(Mises)—Socialist Antonio Gramsci’s “long march through the institutions” describes the slow and gradual intellectual capture of a society through its influential and powerful institutions, including the church, media, the arts, corporations, schools, and universities, eventually leading to full infiltration.
It takes little awareness to realize that these strategies have succeeded. In the United States, all of Gramsci’s institutions are now socialist in their politics and collectivist in their ethics.
To freedom-minded individuals, arguably the most critical of Gramsci’s institutions are the schools. The greater the extent that children can gain appropriate skills of reason and moral instruction in their formative years—avoiding collectivist indoctrination—the better equipped they will be to defend themselves from a culture that has evolved sharply leftward. However, how can this be achieved if the schools themselves are already captured?
Homeschooling is a solution to childhood indoctrination by a group of people who, in the main, despise parents and their children. Teaching critical race theory, collectivism, and pornography to children is their way of showing it. As Michael Malice often says, “These people want you dead, but they’ll settle for your submission.” Parents shouldn’t offer it.
Academic Outcomes in Traditional versus Homeschool Environments
An analysis of the desirability of traditional schooling should start with an evaluation of its efficacy. A concrete goal of primary and secondary schooling is academic competence as measured by standardized testing, so how do traditionally schooled students perform on this measure?
The results are pathetic. As of a few years ago, fifteen-year-old American students taking the Programme for International Student Assessment ranked at or near the world average for science and reading and well below the world average for mathematics. This has been the case for decades, with essentially no improvement in that time.
In the meantime, homeschooled students are excelling, scoring 12 and 22 percentile points higher than private and public-school students respectively on standardized academic achievement tests. This is the case across race and income demographics. A 2015 study showed black homeschool students scoring 23 to 42 percentile points above black public school students.
These results should not be surprising. Traditional schooling, with its rigid one-size-fits-all approach, is oppressive to the intellect and especially harmful to gifted children, who must stifle their natural drive in favor of group conformity.
For the left-wing academic establishment, this forced mediocrity is a feature, not a bug. By instilling boredom and dulling the senses, students are primed to accept the premises of collectivist ethics and receive any instruction—no matter how absurd—as authoritative.
Homeschooling, on the other hand, prioritizes individuals and their personal potential. Far from stifling children’s natural gifts, such instruction enhances them. Freed from mindless conformity, children can pursue their lessons and interests in an environment that is receptive and natural, instead of rigid and artificial.
Hold On to Your Kids—Social Skills and Happiness
As a complement to academic achievement, homeschooling tends to produce well-rounded children compared to traditional schooling. While diminished social skills are often noted by opponents—without evidence—as a drawback to homeschooling, the facts show the opposite.
A 2006 study used a fifty-five-item Social Skills Rating Scale to gather data on children’s overall social skills, including individual categories of cooperation, assertion, responsibility, and self-control.
The Social Skills Rating Scale indicated that homeschooled students demonstrated above-average social skills and overall scores that were 15 percent higher than the traditionally schooled, including higher scores in each of the individual categories.
Within traditional schools, on the other hand, children are subjected to the relatively modern and harmful phenomenon of peer orientation. From Gordon Neufeld and Gabor Maté’s book Hold on to Your Kids: “Peer orientation refers to the tendency of children and youth to look to their peers for direction: for their sense of right and wrong, codes of conduct, and their very identity. Peer orientation undermines family cohesion, sabotages healthy development, and fosters an aggressive and prematurely sexualized youth culture.”
Leftist inculcation and moral stultification from teachers are hardly necessary when peer orientation, including social media, does the work for them. Today, children and teens suffer from high rates of depression, anxiety, and suicide. Fortunately for homeschoolers, that fate is largely avoided.
Value > Cost
In recent years, homeschooling has grown faster than any other form of education, as shown by Figure 1. This is true across races, incomes, and locations within the US. Many parents switched to homeschooling due to concerns with traditional schools’ practices during the covid panic, including mandatory mask wearing.
Despite this growth, the proportion of K–12 students in the US that are homeschooled is still relatively small, at roughly 5 percent. That figure may increase further if the benefits associated with homeschooling are more widely known and the difficulties more clearly addressed.
