Saturday, March 8, 2008

CALIFORNIA COURT RULES HOMESCHOOLING ILLEGAL


3/10 Update: The Governator is fighting this...darn. Just when I thought he was a total waste of a governor....and just when I thought things could get heated!

ILLEGAL? HOMESCHOOLING? Could this be about the BEST thing that could HAPPEN? I think so! Here's why:

Homeschooling parents are doing it for a reason. They're loving parents of kids they feel shouldn't be indoctrinated by the school system. They aren't particularly interested in their 6 year old reading "Billy has two Daddies!" and they're not interested in their kids having to call a friend "it" like the teacher does now because a 7 yr old has decided that he/she is having gender problems. They don't feel their kids are getting the attention they might if the teacher didn't have to spend so much time disciplining the other kids or teaching them English.

These parents weren't happy when they realized they couldn't send their kids to public school anymore! They were UNHAPPY and they have their reasons. And they're strong people with traditional values and I'm hoping they SPEAK UP for those values, lay them right down on the table, loud and clear, just before election time!

Schools get paid by the child....166,000 homeschooled kids makes a difference, folks..this isn't about those poor kids who "could develop emotionally in a broader world than the parents' cloistered setting" This is about the school system wanting the cash. And our kids' minds.

This could get interesting. OH, I hope so. http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/mar/08030503.html

43 comments:

Anonymous said...

just found you through nanc. great site - and i so agree with you about the homeschooling thing. i homeschooled my kids (in california and then texas) until each one entered high school. no way should the government be able to do this, but i don't think the votes will make one iota of difference in cali-land.

Z said...

Hi, Heidianne...thanks! I'm so glad to have you here.

I'm hoping that the discussion as to why these parents homeschool gets really loud and vigorous and goes nationwide...let parents who are sleeping realize what their kids are learning and not leanring. Maybe it would help?? I hope so.

Always On Watch said...

Maybe CA is tired of homeschoolers winning or otherwise placing in the top few of various national contests (debate, spelling, National Geographic). Those achievements by homeschoolers pose a threat to the public-education system, which spends great amounts of taxpayers' dollars to finance low achievement and amorality.

Z said...

great point, AOW...especially your last thought, how our tax dollars are financing low achievement and amorality. AOW, how can it be that SEVEN YR OLDS are recognizing they're not the gender they were born as and now our schools have to run in circles figuring out bathroom accomodations (so that child won't feel stress...never mind how stressful it might be to the little girls who suddenly have Johnny..oops...Jenny....among them!)? Do you know ANYONE confused about his/her sexuality when you were in school? geeeeZ!

elmers brother said...

We have homeschooled all of our children, some of the time in California.

The system in California has always been hostile to homeschoolers to varying degrees.

While we lived there we got a threatening letter demanding we take our children immediately to a public school and register them for an ISP (independent study program). The school would oversee the curriculum we used and would check our childrens progress.

I was convinced at the time (as has already been suggested) that it was actually a ploy to count our children in the system so that the schools would get public funding.

We retain legal services through HSLDA (homschool legal defense association). We called them immediately. They suggested we do nothing, the law hadn't changed requiring us to do anything the letter stated.

At least we aren't in Germany. Are you aware that there is at least one father and mother who have been jailed and their children taken for homeschooling?

Z said...

Elbro, yes, I'm very well aware of that. There has been a law against homeschooling for years and years in Germany! All we heard here (which caused me to really look into it because I, too, was outraged) was WRONG. The whole 'they were JAILED for homeschooling' thing is incorrect, by the way. The fact is that homeschooling is against the law in Germany. They've never had problems in their schools; their education is excellent, the discipline always worked.. I'm thinking that if enough parents start seeing what the influx of non-assimilating imigrants is doing to their schools, they might change that law. So far, their schools are still pretty darned good. And, like I said, after reading the articles in Germany, some of which were still very harsh against the government, it was still obvious the family was not jailed for that, and nobody's stopping homeschooling there because they're Christians, which was the implication..entirely wrong.

CJ said...

Hi, Z.
So in Germany there isn't a problem with schools pushing anti-Christian views, multiculturalism, gay rights, and so on? I'm sure it must be worse here, but it's getting to be just about global, isn't it? Especially with the Muslim presence everywhere. The secular world view, or even a directly anti-Christian view, is hard to avoid in public school, anywhere these days I would think. Teaching evolution is a major source of it if nothing else.

