speaker 2: even fake homeschool entities that are very pro school choice.
Speaker 2: So it is easy to get duped. It is very
Speaker 2: easy to get duped, but you have to and well,
Speaker 2: they have the money already anyway. Yeah, okay, let's change
Speaker 2: the tax laws. Then amen. People are like, well, what
Speaker 2: are you going to do for the inner city kids?
Speaker 2: And I'm like, the inner city kids are not being
Speaker 2: served already, right, this is not going to help them.
Speaker 1: So that always comes up. Okay, well let's have a
Speaker 1: separate discussion for that demographic. I'm happy to do that.
Speaker 1: But guess what, to your point, they're not being served.
Speaker 1: So whatever we do is going to be a step
Speaker 1: up in my opinion, especially if you let homeschool moms
Speaker 1: in so in addition to the impeachment of how we
Speaker 1: were taught and indoctrinated to trust the experts with all
Speaker 1: the degrees after their name. And in the book Parents
Speaker 1: Guide to Homeschooling, do you go over some of these
Speaker 1: things about school choice? And I'm assuming there are resources
Speaker 1: for parents that are new or just starting out.
Speaker 2: So Parents Guide to homeschool is actually a workbook for
Speaker 2: the parents so that they can work through how they
Speaker 2: should be defining education and the future for their children
Speaker 2: and reconsider the metrics that have been imposed on them
Speaker 2: from their own schooling. I know that doesn't make it
Speaker 2: sound like super interesting, but.
Speaker 1: I think it's a fabulous idea. It's absolutely perfect.
Speaker 2: I think it's important for people to take a step
Speaker 2: back and consider, Okay, what is my goal with having
Speaker 2: a child? You know is at the corner office at
Speaker 2: the at the you know, Goldman Sachs Building, Like, is
Speaker 2: that your your goal for your child that you never
Speaker 2: see them because they're too busy and they you know,
Speaker 2: three times divorced, and you know they drive a Porsche.
Speaker 2: I mean, if you take a step back and you go, okay, wait,
Speaker 2: what is life really about? What do I want for
Speaker 2: my children? What is what is their highest aim? And
Speaker 2: that's the point of the book is to really gets
Speaker 2: you to consider and help you to understand that you
Speaker 2: are infinitely capable in raising your child yourself, getting them
Speaker 2: an education and embark and helping them to embark on
Speaker 2: a successful life. That's what it's about. It's not about
Speaker 2: Goldman Sachs, Harvard University or whatever. It's about how to
Speaker 2: have a successful life. And you know, I mean, look,
Speaker 2: we've come so far. We used to we used to
Speaker 2: be families. Dad worked at home because we were we
Speaker 2: were carpenters or locksmiths or plumbers or whatever, cabinet makers, right,
Speaker 2: And the kids always saw Dad because he was right there,
Speaker 2: and Mom helped, and then the kids helped and then right. So, okay,
Speaker 2: we're more sophisticated than that now, but we can go
Speaker 2: back to some of that and the kids can. When
Speaker 2: I first started homeschooling, the first thing that my husband
Speaker 2: noticed was that he had more time to spend with
Speaker 2: the kids because he traveled a lot, and he traveled
Speaker 2: a lot on weekends and that was their time off
Speaker 2: from school. And so he noticed that, my gosh, when
Speaker 2: he was home and by the way, when he was home,
Speaker 2: he'd grab the kids and take him to Costco, or
Speaker 2: he'd you know, during the day, any time of day,
Speaker 2: like they were free, and they weren't. They weren't just free.
Speaker 2: They had things that we were doing. But I could
Speaker 2: free up their time at any particular time so that
Speaker 2: they were free for him. And I mean that just
Speaker 2: forged a great relationship for him with the kids. But
Speaker 2: the standard family today, dad goes off to work. The
Speaker 2: kids have no idea what he does for a living. Literally,
Speaker 2: they never get to know their father. Basically, they know
Speaker 2: him as maybe maybe he's the baseball coach or the
Speaker 2: little league coach or whatever, you know, like maybe there's
Speaker 2: a little bit of that, but it's the disintegration of
Speaker 2: the family, and it shouldn't be. Kids need their dads,
Speaker 2: and they need their moms, and they need us more
Speaker 2: than we we tend to imagine in this culture. And
Speaker 2: so I mentioned Erica Coomasar, but there's also sorry doctor
Speaker 2: Leonard Sachs who talks about this, and he says he's
Speaker 2: on a crusade, you know, skip the playdate, do a
Speaker 2: family date instead. He's saying children need their parents a
Speaker 2: lot more than we credit them with, especially teenagers, he says.
Speaker 2: So when your teenager says, I want to invite Sally,
Speaker 2: my best friend, on our vacation, the answers no, the
Speaker 2: vacation is for the family. Those are his. That's his view, right,
Speaker 2: which of course I fully support because I'm a homeschooler
Speaker 2: and the family is for the family all day long,
Speaker 2: every day. And if you want to take some time
Speaker 2: and go see Sally, that's fine, but you know, keep
Speaker 2: your family close, protect them, and they will love you
Speaker 2: for it.