In this context, parents may feel that separating from the pack and homeschooling their children are too much of a challenge, specifically with regard to logistics and the perceived inability to manage a child’s homeschooling in combination with their own professional responsibilities.
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As Thomas Sowell has observed, in a society with limited resources, there are no solutions, only tradeoffs. Parents pulling their children from traditional schools into homeschooling are indeed looking at a higher degree of involvement and effort in their children’s lives. This might entail a temporary reduction in work hours, income, and social life. In exchange, they receive the peace of mind that comes from knowing that they refused to give over their pride and joy to a system that wishes to dehumanize them. Ultimately, what’s gained is the distinct sense of attachment and pride that comes with raising a productive, accomplished, and truly confident child equipped to succeed in the real world.
Overcoming Inaction
Significant inertia is leaving the vast majority of parents tied to traditional schooling, which has proven to be an obsolete and harmful system. Bureaucrats, labor unions, and ghoulish university professors speaking out against homeschooling—even proposing a nationwide ban—do so because they believe other people’s children are their property. Those who think this way have earned contempt, not the privilege of teaching the next generation. Parents would do well to bring that responsibility back into the home.
About the Author
Artis Shepherd is the Founder and Managing Partner of a private equity firm based in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, and previously worked for a sovereign wealth fund in the Middle East overseeing their hospitality investments in Europe, Africa, and Asia. He has a BS in Computer/Electrical Engineering from Purdue University and an MBA from the University of Chicago (Booth) Graduate School of Business. He publishes content at MTSObserver.substack.com.
Five Things New “Preppers” Forget When Getting Ready for Bad Times Ahead
The preparedness community is growing faster than it has in decades. Even during peak times such as Y2K, the economic downturn of 2008, and Covid, the vast majority of Americans made sure they had plenty of toilet paper but didn’t really stockpile anything else.
Things have changed. There’s a growing anxiety in this presidential election year that has prompted more Americans to get prepared for crazy events in the future. Some of it is being driven by fearmongers, but there are valid concerns with the economy, food supply, pharmaceuticals, the energy grid, and mass rioting that have pushed average Americans into “prepper” mode.
There are degrees of preparedness. One does not have to be a full-blown “doomsday prepper” living off-grid in a secure Montana bunker in order to be ahead of the curve. In many ways, preparedness isn’t about being able to perfectly handle every conceivable situation. It’s about being less dependent on government for as long as possible. Those who have proper “preps” will not be waiting for FEMA to distribute emergency supplies to the desperate masses.
Below are five things people new to preparedness (and sometimes even those with experience) often forget as they get ready. All five are common sense notions that do not rely on doomsday in order to be useful. It may be nice to own a tank during the apocalypse but there’s not much you can do with it until things get really crazy. The recommendations below can have places in the lives of average Americans whether doomsday comes or not.
Note: The information provided by this publication or any related communications is for informational purposes only and should not be considered as financial advice. We do not provide personalized investment, financial, or legal advice.
Secured Wealth
Whether in the bank or held in a retirement account, most Americans feel that their life’s savings is relatively secure. At least they did until the last couple of years when de-banking, geopolitical turmoil, and the threat of Central Bank Digital Currencies reared their ugly heads.
It behooves Americans to diversify their holdings. If there’s a triggering event or series of events that cripple the financial systems or devalue the U.S. Dollar, wealth can evaporate quickly. To hedge against potential turmoil, many Americans are looking in two directions: Crypto and physical precious metals.
There are huge advantages to cryptocurrencies, but there are also inherent risks because “virtual” money can become challenging to spend. Add in the push by central banks and governments to regulate or even replace cryptocurrencies with their own versions they control and the risks amplify. There’s nothing wrong with cryptocurrencies today but things can change rapidly.
As for physical precious metals, many Americans pay cash to keep plenty on hand in their safe. Rolling over or transferring retirement accounts into self-directed IRAs is also a popular option, but there are caveats. It can often take weeks or even months to get the gold and silver shipped if the owner chooses to close their account. This is why Genesis Gold Group stands out. Their relationship with the depositories allows for rapid closure and shipping, often in less than 10 days from the time the account holder makes their move. This can come in handy if things appear to be heading south.
