The current appeals ruling that deems homeschooling illegal in the state of California is ridiculous. However, I am impressed that people such as the govenator and the superintendent of public education are opposed to this. Maybe "the right to homeschool" isn't in the constitution in those words exactly, but I think it falls unders the categories of our freedoms. Such as freedom of religion. The government only has a right to intervene when a religion directly breaks another law (the woman who tried to be a legal prostitute by claiming the title of pastor in a new, but wildly popular, church). We have already seen that the government doesn't care about the human rights of unborn children, so it's not surprising it didn't end there.
To add insult to injury, columnists at the LA Times stated
There has always been something decidedly elitist and anti-democratic in home schooling. It smacks of a belief that privileged children should not have to associate with the other kids in the neighborhood and that by staying home, they would not be subjected to the leavening effect of democracy.
Now, this is absurd because what is more democratic than having parents have the say in what their own children learn? Things like this should be in the people's hands, not the governement! It also is not elitist because people who homeschool their children work hard to be able to do so. My mom had to work sometimes, and we were in and out of public school, but when i was old enough to watch my siblings, she gave us lessons before going to work. That probably isn't the best way, but she did teach us after. It's just kind of flipped: do the homework in the morning instead of in the afternoon. Homeschooling is so much more efficient because when the teacher to student ratio is lower, more work can get done. Both my brother and I skipped a grade. However, I digress. Parents who have worked hard so that one can stay home and teach the kids should not be punished for rare cases of using homeschooling to hide abuse. They might as well make abortion mandatory past a certain quota for the year and have all the children born become wards of the state, because no parents are fit to raise their own childern, right? Abuse of something should not lead to its rejection, even though that seems to be a popular theme with our government. There are parents out there who don't work and just live off the government's (OUR) dollar. They could teach their kids. I'm not endorsing welfare. I'm just saying, the way things are, it's possible. For the same reason they don't want to work, it's the same reason they wouldn't homeschool their kids. Parents who aren't lazy shouldn't have their rights taken away.
I was planning on homeschooling the children I have someday. I really hope things change, because I don't want to be run out of California. I wouldn't mind leaving somewhere else, as much as I love it here, but I despise the idea of being forced to go. Al Mohler said to watch out for witch hunts, and it does seem like that could be the case. The liberals are just afraid of more people with views that oppose theirs. They want to suppress our freedom so that the future generation will be compiled only of people whose idealogy matches their own. They aren't for liberty and justice for all. They want a socialist country. I don't see evangelicals trying to push a theocracy on the country. That would make me want to leave state as well: it would be Rome all over again! I guess at this point we just have to wait and see, but you know that if something regarding this shows up on the ballots, I'll be first in line, protecting my future children's education.
3 comments:
Homeschooling is a good thing. I think.
My mom would always threaten to homeschool us when we would complain about things at school. It always got us to shut up, lol.
I think that if Homeschooling is outlawed then we should commit our resources to supporting good Christian schools.
How about Canada? Not too shabby. Keep fighting the good fight. I will say, in one of my classes, we discussed what the nature of persecution in this country would look like. This is one area that came up. The other would be child endangerment laws. Very creepy stuff.
How annoying...i wasn't notified of these comments.
Glenn - i'm not a big fan of Christian schools either. I automatically think of naughty catholic school girls. Though i guess my reasoning has at least two flaws. (1) Catholic isn't Christian. Their system is a lot different from ours too. (2) Just as with public school, it is up to the parents. I wouldn't be one that just sends the kids to school and be a hypocrite at home. Being against Christian schools is like saying PKs are always the worst.
That's funny that your mom would threaten you with homeschooling. It was the exact opposite for us. She'd threaten us with public school, where all the hoodlums are, when we didn't behave.
At any rate, whether homeschooling is outlawed or not, there are Christians who can't homeschool their kids and need a good alternative if they can't work something out with neighbor Christians (side note - it would be fun to have Fridays to meet together with friends from church who also have kids and swap kids to teach different subjects in groups, like art or music. As a kid, i loved Co-Op, where i had P.E., Spanish, theatre, and creative writing, which my mom taught) and can't afford Christian schools. We need a total reform on the whole school system though. Like not having to pay taxes unless you have kids in that school!
Frank - why would i want to leave this country to live with moose, eh? I don't even want to leave California. If not Colorado, there are plenty of good red states left.
What do you mean "would" look like? Don't you mean does look like? You think that persecution isn't already and has been happening? It's subtle but existent.
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