MSNBC host humiliated for attack on homeschool mom

MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann was ridiculed Monday for attacking Bethany Mandel, a mother of five who proudly homeschools her children. 

Mandel, who is a writer and editor for the popular children’s series Heroes of Liberty, replied to Steve Schmidt over a tweet he wrote about the late Senator John McCain. But Olbermann, who is well known for ranting that Trump supporters should be arrested and “removed from society”, suddenly replied to Mandel’s tweet with one on homeschooling: 

Imagine putting ‘homeschool mom’ in your bio and not understanding you've just ruined the lives of five innocent children.

Mandel, who indeed refers to herself as a “homeschool mom” in her Twitter bio, often posts about her homeschool, sharing photos of her children studying art and mathematics and playing in the park during downtime. 

As she explained in an article last year, the Mandel family has adopted the Charlotte Mason approach to homeschooling, “which means our homeschool days are filled with a lot of downtime for play, our lessons are short, and the emphasis is on living books, nature study, handicrafts, art, and classical music.” 

The Mandel children, who begin their day at 9 AM, spend their mornings praying and studying Torah, poetry, art and classical music. 

“The rest of the day my kids separately tackle lessons in math, Duolingo (for Hebrew), twice a week Hebrew classes on Zoom, and piano (with Hoffman Academy),” wrote Mandel. “Together we learn a bit of history, music (Solfa), natural history, geography, and more with the secular curriculum we use: A Gentle Feast.” 

The children later practice dance or gymnastics and get together with other homeschoolers. 

Mandel replied to Olbermann, sharing photos of her children homeschooling. 

"What an empty life this man lives. This is how we live ours,” she wrote above a photo of her husband and children walking in the park. “I love that my two year old (green hoody) is jump walking, her feet off the ground in this shot. That’s how she lives her life.” 

“My poor homeschooled kids,” she wrote in another tweet above photos of her children studying art pieces at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. 

Others piled on. 

“Homeschooled kids turn out better by every measurable statistic compared to public school kids - academically, socially, college grad rate, marriage, employment, etc,” replied podcast host Liz Wheeler. “Better than private school kids too. But of course you’re proof of that. Happy to debate you on this anytime.” 

“Kieth Olbermann is old, childless, alone, and irrelevant,” said popular author and commentator Matt Walsh in response to Olbermann. “He'll leave no legacy behind and nobody will remember him or care for him as he whittles away. These kinds of tweets are just a bitter, ridiculous, lonely loser lashing out. It's really quite sad when you think about it.” 

Other netizens jumped in to share their thoughts on homeschooling with Olbermann: 

“I homeschooled my children for a combined total of 22 years. They consistently scored in the 98th and 99th percentile in state-mandated standardized testing. They're now employed, tax paying adults who know their gender, don't have tats or piercings, and don't require psych meds.” 

“Totally. Our homeschooled daughter is lamenting her full academic college scholarship. Oh the pain.” 

“I teach college math. I love when I get homeschooled students. They’re usually the top of the class, and they’re usually very social and friendly with the other students. Yeah, that’s definitely ruining the kids.” 

“Homeschool kid here. I went to a top 25 college, earned a law degree from the same school, and have been working professionally in media for the last 8ish years. My brother is a division one scholarship athlete who now manages a business with 200ish employees. Thanks, mom.” 

“Ugh. I don’t know where this comes from. But anecdotally homeschool people I know are far ahead of their public school peers and go on to high powered grad programs and lucrative careers.” 

“My sister-in-law homeschooled her daughter. That daughter went to college at 15 and made law review at Columbia. Yup, a ruined life...” 

“As opposed to the literally millions of children the public schools systematically ruin? Children driven to suicide by these schools. Teachers driven to pharmaceuticals to survive. A soul-crushing system. That’s what you prefer.”