Lots of Potable Water
One of the biggest shocks that hit new preppers is understanding how much potable water they need in order to survive. Experts claim one gallon of water per person per day is necessary. Even the most conservative estimates put it at over half-a-gallon. That means that for a family of four, they’ll need around 120 gallons of water to survive for a month if the taps turn off and the stores empty out.
Being near a fresh water source, whether it’s a river, lake, or well, is a best practice among experienced preppers. It’s necessary to have a water filter as well, even if the taps are still working. Many refuse to drink tap water even when there is no emergency. Berkey was our previous favorite but they’re under attack from regulators so the Alexapure systems are solid replacements.
For those in the city or away from fresh water sources, storage is the best option. This can be challenging because proper water storage containers take up a lot of room and are difficult to move if the need arises. For “bug in” situations, having a larger container that stores hundreds or even thousands of gallons is better than stacking 1-5 gallon containers. Unfortunately, they won’t be easily transportable and they can cost a lot to install.
Water is critical. If chaos erupts and water infrastructure is compromised, having a large backup supply can be lifesaving.
Pharmaceuticals and Medical Supplies
There are multiple threats specific to the medical supply chain. With Chinese and Indian imports accounting for over 90% of pharmaceutical ingredients in the United States, deteriorating relations could make it impossible to get the medicines and antibiotics many of us need.
Stocking up many prescription medications can be hard. Doctors generally do not like to prescribe large batches of drugs even if they are shelf-stable for extended periods of time. It is a best practice to ask your doctor if they can prescribe a larger amount. Today, some are sympathetic to concerns about pharmacies running out or becoming inaccessible. Tell them your concerns. It’s worth a shot. The worst they can do is say no.
If your doctor is unwilling to help you stock up on medicines, then Jase Medical is a good alternative. Through telehealth, they can prescribe daily meds or antibiotics that are shipped to your door. As proponents of medical freedom, they empathize with those who want to have enough medical supplies on hand in case things go wrong.
Energy Sources
The vast majority of Americans are locked into the grid. This has proven to be a massive liability when the grid goes down. Unfortunately, there are no inexpensive remedies.
Those living off-grid had to either spend a lot of money or effort (or both) to get their alternative energy sources like solar set up. For those who do not want to go so far, it’s still a best practice to have backup power sources. Diesel generators and portable solar panels are the two most popular, and while they’re not inexpensive they are not out of reach of most Americans who are concerned about being without power for extended periods of time.
Natural gas is another necessity for many, but that’s far more challenging to replace. Having alternatives for heating and cooking that can be powered if gas and electric grids go down is important. Have a backup for items that require power such as manual can openers. If you’re stuck eating canned foods for a while and all you have is an electric opener, you’ll have problems.
Don’t Forget the Protein
When most think about “prepping,” they think about their food supply. More Americans are turning to gardening and homesteading as ways to produce their own food. Others are working with local farmers and ranchers to purchase directly from the sources. This is a good idea whether doomsday comes or not, but it’s particularly important if the food supply chain is broken.
Most grocery stores have about one to two weeks worth of food, as do most American households. Grocers rely heavily on truckers to receive their ongoing shipments. In a crisis, the current process can fail. It behooves Americans for multiple reasons to localize their food purchases as much as possible.
Long-term storage is another popular option. Canned foods, MREs, and freeze dried meals are selling out quickly even as prices rise. But one component that is conspicuously absent in shelf-stable food is high-quality protein. Most survival food companies offer low quality “protein buckets” or cans of meat, but they are often barely edible.
Prepper All-Naturals offers premium cuts of steak that have been cooked sous vide and freeze dried to give them a 25-year shelf life. They offer Ribeye, NY Strip, and Tenderloin among others.
Having buckets of beans and rice is a good start, but keeping a solid supply of high-quality protein isn’t just healthier. It can help a family maintain normalcy through crises.
Prepare Without Fear
With all the challenges we face as Americans today, it can be emotionally draining. Citizens are scared and there’s nothing irrational about their concerns. Being prepared and making lifestyle changes to secure necessities can go a long way toward overcoming the fears that plague us. We should hope and pray for the best but prepare for the worst. And if the worst does come, then knowing we did what we could to be ready for it will help us face those challenges with confidence.
