Starrfall on 3/9/2009 at 16:02
To be fair the Duggars themselves are well off enough to not need state support and I believe they don't even get child tax credits because they make too much money. And they get even more through their tv show on TLC. Also they probably only buy clothes for the oldest kids and then just pass them down for 15 years.
My worry would be that their TV show lets them spread the word of kid-collecting to people who CAN'T afford it.
redEye on 3/9/2009 at 19:03
lolsighlol
Hi kids.
CCCToad on 3/9/2009 at 19:19
Quote Posted by Starrfall
To be fair the Duggars themselves are well off enough to not need state support and I believe they don't even get child tax credits because they make too much money. And they get even more through their tv show on TLC. Also they probably only buy clothes for the oldest kids and then just pass them down for 15 years.
My worry would be that their TV show lets them spread the word of kid-collecting to people who CAN'T afford it.
I'm not sure its that much of a problem, because the high usage of birth control in the US counters the (very) small number of "breeders"
Starrfall on 3/9/2009 at 19:51
It's true that there are currently fewer (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quiverfull) quiverfulls then there are quakers, for example, but the other problem is that they pass on their views like some sort of shitty virus with exponential growth because the whole point of the movement is to have as many kids as naturally possible.
Say only 15 of the Duggar kids fall into this quiverfull stuff. Say each of those 15 kids is relatively conservative, and only has ten kids each. You've now got 150 more. And if even only half of those fall in, and are also conservative and only have ten kids, you're looking at 1500. Two generations with just one family and you're looking at a small town's worth of young earth, adam-and-eve-walked-with-dinosaurs, home-schooled, gay-hating, college-avoiding, cleavage-eschewing believers that creating more of them no matter what is their main purpose in life.
At some point someone's going to have kids they can't afford. I would hope that they'd be pragmatic and start using birth control if this happened, but we're talking about a movement that believes that using birth control (even pulling out or using the rhythm method) makes you a pawn of the devil in his war against heaven. And as they're insularly home-schooled, their children learn this with virtually no chance to hear any other opinion until they go out into the world on their own. (Which doesn't happen until they get married, to someone who believes the same, and with whom they will immediately start indoctrinating their own children.)
It is not a movement that needs or warrants any encouragement. The wiki link offers the Catholic viewpoint on having lots of kids, and I think it's FAR more reasonable.
(I think the above scenario is unlikely to happen in reality, but it IS what would happen if all went according to the quiverfull plan. Except they'd end up with even more than 1500 because if they really believe in the movement they ain't stopping at 10 kids each.)
henke on 3/9/2009 at 20:04
Quote Posted by Muzman
You know, it might be reading into things too much but that's all I hear when Stitch pimps his song of the moment.
What is it about CREAM ON THE INSIDE CLEAN ON THE OUTSIDE that says clowncar vagi-
actually, nevermind
fett on 3/9/2009 at 20:24
Quote Posted by Starrfall
home-schooled
Watch it...;)
june gloom on 3/9/2009 at 20:28
To be fair, you're only the 2nd home-schooling family I've seen where the kids are turning out normal. Everyone else? Conservapedia.
Starrfall on 3/9/2009 at 20:29
Hey there's home-schooling and there's home-schooling.
CCCToad on 3/9/2009 at 20:38
Quote Posted by Starrfall
Hey there's home-schooling and there's home-schooling.
True, there's a couple different camps on it. Interestingly enough, most homeschoolers now are doing it because of how shitty public schools are, and not for any religious reasons.
There's those that do it because of the insulation, and there's those that do it in spite of the insulation and try to fix that by keeping the kids heavily involved in community activities. My evidence is completely anecdotal, but those people I have seen who grew up that are generally more reliable and vastly better educated than the average public school graduate.
fett on 3/9/2009 at 23:46
Quote Posted by dethtoll
To be fair, you're only the 2nd home-schooling family I've seen where the kids are turning out normal. Everyone else? Conservapedia.
I think you're still in the 1980's. I live in NW Arkansas and just today signed my kids up for a local co-op w/ about 200 other families. There were the usual Jesus crazies, but I'd say about half of them are either ambivalent toward the religion factor, or determined "secular" homeschoolers, like us. Lots of teens with long hair, band t-shirts, (one with dreadlocks), dads with beer logo shirts, and a lot of hippie types.
I think CC is right - the tide of homeschooling has really shifted in the last 20 years from being a primarily religious movement to an anti-public school movement. Our reasons are blended - possible travel in the future, plus just actually being in a position to do it ourselves. Do a search for homeschooling blogs and you'll find the majority of them aren't religious at all. Religious people surely don't seem to have the loudest voice anymore in the homeschooling movement as far as I've been able to tell.
