If you are watching the presidential debates and wondering where the truth-detector was, check out this story:

http://www.timesleader.com/news/breakingnews/Secret_Service_says_Kill_him_allegation_unfounded_.html

Meanwhile, scratch your head about the double-standard:

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MjM4NjFjZTc5MGJmMzkzMDE1NWUzZDlkOTEzOWUxMzQ

I myself am not confused: the folks on the left only champion the poor, the minority, the women voters who vote lock-step with Senator Government.

Essential Mothers are decidedly ripe for the worst in vulgar name calling, especially if one should dare to rise up and become a vocal critic of the left. Notice the left's distinct lack of concern for inciting riotous behavior. . . fanning the flames . . .

And by the way, what do you think of Senator Government's health-care plan?

The Logan's Run health care plan will drive us into the future of bad teeth, rationed health care, and early deaths from entirely preventable causes.

Can't wait for that.

“You know I’m not one of those parents that uses sanitzer on everything. I think exposing them to germs is good for them.” The lovely blonde mom of two smiled knowingly as I rubbed sanitizer into my toddler’s hands. I imagined her children sitting in the local dumpster eating dirt and playing with garbage, but I said nothing. I could mention where she could find some old needles if she’d like a few more germs.

Who knows? Maybe she never learned about germ theory. Public schools are worse academically than we all thought if the students can’t even learn about germs there, from personal experience if nothing else.

What is with today’s moms, anyway? Cleanliness optional?

Or perhaps she’s like the mom I overheard at the lake instructing her preschooler to urinate in said lake because she was too lazy to walk him up the hill to the bathroom. It was a big hill and all, but it wasn’t so big that I’d like to swim in a cesspool.

Naturally, this is a big problem these days, as a visit to any public swimming poo, I mean pool, will bear out. How many times per day will there be some baby/toddler in the pool contaminating the water with waste? Answer: several, and those are the times we know about because the pool employees evacuate the water.

Oh, what we don’t know.

So the whole duty of motherhood, in large part, is being lost. It’s true. Mothers once so intimately knowledgeable of all the digestive functions of their children, now shun all but the most basic maintenance.

 Don’t you know that in the old days, the mothers steadfastly changed 10 to 12 diapers a day? They knew what was going on in those diapers . . . personally knew! Cloth diapering required vigilance and fortitude!

Today, disposables, pull-ups, swim diapers . . . combined with substitute mothers, have changed all that mothering of baby’s bowels. The modern world has become a wasteland of neglected baby bottoms and 3-4 year olds not-yet potty trained.

Whew! If you ever wonder if all that diapering diligence and potty patrol was worth the while . . . well, wonder no more. Cleanliness is a bountiful gift to pass along to your children, your neighbors, in the swimming pool and around the whole world.

 Dog-gone-it.

In our modern materialistic culture, bombarded constantly by advertising and the latest technological gadgetry, how can parents raise children with a healthy dose of skepticism and discretion?

Consumerism dominates families. A modern day parenting philosophy of keeping up with Jones, Jr., no matter how ridiculously indulgent his parents, is a far cry from what used to be normal childhood.

Chances are, your parents, like mine, said no to a fair number of whimsical doo-dads that whisked down the pike. Chances are, you, like me, saved your money and purchased a small handful of these whimsies, with your own hard-earned cash. Chances are, you also had quite a few moments when you stood out from the crowd at school without the right shoes or shoelaces, or whatever the silly widgit happened to be.  Awkwardly you withstood the slings and arrows, perhaps even shed a few tears at home, but stalwart parents continued with the NO vote on such indulgences.

 The 21^st century has lost the common consciousness that a fair number of no votes  from parents is a healthy and good method for raising children. Sadly, “back to school,” along with holidays, overwhelmingly parade this loss of wisdom. We certainly wouldn’t want our children to be without the new phone, ipod, laptop, backpack, or lunch bag.

More stuff? Good.

 No silly putty rainbow pencil turned walkie talkie? That bad, very bad.

(Side note: why is unfettered consumerism even possible?

Prosperity for more segments of our society . . . Richer than 40 years ago, richer than around the world.  http://www.heritage.org/Research/Welfare/bg2064.cfm)

All the lessons in recycling and alternative fuels in the public schools do not seem to lessen the average public school student’s appetite for the latest on the treadmill of acquisition. How many adults could use a fair amount of self-denial? How many of them and us learned our consuming and covetous life-style in school?

