Vintage Homeschool Moms

Cathy Duffy is well known today as an authority on all things homeschool curriculum. She has a popular website, CathyDuffyReviews.com, with thousands of reviews of books, curriculum, and online classes. It is exhaustive and comprehensive, with a section that parents can use to keep their own information. Yet, a book that helped give homeschoolers an insight into public education has been forgotten by some, but not me.

Years ago, Cathy authored the book, “Government Nannies” as a warning for parents to be aware of the encroachment of government into our children’s lives. This book was groundbreaking because it was written in 1995 and dealt with the US government’s Goals 2000 and outcome-based education. While goals are great for education it is important to keep in mind that parental rights can and were infringed upon. I purchased many of these books and gave them away to friends. It was a classic at the time and actually a precursor to what has happened in education today. It was a reminder to home educators of the importance of homeschooling.

In our conversation, Cathy shared why she homeschooled and the reason she wrote “Government Nannies.” This book is long out of print, yet the impact is the same and telling. Her warning that education would encroach upon the lives of parents and circumvent parental control has come to pass. It went unnoticed except for a segment of the homeschool, private, and perhaps charter school crowd. Yet, education online during the pandemic made more parents aware of the problems within traditional classrooms. Parents could see firsthand what their children were being taught. There was an exodus from traditional education at this time as parents began to pull their children out of school. This was alarming to school administrators, yet the curtain had been pulled back and the truth was that education was not only subpar, but parental concerns were not taken into consideration.

Points we covered in the interview: