Homeschooling -

Homeschooling

H.L. Mencken on Public Education
Homeschooling: A Hope for America, Edited by Carl Watner, Foreword by John Taylor Gatto

I think public [i.e., tax-supported] schools are bound to destroy this country because they create public opinion that sanctions and endorses government intervention in an unhampered market.
– R. C. Hoiles in a letter to Ludwig von Mises, Sept. 7, 1949.

Schools for All by Oscar B. Johannsen
An Introduction to Carl Watner’s Book Homeschooling: A Hope For America by Carl Watner
If You Have A Tool, You’ll Probably Use It by Carl Watner
Drawing The Line by Blair Adams
Who Controls the Children by Carl Watner
A Definition of Freedom by Julie Watner
The Ultimate History Lesson, by John Taylor Gatto (a Tragedy and Hope video)
An Interview with Charlotte Thompson Iserbyt (a Tragedy and Hope video)
Voluntaryist Critics of State Education by George H. Smith

Below is a list of additional articles which supplement our critique of educational statism. You must access them through our Table of Contents & Archives link.

An Octopus Would Sooner Release Its Prey: Voluntaryism vs. Educational Statism, issue 48, page 1
On Our Children and their Education, issue 58, page 8
Why Homeschool? issue 35, page 4
An Open Letter to Kerry Morgan, Author of REAL CHOICE, REAL FREEDOM IN AMERICAN EDUCATION, issue 108, page 1
School and State, issue 108, page 8
Moral Ideas Tax Supported Schools Cannot Teach, issue 109, page 8
A Letter to the Homeschool Defense Association, issue 138, page 4
Only Freedom Breeds Excellence, issue 140, page 1
A Real Education, issue 140, page 8
If You Have a Tool, You’ll Use It: On the Evolution of Tax-Supported Schools in Certain Parts of the United States, issue 146, page 1
State Education Radically Wrong, issue 146, page 8

It is impossible for government to establish State education in Britain [circa 1843] without committing something worse than highway robbery This is a bold assertion; yet there is nothing more true. We have seen how utterly impracticable it is for the State, by its unitive scheme, to impart anything like education to the children of men who differ so widely in their religious, moral, historical, and political opinions. If the State intends to do any good, it must therefore either make a choice of one of the existing religions, or invent one of its own. Let us suppose the choice made, and for the sake of illustration let the Roman Catholic be the favored religion. Of course, no Independent, Churchman, Jew, or Unitarian would in this case consent to send his children to the government school, which nevertheless he would be obliged to support through the national funds, although receiving no benefit from them. Now, would this not be using the property of some for the benefit of others? Would not this be robbery? Yet this is not all. The dissenters, whoever they may be, would be compelled to pay for the education, therefore, the government would really do something worse than the highway robber, for the latter takes your purse only, whereas the former would not only rob you, but actually use your money to propagate tenets and ideas which you might detest and abhor, and which might tend to undermine the sect or party to which you belong.
– Anonymous, REASONS AGAINST GOVERNMENT INTERFERENCE IN EDUCATION (1843), reprinted in George H. Smith and Marilyn Moore (eds.), CRITICS OF STATE EDUCATION (2017), pp. 299-300.