Speaker 1: I would also add that you get to know your kids.
Speaker 1: I used to tell people I don't just love my kids,
Speaker 1: I really like them.
Speaker 2: One of the things that I tell parents is, you know,
Speaker 2: if your child is interested in something, show an interest
Speaker 2: in that thing. That is how you serve them. Okay,
Speaker 2: And it's not about them doing the thing that you
Speaker 2: want to do. Yes, it's about you doing the thing
Speaker 2: that they want to do. And the other thing that
Speaker 2: I will say, and this is sort of a secret
Speaker 2: hack everything literally everything is more interesting in the details.
Speaker 2: So I was just talking to a friend of mine
Speaker 2: and she decided for her kids that they could pick
Speaker 2: the science unit that they were going to do. She said,
Speaker 2: whatever science you decide that's the science that will do
Speaker 2: this year, and one of her kids said botany, and
Speaker 2: she was like, oh my gosh, I kill every plant
Speaker 2: I've ever had. This would be the worst thing. She
Speaker 2: was so dreading it. But the kids chose botany. All
Speaker 2: the kids were on board, so they started with botany.
Speaker 2: She's like, Sam, did you know that flowers have male
Speaker 2: and female parts? And I'm saying to you, everything is
Speaker 2: more interesting in the details, so just dive in. If
Speaker 2: your child is interested in it, you you owe it
Speaker 2: to them to feign an interest, and if you feign
Speaker 2: the interest, you will get the interest in the details.
Speaker 1: Amen. I agree with that. There was another serendipitous event
Speaker 1: that we found out during homeschooling is that we actually
Speaker 1: like teenagers. I mean, you get a Socratic circle going
Speaker 1: on about something crazy and with their friends. I mean
Speaker 1: it's just you know, to your point, everything is learning
Speaker 1: and you get down into the details and they learn
Speaker 1: to define your terms and it just makes them better communicators.
Speaker 1: And if one of the goals of education is to
Speaker 1: produce productive human beings out in the world, certainly you
Speaker 1: know that will that will aid them in doing so.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, and thank you for being such a wonderful, articulate
Speaker 1: advocate for home education. I hope you'll come back, and
Speaker 1: God speed to you and your family. Okay, Sam Sorbo, everyone, Wow,
Speaker 1: I always get a little intimidated when I talk to her, Joe.
Speaker 1: She's just so amazing. She likes checks all these boxes,
Speaker 1: and frankly, I'm just glad to know she's out there
Speaker 1: on our side, right all right. So her book, Parents
Speaker 1: Guide to Homeschooling Making Education Easy and Fun. Highly recommend
Speaker 1: you go check that out. I'm going to get a
Speaker 1: copy and share that with people I know who are
Speaker 1: considering homeschooling, and if you are a parent with grown
Speaker 1: children who are considering that lifestyle as well, I would
Speaker 1: highly recommend that book. I'm just very grateful for the
Speaker 1: time and effort that she put into that. You know,
Speaker 1: it's consistent. She's a producer, she just produces great content,
Speaker 1: all right. I also want to echo her point about
Speaker 1: school choice. We've had both Lee and Robert Borton on
Speaker 1: the show and warning about the same thing. Look, there
Speaker 1: are always strings attached with government money. It makes sense, right,
Speaker 1: I mean, we would like oversight with more of our money.
Speaker 1: This is one of the things Doze is exposing that
Speaker 1: there hasn't been any oversight, So we do want oversight
Speaker 1: of taxpayer dollars. The question becomes how much of our
Speaker 1: taxpayer dollars actually go to the intended targets and are
Speaker 1: they used to buy or bribe or blackmail somebody. But
Speaker 1: the school choice line about no strings attached, if we
Speaker 1: don't know by now that that is a bald face lie,
Speaker 1: then we've learned nothing, especially after the last five years.
Speaker 2: So just be aware and be.
Speaker 1: Cognitive, and hopefully we will prevent government from taking over
Speaker 1: the homeschool community because that's absolutely what it intends to do.
Speaker 1: We are the only demographic they cannot control.
Speaker 2: Think about that.
Speaker 1: We produce. And I'm not saying don't email me my
Speaker 1: kid went to this school or that school and they're fine.
Speaker 2: Okay, fine.
Speaker 1: Outliers always exist, But in a grand study, I'm sure
Speaker 1: we would find lots of sane, fiscally responsible, grounded people
Speaker 1: coming from our community. And government frankly doesn't want that.
Speaker 1: They want zombies they can control and indoctrinate. Like I said,
Speaker 1: we must remove the infant from the crude influence of
Speaker 1: their family. So Let's not give them that opportunity. Okay,
Speaker 1: I want to thank everyone for listening. Thank you as
Speaker 1: always too, Magic Man, Joe Strucker.
Speaker 2: Until next time, who will.
Speaker 1: Stand at either hand and keep the bridge with me?
Speaker 1: Have a great day.