Connie

elmers brother said...

oops my bad it looks like they just took the kids away

and there was more than one family

Germany’s policy is in stark contrast to all other democratic and free societies that embrace homeschooling and recognize that parents have the primary responsibility and inalienable right to direct the upbringing and education of their children. It is tragic that German families must choose between living in their homeland and homeschooling their children.

does it matter whether the schools are good, bad or mediocre?

I don't think so.

There's more here

elmers brother said...

They've never had problems in their schools; their education is excellent, the discipline always worked.. I'm thinking that if enough parents start seeing what the influx of non-assimilating imigrants is doing to their schools, they might change that law. So far, their schools are still pretty darned good.

I don't see where the quality of the education makes a difference whether someone can homeschool or not.

elmers brother said...

so this didn't happen

Anonymous said...

Z, perhaps it's merely my ever-suspicious view of liberals and liberal-run legislatures, but I believe that a major reason such a law exists in the State of California goes hand-in-hand with the left's opposition to school vouchers: They don't want any children to escape the political and moral (or an unreasonable facsimile thereof) indoctrination that is part of the state's school curriculum.

elmers brother said...

part of it is the teachers unions

you're messing with their ricebowl

I've had conversations with public school administrators and they are rabid anti-homeschooling

elmers brother said...

The ruling was applauded by a director for the state's largest teachers union.

"We're happy," said Lloyd Porter, who is on the California Teachers Association board of directors. "We always think students should be taught by credentialed teachers, no matter what the setting."

A spokesman for the state Department of Education said the agency is reviewing the decision to determine its impact on current policies and procedures. State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell issued a statement saying he supports "parental choice when it comes to homeschooling."


Meanwhile the graduation rate in Watts is 3% (yes that's a 3)

This from Thomas Sowell

The teachers' unions do all they can to create the same handicaps for the voucher schools, or for homeschooling parents, as already exist in the public schools. Among these handicaps are requirements that teachers, including homeschooling parents, must be "certified" -- that is, subjected to the same Mickey Mouse courses in education that serve as a barrier to keep out many well-educated people who would like to teach but hate this junk. Studies show that such courses do nothing to make teachers more effective in the classroom. Moreover, students taking such courses have some of the lowest test scores of people in any field.

The AFT has complained that teachers in charter schools and voucher schools do not have the "protection" of labor unions. But the whole point of having alternative schools is to get away from the things that are dragging down the public schools. Iron-clad tenure for incompetent teachers and paying good and bad teachers the same salary are among these handicaps created by teachers' unions. The more bureaucratic requirements the teachers' unions can get imposed on voucher schools, charter schools or home-schooling parents, the more frivolous lawsuits they can launch against these competitors, claiming that they did not jump through this hoop or submit the right form in triplicate. Even when these lawsuits have no chance of winning, they accomplish their purpose by draining money and time away from those who are competing with the public schools.

Despite the newness of charter schools and voucher schools, their lesser amounts of money per pupil and their need to rent space instead of having it provided free like the public schools, the results are starting to come in, showing that these alternative schools are getting better academic results. So is homeschooling.

The response of the education establishment was exemplified recently on TV by one of its spokesmen who tried to minimize the rise in children's test scores after transferring to private schools by saying that this was "no panacea." Apparently only a panacea would be better than our failing public schools.

Teachers and teachers' unions talk a great game about their concern for children, but their actions reveal their overriding concern for their own egos and their own jobs.

Thomas Sowell is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and is nationally syndicated

nanc said...

the 166,000 parents times two (assuming most are two parent households as most homeschool families are) should all endeavour to have themselves put into jail - with the care of their children going to grandparents, aunts and uncles - they ought to push cali's limits to the limit and while they're at it ask for public defenders.

it would be a grassroots end to what the bureaucracy is trying to do to parents who are just trying to do what they feel is RIGHT for their children.

Z said...

THANK YOU, nanc..that is EXACTLY what I've been hoping for..the WILDLY vigorous reaction/stand we'd all like to see from homeschooling parents...the public defender is a very nice touch I hadn't thought about!

Connie...the schools in Germany haven't given up the discipline in lieu of political correctness, not yet, but I'm sure it'll get there. The schools have been so excellent that they still have great teachers and parents who expect quality...most of our parents here have given into the less than acceptable schooling unless they can afford a good private school or they can homeschool.

Seth..you nailed it. Vouchers stand in the way of a lot for our school unions...and they lie to get around their real motivations.

