Religious Right Activist: Homeschooling Kids Will Make Them Millionaires. Because God.
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2017/05/13/religious-right-activist-homeschooling-kids-will-make-them-millionaires-because-god/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=BRSS&utm_campaign=Nonreligious&utm_content=361
Christian activist “Coach” Dave Daubenmire said Friday, with child in tow, that if you homeschool your children, “you’re going to create a millionaire” because they will be taught to fear the Lord.
Daubenmire, who is no stranger to saying crazy things, made the remarks during his “Pass The Salt Live” show:
“The devil has got a great game plan,” he said. “If you really love your kids — I’m just going to tell you the truth, if you really love your kids, if you were to personally educate your children, you’re going to create a millionaire because he’s going to be so much smarter than the average person he runs into. He will be a boss at 18 years old if you will homeschool him and teach him the fear and admonition of the Lord.”
You won’t be surprised to learn that Daubenmire provided no evidence that homeschooled children are more likely to be rich. Or, for that matter, that public school is the domain of the devil.
This type of blatantly false narrative isn’t exactly surprising coming from Daubenmire, considering he previously said he was worried then-President Barack Obama’s administration would arrest him for his outspoken love for Jesus, but it is still concerning. After all, studies suggest about 64 percent of parents who homeschool their children say it’s primarily because of “a desire to provide religious instruction.” And that’s what he is really trying to do: promote religious indoctrination above real education.
By circumventing public education, religious fundamentalists can teach their children anything they want… without regard to its veracity. This isn’t always the case with homeschooled children, and there are numerous secular and quality Christian homeschool programs that promote real education, but if you don’t see this as a problem, or if you see it as an advantage only because it might make you rich (somehow), that might say something about the validity of your own beliefs.
Christian activist “Coach” Dave Daubenmire said Friday, with child in tow, that if you homeschool your children, “you’re going to create a millionaire” because they will be taught to fear the Lord.
Daubenmire, who is no stranger to saying crazy things, made the remarks during his “Pass The Salt Live” show:
“The devil has got a great game plan,” he said. “If you really love your kids — I’m just going to tell you the truth, if you really love your kids, if you were to personally educate your children, you’re going to create a millionaire because he’s going to be so much smarter than the average person he runs into. He will be a boss at 18 years old if you will homeschool him and teach him the fear and admonition of the Lord.”
You won’t be surprised to learn that Daubenmire provided no evidence that homeschooled children are more likely to be rich. Or, for that matter, that public school is the domain of the devil.
This type of blatantly false narrative isn’t exactly surprising coming from Daubenmire, considering he previously said he was worried then-President Barack Obama’s administration would arrest him for his outspoken love for Jesus, but it is still concerning. After all, studies suggest about 64 percent of parents who homeschool their children say it’s primarily because of “a desire to provide religious instruction.” And that’s what he is really trying to do: promote religious indoctrination above real education.
By circumventing public education, religious fundamentalists can teach their children anything they want… without regard to its veracity. This isn’t always the case with homeschooled children, and there are numerous secular and quality Christian homeschool programs that promote real education, but if you don’t see this as a problem, or if you see it as an advantage only because it might make you rich (somehow), that might say something about the validity of your own beliefs.
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I think I posted this seed about Daubenmire a while back.
I get Google News alerts sent to my email and saw this story plus several other blogs/sites covering this. So, I started doing some searches about the story and stumbled upon this thread.
I just want to go ahead and represent the homeschool population by saying that while the religious right is present in the homeschool community (definitely at a higher rate than "average"), the majority of homeschool families are not like this.
Furthermore, the Patheos blogger didn't get his facts entirely straight:
Lol. Okay. I had no idea that my random seed on an unknown news forum, that didn't even receive comments from actual members, was on your radar. That's not weird at all.
Atheist Critiques Christian Homeschooling, but Misinterprets the Facts
Dave Daubenmire stirred up some controversy with his recent criticism of the public education system. He told Christian parents that personally educating their children will result in them being so far ahead, they'll turn out to be millionaires.
On Patheo's Friendly Atheist blog, David McAfee has already criticized Daubenmire, writing, "You won’t be surprised to learn that Daubenmire provided no evidence that homeschooled children are more likely to be rich." I really don't think Daubenmire was trying to make a literal claim that every singlehomeschooler is going to be financially successful. For goodness sake. Watch any other talk-show or webcast in America and you'll find a plethora of offhand statements you can critique as lacking "proof."
That Atheist blog seems to regularly exaggerate statements in order to stir up drama.
No matter what, this criticism really misses the point. After all, Daubenmire did make a pragmatic argument against the "products" of the public school system.
In McAfee's blog post (criticizing Daubenmire), he cited the fact that 64 percent of parents who homeschool their children claim it’s primarily because they want to provide religious instruction. McAfee then says, "And that’s what he [Daubenmire] is really trying to do: promote religious indoctrination above real education."
I think it is worth pointing out that McAfee completely ignored most of the data he was citing and the data he cited was incorrect. Maybe the public schools don't teach students how to interpret tables and read data? Here's what McAfee said:
The survey in question asked parents several questions about their reasons for homeschooling. The survey gave a list of possible reasons, and parents selected as many, or as few, that applied from the list. The study then says:
("most" appears italicized in the study.)
64% of survey participants did say that a "desire to provide religious instruction" was important. However, it was not their primary reason for homeschooling as McAfee claimed. The more impressive statistic is that "Nine in 10 homeschooled students’ parents reported that concern about schools’ environments was an important reason for their decision to homeschool."
So, what is the actual percentage of parents who's primary reason for homeschooling is to provide religious instruction?
That's a little bit different than 64%, isn't it?
Another fun fact, if you "rank" the primary reasons for homeschooling, "desire for religious instruction" comes out in 4th place. Here are some more fun homeschooling facts and statistics.
I'm not saying that most homeschoolers aren't Christians, and I'm not saying that many homeschoolers don't receive religious educations. I am arguing that McAfee presented the vast majority of homeschoolers as promoting "religious indoctrination above real education," before acknowledging that "there are numerous secular and quality Christian homeschool programs." https://homeschoolbase.com/atheist-critiques-christian-homeschooling-misinterprets-facts/