Parallelism in Practice: The Homeschool CO-OP
A report from the front lines
A dissident group is most likely meeting in a park near your home. These are the hard core, true-believing types, who aren't in it for the lulz, or for the accolades, or for the Likes. Come what may they'll stick to the Cause. Rebel villains all.
Who are these implacable enemies of the Cathedral1?
The Homeschool Co-op.
Before we get to these rabble raisers, a brief preamble.
N.S. Lyons has a very nice essay about parallelism up. You should check it out after you finish this essay.
Mr. Lyons proposed building a "parallel state" and gave several examples of organizations that used a "strategy of pre-political community organizing, which established a foundation of parallel societal power and legitimacy."
The USA has a good number of these parallel societal powers, but not nearly enough. We should be careful here to distinguish between a non-profit funded with Federal dollars, and thus wholly subservient to the State, and a church or other volunteer group that receives no such funding. Any non-profit prostituting itself for that sweet, sweet Federal grant money will do exactly as the Feds demand.
No, these parallel powers will be more homegrown, and formed to meet a need. Essentially these organizations provide help and governance the State, being incompetent and corrupt, can no longer provide.
If we exclude State-adjacent non-profits, as well as non-profits that are essentially for-profits, and tax-write-off non-profits, then the true number of volunteer organizations shrinks quite a bit. It wasn't always so. The USA used to be a volunteerism paradise. Alexis de Tocqueville's book "Democracy in America" illustrated that wonderfully.
The striking thing about early America was the multitude of governments and services, which all sprang up due to the non-existence of an overbearing central power. The Feds were weak, intentionally so. Hospitals, prisons, roads, schools, banquets, dances, cemeteries, and clubs of every sort covered the landscape. All were volunteer, both for those that ran it, and those that attended. This meant that if a person didn't want to be governed by the rules of a club, they could leave and find another. Even the currency was volunteer, each bank had their own bills and each citizen could take it or leave it.
It was a very healthy society. Like a vibrant wild meadow, it was alive with all sorts of growth. But the State finds such a thing hard to harvest and prefers a monocrop - So the meadow was slowly eradicated, eventually tilled over, and planted with corn fertilized with FRNs2. Much easier to harvest and control.
The State can't abide competition for power so it works to slowly remove other governance and services. We're living now at the end of that process. The State has removed all competition and thus the services wane in quality. The State wants to provide as little as possible for the highest cost, ie, high margin return, so taxes go up and services go down. Eventually everything the State does goes to shit.
A society needs hospitals though, and schools, and debate clubs, and gymnasiums, and dances, so an opportunity exists for us to build a parallel structure; essentially, a competitor. This is only possible in the waning years of State power - Know for sure that if this were the 1940's, the Federal State was robust, and FDR were President, our efforts would be stamped out in an instant.
We'll have a much easier time of it now, but we should still be aware that, to the State (The Cathedral, Globohomo, the Unipower, it has many names) we are the enemy, and we WILL face resistance.
We aren't going to bother with counter-institutional-capture, instead, as N.S. Lyon's says, "Rather than working within the strictures of a state apparatus controlled by their enemies, a dissident opposition pivots to go directly back to the level of the people."
What does this look like? Parallel societies, parallel states, parallel power, and so forth can seem daunting but in practice it can be very simple. One example from this author's personal experience is the Homeschool Co-op (Cooperative).
A homeschool co-op is different things to different people. In general, the co-op serves three needs: Additional educational opportunity for kids that the mother can't provide; support and commiseration from peers; social engagement and fun for the kids.
Every co-op is weighted differently towards those needs depending on the people in it, and even what week it is. Some co-ops are mostly just an informal playgroup, while others are a formal educational system.
Every homeschool mom has limits. There are subjects she doesn't know, or doesn't want to know, or has now taught so many times she doesn't want to teach them anymore. The mission is to educate the kids, though, so she has to fill the gap. Thus, the co-op. Most co-ops have an extracurricular aspect to them. For some co-ops this is a once-a-month field trip, for others a mother teaching on a subject she has mastery over once a week, and for the most formal, lessons taught on a daily basis by a combination of mothers and paid staff.