In our family, we homeschool and have always homeschooled. Although we have many reasons for homeschooling, at the root is our desire to “train up our children in the way that they should go.” We believe that education cannot be separated from our relationship with God and knowledge of Him. Thus, homeschooling accomplishes our goal in a wonderful and beautiful way, as the very life-style of homeschooling is all about relationships: with God, with parents and children, with siblings.

That is not to say that no other method for schooling can accomplish this goal. However, commitment to Christian education, especially homeschooling, constitutes a constant struggle against the mainstream, for which we daily have to rely on God and daily sacrifice our own fleshly will.

Oh dear, daily sacrifice our own fleshly will. That sounds so 17^th century.

Of the myriad benefits of homeschooling, the freedom from the tyranny of youthful consumerism stands tall. Young people, as manufacturers know well, fall prey so easily to the worthless trinket that costs $19.95, especially when plastered all over glittering cereal boxes and green ketchup bottles.

The state is interested in raising a new generation of tax-paying, law-abiding workers who vote to increase the state, thus ensuring the continued existence of the state. Big business prefers to raise a new generation of voracious consumers, thus ensuring the continued existence of big business.

Because I’m interested in raising Godly men and women, and not merely workers for the state or big business, homeschooling makes sense. As a dear homeschooling relative of mine once noted, “it is easier to teach correctly at home than to undo the incorrect teaching of the public school when they get home.”

I am, you are, we are counter-culture.

Ultimately, we must not only know Christ, but make Him known. We pray that our family’s hearts and actions give glory to Him and shine His light into this world, and that many will come to know Christ because of His use of our family for His purposes.

And them's fightin' words to the seen and unseen enemies of Christ.

As you gear up for a new year of homeschooling, or as you continue slogging through your year-round school, be encouraged to fight the good fight.

Can your family and mine fulfill this Great Commission without sparkling eraser gum and musical running shoes that become ice skates with a push of a button?

I think so.

I am, you are, we are counter-culture. The salt and the light.

A friend of mine once confided in me, embarrassed, AMy 6-year still can=t tie his own shoes. Can yours?@ She had just recently come from the doctor=s office and sheepishly admitted that the doctor had lectured her for not teaching her son age-appropriately. Tying shoes, it seems, has been deemed a A5-year-old skill,@ and woe to the youngster still clad in velcro on his sixth birthday or beyond.

The catchy bumper sticker says, AEvery home is a school . . . what are you teaching?@

Apparently, by the experts, parents have the knowledge required to teach shoe tying, but not reading, math, or other Aacademics.@ Those on the outside looking in may ask, AWhat makes a home a school? When are you doing school, anyway?@

Is setting the table Aschool@ if you are five years old? Learning to count how many place settings are necessary for the expected number of diners requires a number of math and thinking skills as well as focus and dedication to the task until completion. If you doubt, just ask a five-year-old to set the table.

What about grocery shopping? Meal planning? Laundry sorting? What about messing around in the dirt, throwing rocks in the creek, picking flowers, and climbing trees? Are those activities part of schoolwork?

Probably not, most would say, as there aren=t formal curricula out there with fill-in-the-blank forms testing knowledge of detergents and water temperature, price comparison technique short essays, or tree climbing assessments tests..

Too many folks new to homeschooling, both on the outside and the inside, ask, AHow many pages did you complete in your workbooks today? How many subjects did you cover this morning? Are all the boxes checked on your To Do list? And those boxes for grade appropriate skill mastery, you are checking all those off, aren=t you?@

Have we gone mad as a society to stress out over shoe-tying? Can the erratic progress children make as individuals journeying toward adulthood really be quantified and packaged, given in universal doses and universally sucked up and spit back at out at the same rate for all children? Why do we accept this idea as Aeducation?@

All the pop psychological and educational jargon thrown around these days has parents bantering like graduate students. Parents have become very passive and Aneutered@ to a certain extent, sitting back and assessing the skill-levels and masteries of their children, simultaneously blamed for deficiencies and belittled as incapable. Videos, software, classes, and school make up the expert arsenal.

