19 Kids and What The Hell Is Going On?

    In my last blog, which was about how Rick Santorum (and the rest of the GOP presidential hopefuls) is a huge asshole, I briefly mentioned the Duggar family. In case you aren't aware of who/what the Duggar family is, allow me to summarize. The Duggars are a family from Arkansas that has 19 children, as well as a successful reality television program. They are known for being fundamentalist christians, who home-school their children, and they have become icons in the conservative christian community.
    The reason why you should care about the Duggars is because there are literally millions of people in our country who don't think that the Duggars are insane, morally corrupt, dangerous people who are harming their children. The things that fundamentalists like the Duggars believe are alarming, and should inspire moral outrage. Any sensible person would look at this television show, or hear Jim Bob (the patriarch of the bunch, and, yes, that is his real name) and Michelle (the one who has pushed nineteen babies out of her vagina) on any number of radio and television appearances, and be legitimately concerned. They are a shining example of the weird, radical beliefs of fundamentalists.
 
    The "Quiverfull" Movement: This is a movement that is, amazingly, gaining popularity among evangelical christians. Simply put, it is the belief that children are a "blessing" from god, so the use of contraception of any kind is a sin, because it is a rejection of a gift from god. Family planning, or limiting the size of your family in any way, would be considered wrong under this dogma. This is what the Duggars believe. They look at the biblical statement to "be fruitful and multiply" as a commandment that is non-negotiable. This is not uncommon in evangelical churches.
    The whole "Quiverfull" thing is really just an extension of providentialism, which is an old fundamentalist christian school of thought which believes that god's will is perfect, and is in action at all times.
    Here's a scenario. Imagine a family that already has ten children. The wife isn't allowed to work, because it is the man's responsibility (biblically) to provide income, so they are getting by on one income. Let's say that these folks don't have a lucrative contract with TLC for a reality TV show, so times are hard. Now let's say that this woman is in her mid-40s, and gets pregnant again, but because of her age (and other health factors that a woman who has already had ten kids may have to deal with) she has serious complications, and may not survive the pregnancy. Oh, by the way, all of the kids are homeschooled, because (according to these types of fundamentalist christians) that is what god commands. Providentialism would explain this whole scenario as the will of god, and if this lady dies and her baby dies and her kids are suddenly left without a mother to raise/teach them, then it's just what was supposed to happen. It's all good. Or, if she does survive, and the baby survives, then that is also the will of god, and it's her responsibility to keep cranking out babies until she is either dead or physically unable to do so. This is what these people believe.

    Homeschooling: Like any good fundamentalist christian family, the Duggars homeschool their kids. Approximately 1.5 million American children are homeschooled. According to the Department of Education's polling data, "providing religious or moral" instruction is the leading cause of homeschooling. It is a national movement, primarily among religious fundamentalists, and it has grown at a rate of 7% over the last decade.
    Parents, if you decide to homeschool your child, you are doing them a tremendous disservice. I have experienced homeschooling firsthand, as did my brother and many of my friends, and I can tell you that it is absolutely not a reasonable alternative to traditional public or private education. The negative social effects that homeschooled children are subjected to are often debilitating and have long-term implications.
    A recent Washington Post article claimed that a study showed how 1500 homeschooled children outperformed public school kids averages on standardized tests, which is exactly what homeschooling parents want you to see. Obviously, this is a ridiculous article, and the numbers are misleading. You probably already recognize this, but let me just say... ALL of the kids who go to public schools are required to take standardized tests. The kids who represented the homeschooling community were hand-selected by their parents, who volunteered their children to take the tests. Homeschooled kids are NOT REQUIRED TO TAKE STANDARDIZED TESTS. Legal groups like HSLDA work very hard to keep homeschoolers free from government regulation, which means that hundreds of thousands of children are receiving educations from their parents (who probably aren't qualified to teach, especially when compared to the standards of education which are mandatory to be a teacher who works for public or most private schools). Anyways, the bottom line is that the statistics are incredibly misleading.
    Also, it's pretty important to point out one little thing - LIFE IS NOT A FUCKING STANDARDIZED TEST. Standardized tests aren't an indicator of intelligence, as anyone who has ever taken a standardized test can tell you.
    For some reason, in our country the homeschooling movement is gaining popularity (I wonder if it is growing at the same rate as the Quiverfull movement?), and nobody seems alarmed about this. Nobody wants to get out there and try to help out all of these poor children whose futures are being devastated by their well-meaning, but ultimately very wrong, parents.
    Some of these parents actually believe that their children will be able to transition to college. Does anyone believe that a child whose kitchen table was his only classroom, and whose mother was his only teacher, will be able to excel in any kind of serious university? Actually, it's not always mom who is doing the teaching, which leads me to...

    Buddy-System Parenting: You may be reading this article and saying, how the hell can one woman (or one couple) effectively raise nineteen children? Well, the thing is, they can't. They know this, which is why the Duggars (like many other fundamentalist families) practice buddy-system parenting. The older kids are matched up with younger kids, and responsibilities which would traditionally belong to mom and dad get sloughed off to kids who are forced to raise their siblings. If you can stomach it, watch some episodes of "19 Kids and Counting" and you'll see what I mean. Even in the homeschooling, the older kids (who aren't out of school yet, and have their own educations to worry about) share in the responsibility of "teaching" their younger siblings.

    There's more. The restrictive censorship of the kids, the weird dress codes that are enforced, forcing the older kids to practice "chaperoned courtship" instead of more traditional dating... the list goes on. Now, this is America, where parents are allowed to raise their children as they see fit, which is incredibly fucking stupid and shortsighted. There is no kind of prerequisite or testing progress which determined the fitness of a person when it comes to parenting. You can't drive a car in this country without being tested first, but you can bring a person into the world and be completely responsible for their welfare just because you convinced some other dumbass to have sex with you. I don't believe that the government should control people, but there has to be some kind of oversight when it comes to widespread practices that harm children. Homeschooling needs to be strictly regulated, and parents must be held accountable. Domestic violence and sexual abuse are not the only forms of child abuse. When parents place their superstitious, fundamentalist, primitive beliefs ahead of common sense, and start to take opportunities away from their children, or limit their growth, it is a form of abuse. It's a lesser form, but it is still abuse. Homeschooling is only one example. There are many, many practices that are common in the fundamentalist community that damage people of all ages.
    The Duggars have chosen to be a high-profile fundamentalist family, and they are taking advantage of their freakshow status. It's troublesome that America can tune in and watch the Duggars, or the Amish, or toddler pageant queens and their disgusting parents, or morbidly obese people, or "Hoarders", or "Interventions", and just chalk it up to entertainment. The freakshow is happening in your backyard, and real people are in real trouble because of the spread of certain insidious attitudes and ideologies.