What They Said About Faith and Family

"The building of bridges requires architects who understand the laws of physics. If they substitute their own opinions of mass, weight, and gravity, their bridges will fall and people will die. Similarly, the sustaining of democracies requires citizen-governors who understand the 'laws of nature and of nature's God' that underlie human freedom. If we teach our children to substitute their own opinions about men's relationship to God and to each other, our democracy will fall and die."
— Larry P. Arnn

"Get ready for the fireworks. Brace yourself for the coming war. With the final results of the 73rd annual National Spelling Bee in, the din from the public education establishment will soon be deafening. This year all three top places were won by children who were home-schooled. The big winner, George Abraham Thampy, is only 12-years-old. For public school officials, this is the biggest embarrassment since...well, since the first home-schooler won, scorching the competition in 1997. Perhaps what galls the education orthodoxy is that home-schooling parents didn't need education degrees based on fads and smarmthink to prepare their kids for success. They did it the old-fashioned way: by challenging, instructing, and building on prior knowledge. Unlike the education establishment, these parents instill skills and knowledge in their children. They don't package self-esteem courses under the mantra of 'teaching kids to think' —   which is shorthand for letting kids loose to reinvent mathematics and reading, and then acting surprised when they can't beat students from Third World nations in international competition."
— Matthew Robinson

"The number of children taught at home has increased from a miniscule 15,000 in 1978 to 1.5 million today. Academic resources are better than ever, with Web pages offering information about good textbooks, teaching aids and supplemental materials. But mostly home schooling forges a special bond between parents and their children. It communicates to children how important they are that parents invest so much time in them. It also earns dividends for parents who are able to shape their own children's intellectual and moral development and not turn that responsibility over to an agent of the state, who, no matter how good a teacher, will always be required to teach the state's values and the state's perspective on subjects from sex to history and biology. Children educated at home are some of the friendliest, most articulate and socially comfortable people I've met. They look you in the eye. They speak in complete sentences, eschewing the verbal crutches such as 'you know' and 'she goes.' They aren't robots, but neither are they freaks. They are, I suspect, the way most parents would like their children to be: smart, kind, courteous, respectful and seeking to live a moral life."
— Cal Thomas

"You know the National Education Association (teachers union) and all the state affiliates are gnashing their financial teeth over the success of students not subjected to the NEA, et al., dumbing down agenda. I repeat: Get government OUT of education and everything else it has stuck its unwanted tentacles into. The 'helping hand' of government is the one that helps you into the pit of slavery and stupidity."
— Jackie Juntti

STATEMENT OF PURPOSE
The Federalist is an advocate of individual, family and community governance, rights and responsibilities as espoused by our nation's Founders, and as originally intended by our Republic's Constitution as set forth in the Federalist Papers. The mission of our Editorial Board is to provide Constitutional Conservatives with a brief, timely, informative and entertaining survey and analysis of the week's most significant news, policy and opinion. The Federalist is an antidote to the liberal rhetoric of the mass media.