Elbro, the first case of homeschooling parents jailed in Germany, last Spring or so, had nothing to do with homeschooling but was touted on Christian websites as the couple having been Christians and that was why they were homeschooling and jailed. it wasn't true....my husband read it in German and the people were nutcases.

The point about Germany is, whether we or they like it or not, it is illegal to homeschool. They have always felt that educating children in their exemplary school system was the best thing thing they could do to avoid large unemployment when those kids were of working age...educate them well, etc. It has never been a bit anti-Christian and, indeed, I was happy to see a German Baptist church school mentioned in your article...most Germans are LUtheran or Catholic. (not that I'm not happy about the Lutheran thing, since I AM one!...sort of).

Yes, if a family's arrested, it's because they've gone through months or years of fighting the government laws and lost...the law's right there in black and white! I'll ask my stepdaughter in Munich to keep her ears and eyes open to any news about laws changing toward homeschooling. As much as I"m for it today here in America, by the way, I'd never have had my child homeschooled if I were a parent of a ten year old when I was a ten year old; we had such great teachers and schools and that was the optimum, in my opinion. Today? pitiful..thanks to the unions and the illegal situation killing our schools.

beakerkin said...

Just raise taxes and produce a poor product is the union way

nanc said...

z - think of the jails/prisons they'd have to clear if all the parents made a concerted effort to be arrested on the same day?

they're already turning petty criminals back onto the streets in cali because they cannot house them all - who will they turn out if they're locking up homeschoolers? child molesters? bank robbers? drug dealers?

it would sure show people where the rubber meets the road in californistan! i'd love to be there if for nothing else but that scene.

that's my sixtie's self kicking in...

*8]

Z said...

Beak..couldn't be said better..as usual.

nanc......I'd send you a TICKET if I sensed THIS was going to happen! Wouldn't that be GREAT!?

Well....don't mess with homeschooling parents......and, at 166,000, that has to be around 50,000 parents, huh? Yes, our jails are crowded! This could get GOOD!! I hope. Mostly, because I want the sleeping parents who don't see that what our schools are doing is exactly as beak describes to WAKE UP and SMELL THE CHALK ON THE BOARD!

Did you ever homeschool, nanc, by the way?

Anonymous said...

Z,
I’d like to think you’re right, but, there was no outrage when the 9th Circuit Court ruled that once children are dropped at the school door, parents no longer have authority over them.

Why would we think there will be outrage over the rights of parents home schooling their children?

If parents paid attention and cared enough, things would not have gotten this far. The American family no longer holds the high position it once did.

Respect for parents among most educators is sadly lacking. The educational establishment in a sense doesn’t want parent’s input, and indeed in some areas doesn’t want them to know what they’re teaching our children.

Parents’ rights have been under assault for a long time.

Abortions for minors without parental consent or knowledge,

steady lowering of the age of children for sex education,

profiling of children’s personal lives and home circumstances,

disregard for family values,

lack of concern for robbing children of their innocence.

Maybe this will attract people’s attention to what the state is doing to our families and more importantly, our children.

All I know is, if the families don’t rise up, it’ll be business as usual. As always in these matters, the children are the ones who lose.


Nanc, from your mouth to God's ears.


Pris

Anonymous said...

Could you please change the picture on this entry? I really don't like others to display my children.

Not to mention, I don't live in CA.

Thanks.

Anonymous said...

Elmer's Brother, LOL,

you're messing with their ricebowl

ROTFLMAO!!!!

(((Thought Criminal))) said...

I wonder if they had as much zeal to go after illegal immigrants as they do homeschoolers if they'd actually round up anyone.

By the way, California, get your deficits under control. The state of Missouri is tired of carrying you. It's bad enough your forest fires throw off our carbon footprint monitoring.

;)

nanc said...

z - i did homeschool for a time when we were travelling and ours were small - our daughter did a year's worth of curriculum in one quarter and the homeschool teacher wanted to advance her a grade - as you know, she was our preemie and somewhat small so we didn't advance her.

consequently, she's always been in honors and advanced placement classes.

one of the homeschool teachers was a treehugger and wanted ALL children to GET IN TOUCH with NATURE!

Z said...

Pris, that's my whole point. Parents didn't care when the schools told them they have total control once they're in school....homeschooling parents already DID do something about that, they ripped their kids out of school post haste.

Look, everyone, I'm not guaranteeing anything will change. I said I HOPE they do, that these parents are quite different and that it's a growing movement in reaction to the public school system.

