Blanket Training is About Adults, Not Children

“At its core, blanket training is not for children. It is for parents who desire their children’s spirits broken and their voices silenced.”

Hurts Me More Than You: Jaime and Susanna’s Stories

“How about just not hitting anyone?”

About Those “Model Homeschoolers”…

“The reason most parents do the authoritarian parenting thing in the first place is because they believe it will result in model children and successful adults. They see children from these other homeschooling families that seem ‘perfectly well-behaved’ and who do ‘first time obedience’ and many understandably want that sort of awesomeness for themselves. What they do not understand is that this ‘model homeschooler’ or ‘model child’ image often comes at a steep price.”

Corporal Punishment and The End of The Red Stick: Heather Doney’s Story, Part Two

“The red stick had started out as a handle to a child-size broom and then when the broom broke 25 years ago, it became a toy (a walking stick, a bat, a pretend sword) left in the yard until my Dad picked it up off the patio one day, tapped it against his palm a few times and said, ‘This would make a real good spankin’ stick.'”

Public Schools and Home Dictators: Keziah’s Story

“A home dictator doesn’t have to be a homeschool parent, or a religious zealot. A home dictator needs a cause – which can be simply to bury their pain or to feel powerful. My home dictator was mentally ill, and surrounded by enablers: my dad, her siblings, her parents, and once I was old enough, me.”

Corpses Don’t Rebel: ExPearlSwine’s Story

“Thank God I escaped from thinking like you, Carri Williams. Thank God some of my babies were mothered without pain, once I got away from their father and all the right-wing fundamentalist teachings that had ruined my life, Pearl’s teachings included.”

My Regret: Quick Silver Queen’s Story

“My only regret is that I didn’t stick up for her, for them, every time it happened with I don’t know how many of them, probably all, at one time or another. The last time it happened when I was there, I was so close to exploding that had he spanked her one more time, I would have done something. I just wish I had…that I had stood up long before.”

My Father Decried Michael Pearl’s Softness: Warbler’s Story

“My parents swore by To Train Up a Child. Any new parents that they met and invited over to the house were shown the book, read passages and encouraged to purchase a copy of their own. First-time-obedience and spankings were commonplace in our home.”

When Hitting Means Love: Rochelle’s Story

“I remember the welts, the screaming, the bruising, the pain. The battle over my refusal to cry, and finally forcing tears to stop the spanking. I still get a sick feeling in my stomach thinking about my siblings screaming when they got spanked. My two year old sister getting spanked for not eating her food. My 10 year old brother getting spanked for not getting the table set in under 5 minutes.”

Being Told “The Child Will Not Die”: Heather Doney’s Story

“Recently my Mom told me something that shook me to my core. She said, ‘Your father said if you disciplined a child according to the bible, they would not die.’ Then she told me she recognized the Pearls’ book ‘To Train Up A Child.'”