Dare to ask, AIf I am unable to teach my child, and thus I hand him over to the experts, then why is it my fault when he can=t read, tie his shoes, pass Algebra I . . .? I thought that was your job?@

Think again.

As a member of HSLDA, I receive the frequent emails called Homeschool Heartbeat. This week’s topic: "The Mommy Wars." Because, like many women my age, I have been on many sides of this debate, as a single working woman with "a career," a part-time work at home mom with young children, as well as just a stay at home mom, I couldn’t help myself but to go to the source article Mike Farris refers to by feminist Linda Hirshman in the American Prospect. Mike Farris's words are available at http://www.hslda.org/docs/hshb/69/hshb6925.asp

Linda Hirshman’s quotation intrigued me, so I read the article in its entirety. I am enlightened now with a better understanding of the feminist viewpoint’s staunch opposition to the essentialness of mothering. She herself answers why feminists care what other women are doing, why my choice is bad "for all women," bringing all women down along with endangering future society.

We care because what they do is bad for them, is certainly bad for society, and is widely imitated . . . [T]hese choices are bad for women individually. A good life for humans includes the classical standard of using one’s capacities for speech and reason in a prudent way, the liberal requirement of having enough autonomy to direct one’s own life, and the utilitarian test of doing more good than harm in the world. Measured against these time-tested standards, the expensively educated upper-class moms will be leading lesser lives. At feminism’s dawning, two theorists compared gender ideology to a caste system. To borrow their insight, these daughters of the upper classes will be bearing most of the burden of the work always associated with the lowest caste: sweeping and cleaning of bodily waste. Not two weeks after the Yalie flap, the Times ran a story of moms who were toilet training in infancy by vigilantly watching their babies for signs of excretion, 24-7. They have voluntarily become untouchables.

http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=ViewWeb&articleId=10659

Certainly, everyone is egalitarian over at the American Prospect. No outrage at the "caste system" itself, but rather only at the upper-class moms, expensively educated as "feminism’s best hope," stooping into it? Daycare workers are fine to remain untouchables, but why do those well-educated and wealthy women go so low?

Mind you, women unarmed with disposable diapers have been toilet training their infants for centuries; infant potty-training is still commonly practiced in other countries like China. Hardly a practice limited to untouchables. Disposable diapers allow us modern mothers freedom not to sit with our infants on the toilet. As every mother of a potty-training toddler knows, diapers are easier than potty-training when you don’t have to wash them out by hand (in a boiling pot over a fire, especially).

I dare say that someone cleaned Ms. Hirshman’s infant bottom, once upon a time, and thank God, they did, otherwise . . . well, human infants left unattended suffer dire consequences, even death. Why are the needs of the children not even mentioned in her article? Because it is assumed that mothering doesn’t matter, that anyone can do it at no cost to the children. If that were so, why don’t orphanages work? I’ve been inside one. Those substitute mothers keep the babies alive, some times, but they don’t look so good, you know.

So, I’m all for wiping the baby bottoms. I have a hunch that babies everywhere agree with me. I personally believe moms wipe their own babies bottoms better than anyone else. I like to kiss and hug my baby when I take her to be changed. Any other moms out there freely give love to their children despite cleaning up their excretions for years?

Well, by Ms. Hirshman’s "classical" standards of a good life for humans, caring for one’s own children hardly qualifies as suffering: Using my speech and reason capacities in a prudent way? Check, I do speak and reason sometimes with the foursome at my house. Having enough autonomy to direct my own life? Check, I am free to undertake the work of homeschooling and housework, or not. I could leave if I wanted. I could abandon my children if I wanted. I could earn an income, little or lot if I wanted to. I could allow filth and take-out to rule the nest (as she recommends). I choose (ohh, that horrible word) not to. Doing more good than harm in the world? Check, I think raising responsible, morally upright citizens counts, not to mention the other standard service projects women who stay home perform.

By such standards, stay at home moms and I are doing great. I’m wondering why feminists have a problem. Aha. We get into trouble because feminists do not believe that teaching and training children engages the adult’s speech and reason faculties enough. Feminists believe that stay at home moms suffer under some societal constructs that dictate our choices and thus we aren’t free. Raising little Christian conservatives who will grow up to raise more Christian conservatives? Well, that is most certainly not good. 

And that is the real reason for the mommy wars.