The Double Standard Nobody Noticed in the Naugler Case

I’m sure many of you remember when the CPS visited the Naugler family’s Kentucky home earlier this month, and took all 10 of their kids. For the crime of living outside of mainstream society, one of their busy body neighbors alerted the authorities to their unique lifestyle, and now the family is still dealing with the consequences. To date, none of these kids have been returned to their parents.

So what was it about their lifestyle that was so offensive to the authorities, that they were deemed unfit to raise a family?

Based on some of the questions that the CPS asked the parents, which included subjects like guns, vaccines, and their homeschool curriculum, it seems like a classic case of the government targeting people who are just trying to live independent of the system.

Chief among these supposed crimes, was that the family wasn’t giving their kids a “proper education.” The Nauglers had been following a style of teaching called “unschooling.” In a nutshell, unschooling involves abandoning standard curricula and grading systems, allowing kids to learn on their own by approaching the subjects they are most interested in, and teaching with hands on, real world experiences.

Honestly, it sounds sensible to me. It seems very similar to how I’ve learned most subjects in my life. I can barely remember any of the stuff I learned in school, but I remember just about everything I learned on my own. It sounds very intuitive. So why would the government want to tear this family apart for giving their kids such a natural form of education (other than their obvious hatred of independent minded people)?

Well, the truth of the matter is that the government doesn’t target everybody for unschooling their children. Just as it is with most activities, the wealthy and powerful often get away with things that the rest of us would never dream of. This case is no different.

Take a look at how Billionaire Elon Musk teaches his children. After getting tired of how his kids were being taught in school, he decided to make his own school, which he calls Ad Astra. Tell me if their curriculum sounds familiar.

Musk says in the interview that Ad Astra, which is a year old, currently has 14 kids and will increase to 20 in September. His grand vision for the school involves removing grade levels, so there’s no distinction between students in 1st grade and 3rd…

“…Some people love English or languages. Some people love math. Some people love music. Different abilities, different times,” he says. “It makes more sense to cater the education to match their aptitudes and abilities…”

“…It’s important to teach problem solving, or teach to the problem and not the tools,” Musk says. “Let’s say you’re trying to teach people about how engines work. A more traditional approach would be saying, ‘we’re going to teach all about screwdrivers and wrenches.’ This is a very difficult way to do it.”

Instead, Musk says it makes more sense to give students an engine and then work to disassemble it.

“How are we going to take it apart? You need a screwdriver. That’s what the screwdriver is for,” Musk explains. “And then a very important thing happens: The relevance of the tools becomes apparent.”

So if a billionaire wants his kids to learn based on their aptitudes and interests, with hands on activities, without grade levels, and for most part, in a way that is totally different from the mainstream style of schooling, they call it progressive and revolutionary. But when a family living on a farm in Kentucky essentially does the same thing, apparently they’re abusing their children.

Now, I’m not trying to single out Elon Musk in any way, but I think we should point out the obvious. Once you’ve reached a certain level of income, the government will leave you alone; either because you’ve bribed them (which I doubt is the case with Musk), or because you have the resources to challenge them in court. And that’s the real reason why the Naugler family doesn’t have their children anymore. The government figured they were easier to pick on. g

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Contributed by Joshua Krause of The Daily Sheeple.

Joshua Krause is a reporter, writer and researcher at The Daily Sheeple. He was born and raised in the Bay Area and is a freelance writer and author. You can follow Joshua’s reports at Facebook or on his personal Twitter. Joshua’s website is Strange Danger .