Topic: WorldNetDaily
WorldNetDaily has a sad tradition of defending homeschoolers no matter how horrible and dysfunctional they are, and of hiding the reality of that horribleness from its readers.
That tradition continues in a May 10 WND article by Leo Hohmann, who does his whitewashing best to kick things off:
A homeschooling couple was arrested and had all 10 of their children taken by the state Thursday after a local sheriff acted on a tip about alleged poor living conditions at their 26-acre homestead where they live “off the grid.”
The Naugler family lives a “back to basics” lifestyle that few would choose, but it makes them happy, says a family friend. The couple has been married almost 20 years and are expecting their 11th child in four months. They have six dogs, two cats and a few farm animals on their “Blessed Little Homestead” in rural southwest Kentucky, according to their Facebook site.
But the Breckinridge County Sheriff’s Office has charged homeschool dad Joe Naugler with the misdemeanor crime of “menacing” and child welfare agents are investigating allegations of unfit living conditions for the couple’s children.
Hohmann then ups the drama:
Sheriff Todd Pate showed up at the homestead Wednesday evening with at least one other deputy. When Naugler’s wife, Nicole, saw the police cars she got in her vehicle and drove off with her two oldest sons. The other eight children were off site with their dad. Nicole, who is five months pregnant, was stopped not far from the homestead and reported being slammed belly-first against the police cruiser. She suffered bruises to both arms, according to her account and photos placed on the family’s Facebook page.
[...]
Sheriff Todd Pate showed up at the homestead Wednesday evening with at least one other deputy. When Naugler’s wife, Nicole, saw the police cars she got in her vehicle and drove off with her two oldest sons. The other eight children were off site with their dad. Nicole, who is five months pregnant, was stopped not far from the homestead and reported being slammed belly-first against the police cruiser. She suffered bruises to both arms, according to her account and photos placed on the family’s Facebook page.
Hohmann leaves out the part where audio recordings show that Nicole Naugler did, in fact, resist arrest, ultimately resulting the woman daring police to shoot her.
Hohmann then does his best to romanticize the Naugler's "off-the-grid" lifestyle:
The family’s Facebook page, shows a small, wood-frame shack of 280 square feet with an extended porch area covered by a tarp. They have a generator for power and are in the process of seeking donated materials to enlarge the wood cabin, according to their Facebook site.
A family friend, Pace Ellsworth, told WND the Nauglers and their 10 children were a happy family that chose to live outside of modern systems.
The family subscribed to a method of homeschooling called “unschooling” in which children learn through experience rather than from textbooks and they focus on subjects that interest them.
“They chose to live off grid and chose to live as homeschoolers with no curriculum, and they just chose to live that way and to have their children have a more eclectic experience, a way of life that most people don’t experience anymore,” Ellsworth said. “It’s become sort of a thing in the world to go off grid. And going off grid doesn’t mean Davy Crockett anymore, it means having solar panels, or a wind farm and having a little more freedom, more freedom as opposed to living with a corporation, or the state.”The Nauglers’ tiny cabin has no running water. They use an outhouse with a latrine and have a working septic system, Ellsworth said. They cook on a wood stove.
Hohmann doesn't mention the implications of two parents and 10 children living in a shack of a mere 280 square feet. Also, the facts are a little different than the story Hohmann tells.
The Nauglers posted the state Child Protective Services report to their Facebook page (which seems to belie the whole off-the-grid thing), and it reports questionable aspects of the Nauglers' poperty -- “numerous piles of garbage, broken glass and nails were also scattered about the property,” while the family lived in “two makeshift tents,” and a shed (also of the “makeshift” variety) housed several animals; the report also noted that the property had no running water or septic system.
Hohmann also didn't report the fact that, as Nicole Naugler admitted on Facebook, at least some of her children don't have birth certificates or Social Security numbers.
Hohmann also ignored the fact that even other homeschoolers disapprove of the Nauglers' lifestyle. Raw Story highlighted one homeschooling parent writing, "I home school my children, (and) my children are taught the things they need to know to be successful. What the Naugler’s (sic) do is simply call it home schooling when in fact they are too lazy to actually home school them.”
It appears Hohmann is either a lazy reporter who can't be bothered to seek all the facts before reporting a story, or he knows the facts but is dishonestly hiding those inconvenient to the Nauglers and WND's homeschooling agenda.
Consider this just another reason why nobody believes WND.
