<p>Allmusic, I salute you for your open-mindedness and feminist support of women who choose to live differently from you; brava.</p>
<p>^^LOL —Think this is why womens’ rights aren’t further along?</p>
<p>The refusal to use contraception is not a new concept. The Roman Catholic Church has taken that position for a very long time and millions of people have adhered to it over the course of modern history.</p>
<p>we had a neighboring family such as this, they moved to another state that was more accepting of homeschooling, many restrictions here at the time(ten years or so ago). When they left they had 5 under the age of 7. Now they have 12 under the age of 17. Oldest is 17 and not going to college, the next in line(my kids found youtube videos of oldest son and next boy down from him). My oh my I dont think the parents would approve of what the boys have up on you tube. I can’t even think the parents would have a clue they were up to what they are up to. No TV or videos were ever allowed. Not even sesame street. Lovely parents, but a bit out of touch by choice.</p>
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<p>This concerns me, too. I have to wonder what happens to these young women, if, after they get married, they find out they cannot have children. Their whole identity has been tied up in being a wife and mom, and they haven’t really been prepared to have identites other than that. Women who don’t embrace this lifestyle struggle with their identities when they realize they cannot have children. Can you imagine what must happen to these young women when they feel like they have failed their husbands by not producing children?</p>
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<p>I’m going to guess “Barchester Towers.”</p>
<p>I’ve known a few homeschooling families w/a large number of kids and fundamentalist philosophies. They’ve all been very nice people. </p>
<p>Couldn’t comment on the show, though, since don’t have TV! (so…I can relate to the voluntary withdrawal from some of popular culture that seems to be associated w/these families!).</p>
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<p>Wasn’t the Rev. Quiverful the guy who was given the job of warden of Hiram’s Hospital ahead of the Rev. Harding, the rightful warden? I thought that happened prior to Barchester Towers, but I could be misremembering.</p>
<p>I have been sitting on my fingers trying not to divert this thread into a discussion of Trollope but since I just happen to have almost the complete works at hand can answer with some certainty that The Warden ends with Mr. Harding resigning from the position of Warden, after his future son-in-law’s newspaper reports cause him to question the morality of his position, and that in the sequel Barchester Towers the new Bishop’s wife (Proudie) installs Mr. Quiverful in that position (as redefined by the Parliament between stories) after Mr. Hardy declines the position because of conditions attached by Mr. Slope, the Bishop’s Chaplain and Mrs. Proudie’s toady, without the knowledge of the Bishop himself.</p>
<p>At least, I think I have it right.</p>
<p>As much as I think they have a right to do as they please, i also feel those children are not being exposed to the world
The girls have essentially been denied freedom, expression and an education and that is WRONG.
All children should be sent to school. I dont care what you believe, they need to be educated with their peers, not their many aged brothers and sisters.
If you are confident in your faith, it will not be challenged</p>
<p>^^You don’t believe homeschooling should be legal?</p>
<p>Even if I were to completely accept the premise of this movement, how it would break down for me in a practical sense is that quantity often precludes quality. There are only so many hours in the day. I’m a SAHM with just 3 children, and still find that trying to raise them to be what they ought to be is extremely difficult in today’s culture. But then again, I let my progeny out of the house into the big, bad world to be potentially corrupted! I suppose if I always kept them all inside my supposedly Christian home, it would be an easier task? Not! This is a Christian version of the noble savage theory and it fails because sin lies within us, not without. I’m corrupted by sin, my sin corrupts my children, their own sin corrupts themselves and their siblings. </p>
<p>Furthermore, one reason I do my job as well as I do is that I am not usually overworked to the point of extreme exhaustion or depression. I do have time to gather myself each day, I pray most mornings and so I feel I have the strength to work on producing a few straight, solid arrows. I’d rather accomplish that, then try for too many and end up with a quiverful of crooked or cracked arrows!</p>
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<p>I think this concept of hiding kids from the world misrepresents a lot of homeschooling families. I know many families who homeschool. Here are a few examples: the woman I know who is a credentialed teacher (as is her husband) and actually works for a home-schooling organization that is a charter school. Anyhow, her kids are all over the place in the world – karate classes, swim classes, sports, etc., etc. – doing way more than my kids did at that age because they do have more time to do things. And she’s more than qualified to teach them herself and she can give them more attention than they are going to get in a class with 29 other kids. I know another family who chose to homeschool because his job took them all over the world. They moved a lot and so they homeschooled and their daughter is years ahead of most kids her age in terms of her understanding in almost any subject. She reads way ahead of grade level. She’s seen more of the world than most kids and she’s played with neighborhood kids. And she too goes to activities with regular non-homeschooled kids. Another Mom I know who homeschooled off and on interspersing with public school currently has her kid in a foreign exchange program across the world learning all about another culture. I’ve known parents of high school kids who were homeschooling who supplemented high school with community college courses – that’s being out in the world. Some of the parents I’ve known who homeschooled did it because their kids had particular issues – such as ADD – that made them fall through the cracks in a room with 25 or 30 kids. People come to homeschooling for a lot of different reasons just like people make the decision about private versus public school for many different reasons.</p>
<p>Momof2 raises a point that I agree with. When you bring that many people into the world, you’re basically saying you don’t give a crap about the rest of the people in said world. Any more than two children to a couple and that couple is couple is contributing to the overpopulation of the world. Just because we have plentiful resources in America isn’t a good reason to screw over children elsewhere in the world.</p>
<p>If you have that much love to give, there are children waiting to be adopted everywhere.</p>
<p>What it seems like to me is that these people have realized that having a bunch of kids is a quicker way to spread their religion than going door-to-door.</p>
<p>[Ecological</a> Footprint Quiz by Redefining Progress](<a href=“myfootprint.org”>http://www.myfootprint.org/)</p>
<p>Thanks, alh, for the Trollope synopsis! That was quite amazing.</p>
<p>^^ellemenope: On reread this a.m. I see at least one error LOL</p>
<p>In the state in which I home schooled some years ago there were almost no official home schooling regulations or requirements because (as it was explained to me) years earlier home schooling parents had successfully challenged the state in court and it was determined that since public schools couldn’t prove what, if any, education was being provided, the state couldn’t require such proof of home schoolers. Personally, I don’t like the idea that some home schoolers are worthy and some not, nor do I believe the state has a right to dictate to me how my children should be educated. I would argue that if children receive an education in the public schools it has very little to do with that system and almost entirely to do with their parents.</p>
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<p>Are they advocating this lifestyle for everyone, or just for “true believers”? I honestly don’t know much about it. While I agree with what you are saying in some ways, in reality this just isn’t something we have to be worried about, in my opinion, because they aren’t going to gain enough converts to make this a real threat. However, if families with this sort of worldview follow through for several generations, it is possible they will outnumber families with the other sort of worldview to the extent they control the political process. Should we legislate limits on family size now before it is too late?</p>
<p>From the Newsweek article:</p>
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<p>Isn’t there a flaw in this logic? Every time a woman of child-bearing age has unprotected intercourse she is making a choice that may result in a baby. How is that leaving the planning in God’s hands?</p>
<p>^^Maternal missionaries?!!! Yikes!</p>
<p>And I suspect Trollope got it from Psalm 127:3-5 :</p>
<p>King James Version
Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD:
and the fruit of the womb is his reward.
As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man;
so are children of the youth.
Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them:
they shall not be ashamed,
but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate. </p>
<p>New American Standard Bible:
Behold, children are a gift of the LORD,
The fruit of the womb is a reward.
Like arrows in the hand of a warrior,
So are the children of one’s youth.
How blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them;
They will not be ashamed
When they speak with their enemies in the gate.</p>
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<p>I see this as the flip side of an approach that uses rape as a form of ethnic cleansing and cultural domination–fill those wombs with *our *offspring. I am not at all implying that Quiverful and rape are equivalent. But I think the thought processes regarding cultural dominance have much in common.</p>