Quoting Quiverfull: Public Schools Do What?

“Schoolkids also quickly learn the art of the putdown, and all about “ganging up” on the victim of the day.”

Interesting. Actually, fundamentalist Christians perfected the art of the “putdown”. And bullying, reputation smearing and gossip mongering. They wrote the book on it, volumes I, II and III. Only it’s the parents doing it. Feminists, gays, tornado victims, parents who send their kids to public schools, all fodder for Christian bullying. That and petty games of one-upsmanship amongst themselves, who it the most godly, how many times can you use the word “biblical” in a sentence, who is the most prolific breeder. Whose children is the most obedient when dealing with authority figures, “oh everyone says my children are so good around adults”. More gooses to the parents’ egos and concern about appearances.

Kids in Christian households are so well trained to conform, there’s not much to put them down about, but they always have to watch their back, will their actions elicit gossip? And, since there’s not much to go on about, parents have to make stuff up (can you believe what she’s wearing, that’s not godly, did you see Beth sneak a glance at Levi? Harlot. Straight to hell with her. Her eyes are too shining. Her countenance isn’t shining enough). The gossip is relentless. If a family leaves a church, well, that’s when the fun really begins.

At least in public schools, parents, faculty and administrators are attempting to address bullying, trying to make kids safer. In fundamentalist Christian homeschooling circles, parents are teaching their kids how.

Our public schools have a strong anti-bullying program that teaches the kids real socialization skills like how to negotiate on the playground. Also, kids from 5th & 6th grades periodically go into the younger grades to read with them. My son in 8th grade just had a field trip into grade school where he consulted a younger child about what he wanted in a picture book and then wrote and drew it for him. This week his class goes back to present the books to the younger kids.

I doubt it would blow her mind because I think she knows people are people wherever they’re schooled. It would certainly put a cramp in her message, though.

Also – with all of this insistence on the older kids watching/caring for/being with even the youngest of children all the time, and with the idea of age segregation being A Bad Thing, when do the older kids get to do something that’s age-appropriate for THEM and not their younger siblings? Because that’s a vital part of growing up.

Age appropriate? Like what are you thinking exactly? In my community, the answer was never. My hobbies in high school were sewing doll clothes and making clay dollhouse food. I honestly don’t know what actually counts as “age appropriate.”

The one thing we did on that list was hash out politics—but it was questions like whether public education should be completely abolished or whether there should simply be an expansion of school choice, or whether or not it was selfish for women to go to college.

Do they have any idea what being stuck with your siblings 24/7/365 will do for sibling rivalry? Maybe not, if they’ve never gotten the chance to see how sibling relationships can drastically improve when kids have a chance to interact with people independently!