The latter category sounds almost like a school and it nearly is. Applicants (yes, admittance by application only) pay a fee to join the co-op, which pays for paid teaching staff. These staff are augmented by mother volunteers. Kids are still taught at home, but subjects difficult for most mothers to teach, such as the sciences or trades, are covered by the co-op.
This is all at a fraction the cost of Federal Schools, which at this point average about $16,390 per student per year. The education is far superior also. And your kid won't be chemically neutered are hacked at without without your permission. Talk about service!
Each city has an enormous number of co-ops. They spring up, fill a need, then die, then spring up again anew without ceasing. Some last years, some months.
The primary means for organizing a co-op is Facebook. Yes, Facebook is mostly garbage but for organizing social gatherings it's still the king. Crucial also are local churches, where families can meet and discuss the various co-ops, or even put together a plan to start one. Also important is the local homeschool book sale, which almost without fail is a thing in any city with a sizable number of homeschoolers.
In our city the book sale one of the main social events of the year. Families pay for booths to sell their books, and everyone shows up. Amidst the bedlam old friends are greeted and new friends are made. A consistent topic of conversation are the co-ops - Where they are, who's running them, and how they're weighted (Though the women never use that term).
If you visit a local bookstore you might think the only books left in the world are romance drivel and the only people left reading them are blue-hairs, but know that many good books are still being read by good people.
This author's wife helps lead one of the local co-ops. They meet once a month. Each month a different mom presents on a topic. They've had presentations on gardening, on farming, on different cultures, sports, etiquette, and dancing. Of course we're talking kids here so all presentations included plenty of interaction. After the presentation the kids play and the women talk.
Also once a quarter the co-op has a mom's night where all the ladies get away for a bit and talk shop. Homeschooling is a difficult job. Mutual support and wisdom is crucial.
The government of the group is very simple. Three women run things. No one chose them, they chose themselves. The rules are very simple also - If you or your kids are a nuisance, you’ll be asked to leave. One mother was asked to leave because her children were crazed, but otherwise all has been peaceful.
All of this is volunteer. And, ironically, none of it is with some great cause in mind. Few of these women even know what a "parallel society" is. Needs are best met by those that see the need first, then the cause; for if the cause be first, then meeting the need will only ever be a means to an end. These women volunteer, and take time out of their day, and work to teach their children, not out of some love for a cause, or a desire to take down a totalitarian State, but out of love for their children.
They are truly rebels without a cause.
They may not know it, but homeschool moms are dealing body blows to the State. A thousand tweets from an Alt-Right troll will never do the damage a mother does when she teaches that class at the co-op. It's the work, not the words, the grind, not the glory, that wins wars.
That group of homeschool moms chatting around their strollers at the park is more dangerous to the State than a gang of Hell's Angels.
The State knows homeschoolers are a threat and is making moves to stop them, but looking into that is an essay for another time.
Many thanks to all those out there taking time out of their day, unpaid, to volunteer and meet a need, whatever it may be. You are the resistance in action.
If you're curious what these based women are like (Specifically, are they HOT?) please subscribe as we'll have a demographic profile out soon. There WILL be pics!
To close with an exhortation:
Men - If your kids are in public school - Get them out, now. Private schools are cheap. Homeschool is cheaper. Tell your wife to quit her job. She'll be 10x happier. Necessity is the mother of invention, and God is good - You’ll find a way to make ends meet. Stop buying garbage you don't need. A nice house is no home at all if it be empty - And it will be empty because the State will have your kids more than you do, and will train them to despise you and leave you. If your wife is currently homeschooling, but not in a co-op, help her get connected. She won't survive the trial without help.
Women - You love your children, so be with them. There is no greater joy than watching a child blossom into being. The world says success is climbing the corporate ladder, or breaking the glass ceiling, or a nice house, or Likes on Facebook, but none of those things will matter in your latter years. Teach your children now when it matters most - If you give them time when they are young, they will give you time when you are old.
God speed, my friends, and farewell. If you think this publication would be helpful to others, please feel free to share.
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Interested in learning more. I’m retired with a 6 month old daughter and she’s 100% going to be homeschooled.
Wonderful. If just 10% of moms would put in this kind of effort, we could change the country for the better.