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Nov. 26, 2020 - Dennis Prager Show
06:29
Heidi St. John: How to Start Homeschooling
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So she has her own podcast, her own website, HeidiStJohn.com, and I am pushing something I didn't do, so I don't know much about it.
I only know it's the only alternative in vast segments of our society, vast areas, that is to homeschool, because most schools will poison your child's soul, mind, spirit, etc.
So you started, you had no intention.
You wanted to send your kids to public school, correct?
That's right, yeah.
And you began doing that.
Okay, so I'm going to jump to the end and then go back.
The bottom line, tell me, how intimidating is it to homeschool your child?
I think it's as intimidating as you allow it to be, because I felt I was listening to a narrative that was basically given to me by all of the teachers and educators that I'd ever spoken to, including people in my own family who said, you need to leave that up to the professionals.
You're not a trained teacher.
You don't know what you're doing.
And they made me feel like even at, you know, 27 years old, I was somehow incompetent to teach basic math.
What are we doing to our children when they come out of our high schools and we tell them, you are not competent enough to teach a six-year-old basic math?
So it's a lie.
The premise is a lie.
And once you jump into it, and I always tell parents, don't overthink it.
Just start doing it.
And you will realize in a matter of about two days, oh my goodness, I have been lied to my whole life.
I can do this.
And that was certainly my experience.
We actually started with our daughter, Sierra, who's now 27 years old.
We started with her.
And while my oldest daughter was still in school, I was kind of experimenting with my 6-year-old.
And I realized I taught her how to read.
And I remember my husband coming home from work one day, and I was like, look what we're doing.
This child who I was told I could never do that because I don't have a degree in elementary school education, she's reading.
And at that point, I just thought, I'm taking my other daughter out of school, and none of the rest of our kids have ever darkened the door of a public school, or a private school for that matter.
What about a parent who wants to continue to work?
Is homeschooling impossible?
No, it's not impossible.
I always tell parents, where there's a will, there's a way.
And let me frame it for you this way, because this is the conversation I've been having with...
Hundreds and hundreds of parents in the Portland, Vancouver area who are now going, oh my goodness, I want my kids out of these schools.
I just don't think I can do it.
If we thought for one moment, we're learning this in the Rona.
If we thought for one moment that there was a deadly disease in our schools, that our kids would catch it and they would be dead within, I don't know, a matter of weeks, months, hours, whatever.
Would we take our kids out of school and find a different way?
Absolutely.
And I'm telling them right now.
That the damage that's being done to our children psychologically, emotionally, spiritually, is ten times worse than any physical pandemic that would ever come through our school.
And the devastation that they are inflicting on our children is permanent.
It's very, very hard to undo it.
And so I've been telling parents, you can do this, and I work.
I've written, you know, while we've been homeschooling seven children, I have written, I think, eight books now.
My husband and I have launched a podcast, an international ministry to families.
We opened the Homeschool Resource Center.
If it's a dream in your heart and you need to do it, you can do it.
I've worked in different places while I've homeschooled my children.
Is it difficult?
Yes.
But nothing that's worth doing in this life is easy.
I mean, those of us who've been married more than 10 minutes can attest to that.
It's worth it.
And I tell parents, it's going to be difficult.
I'm not going to sugarcoat it, but you can totally do it.
And the only people that will tell you that you can't do it are people who don't want you to do it because they realize the power that's in it.
You're good.
I enjoy you.
I'm on a little bit of a crusade, Dennis.
I'm on a little bit of a crusade because I'm watching the city that I love.
People, you know, we see Portland, Oregon on the news all the time, right?
I grew up in Portland.
I went to school and graduated from high school in Portland.
I love the city of Portland, Oregon, and I hate what the leftists are doing to it.
And they're doing this largely.
You see these kids out there every night burning down our cities and tearing down statues of...
I have Abraham Lincoln in the city square in Portland, Oregon.
A lot of these kids are coming from these schools, and they've been indoctrinated to believe that they're on a righteous crusade.
They really believe it.
Every evil doctrine thinks it's righteous.
Yes, that's exactly right.
There is none that has not.
So that people think that they're good is as relevant as people think that they breathe.
Yep, yep.
That's exactly right.
I am on a crusade, too.
I want you to know, I think that is a brilliant question to ask.
What if there was a pandemic that struck schools?
Would you take your kid out of school?
Of course.
So is there an intellectual pandemic?
Yes.
A moral pandemic?
Yes.
Does it make kids sick in terms of psychologically, in terms of happiness?
In terms of love of country, in terms of belief that there might be something higher than them to which they are accountable.
I mean, the list is endless.
There is a pandemic.
It's just not physical.
Yep.
And the results will be much more far-reaching.
Well, look, I'm saying this because of the number of parents that I grieve with.
Who have children who have become alienated from them and everything they hold dear because they went to things that are called schools but are actually indoctrination centers.
And here's a question.
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