Joy Pullmann of the Federalist tackles a major media outlet’s open attack on homeschooling.
Record-breaking numbers of families continue to abandon public schools after lockdowns exposed their mass abuse of children, and The Washington Post is willing to descend into tabloid smear mode to try to stop them.
Last week it profiled a couple who were homeschooled and have put their own children into public school. The article takes the couple’s side against their own parents, airing wild allegations of systemic child abuse against all homeschoolers based on the testimony of these two disgruntled graduates.
The article is titled “The revolt of the Christian homeschoolers.” It’s a very tiny revolt, apparently. The Post almost exclusively uses these two homeschool graduates to project onto every homeschooling family frightening images of “Handmaid’s Tale”-esque authorities keeping children in line with smacks from tree branches and hoses.
That’s not an exaggeration. Aaron and Christina Beall “had been raised to believe that public schools were tools of a demonic social order, government ‘indoctrination camps’ devoted to the propagation of lies and the subversion of Christian families,” the 5,000-word article says near the top. …
… Rejecting “contemporary ideas about … gender equality” is linked to and reinforced by “corporal punishment” the article later describes as repeated beatings with a broom handle. The article also makes sure to mention the Duggars — who have zero relation to or interaction with the Bealls, except that both homeschool — and all the other homeschooling boogeymen it can find. It’s a ridiculous effort, albeit quite polished, and it’s not going to work the way the Post intends.
Thanks to lockdowns, people are aware that simply reading your kids books or doing a math workbook at home isn’t a risk factor for child abuse. Yet in this article, The Washington Post spends 5,000 words and two years of reporting to smear something it demanded every parent do just three years ago.