Z said...

to tnmomwith3kids. The picture's gone, though I'd selected it because the childrens' faces weren't showing...Good luck with the homeschooling. Thanks for stopping by.

elmers brother said...

Z,

what about those parents in Germany made them nutcases?

What about the child who was put in psychiatric care and taken from her family?

frankly I'm surprised you feel this way about the homeschooling situation there

elmers brother said...

what about the state wanting to take those families possessions to pay for the fines?

it totalitarian

Z said...

Elbro, I did not keep the information I had translated into English, but I felt I had to read it to my entire Bible leader's group because they'd had the same impressions you had. They understood after I read it to them.

It's against the law not to send a child to a school, whether it's public or religious. Maybe they'll change those laws soon.

I'm not standing up for their situation. I personally believe parents should be able to homeschool. I'm saying it's that country's laws, whether we approve of them or not, not some sudden anti-Christian thing as I saw that so many of the sites were saying it was.

elmers brother said...

ok but I'd like to know what they did to warrant their children being removed and for them to be sent to jail

Z said...

I just read a little I found this morning because you've got me curious again..In our press, especially among homeschoolers, the Germans are actually being touted as being on the edge of some kind of nightmare scenario....when, actually, it's California which is trying to change the laws. And we all know there IS religious prosecution in California's stupidity. They'll not say so, but it's there.
Germany isn't breaking laws...they are trying to stop law breakers. The child was returned early and Mr. Z tells me that it was over zealous prosecutors in THAT ONE STATE in Germany who might have gone too far. Many in Germany were against the rulings against the family.

elmers brother said...

thanks Z

Can Mr. Z tell me if this is true:

Apparently one family moved to Austria so they could homeschool only to find out that because of the EU the German court still could make their childrens attendance in public school compulsory

Although the family in question currently resides in Austria and is homeschooling according to Austrian law, their legal residence remains in Germany. The decision of the German court applies no matter where in the European Union the parents reside.


I'm sorry if I changed the subject of who was doing what to whom BUT I think it's also relevant to the conversation. I love you Z.

elmers brother said...

and to be honest whether the family was Christian or not wouldn't be the point

nanc said...

cali probably doesn't want its children to miss out on literature such as this!

Anonymous said...

FreeThinker would like to add the following post from today's article on feminism at FrontPage Magazine. If you practice a little patience and read to the end, you should see how it pertains to the topic of home-schooling and why California feels impelled to ban it.

~~~~~~~~~~~

From the article:

••• "Adams: I'm afraid that part of the answer is that feminists–––like leftists in general–––are afraid of Islamic terrorists. Look at what has happened to Van Gogh and Ayaan Hirsi Ali. That is why I think events like Islamic Fascism awareness week are so important. Do something on 100 campuses simultaneously and it's pretty hard to retaliate. Maybe the feminists can learn something from David Horowitz.

••• "FPM: I would be in disagreement with you here. I don't think this is a matter of fear. Leftist feminists, like radical leftists in general, support our totalitarian enemies because they have a kindred ideology with them.

"They share the instinct for tyranny and destruction–––and they are filled with self-loathing. In the end, leftist feminists yearn to submit to, and submerge themselves within, a despotic monolith. Because they despise their own society and are bent on its destruction, they cannot concede that adversarial cultures may be more evil, because that would legitimize their own host society, and they can't allow that. It would rob them of the moral indignation–––and the identity of being victims–––that lies at the foundation of their politics of hate . . ." •••

RESPONSE:

This is, of course, the main thrust behind ALL the various VICTIM movements ginned up by the Marxists–––Labor Rights–––Civil Rights–––Women's Rights–––Homosexual Rights–––Inclusive Language–––Bowdlerization of Sacred and Official Texts–––the Right to Publish Pornography–––the anti-Christmas/anti-Christian/anti-Decalogue/anti-Prayer/anti-Aryan/anti-Capitalism/anti-Liberty/anti-Patriotism agenda–––Revisionist History–––Deconstruction of our Literature–––ALL of these terrible abuses of (mostly) legitimate concerns stem from the machinations of Marx, Engels, Georg Lukacs, Bela Kun, Antonio Gramsci, Theo Adorno, Herbert Marcuse, all the other members of The Frankfurt School and Freudian Psychology. Our universities are INFESTED with the disciples of these demonically seductive intellectual insurgents, which is the primary reason WHY we have the crisis in values, morals, mores and the Legal Terrorism that dominate our culture today.

Because of the work of Marxist TERMITES that have long been in our midst chewing away at the foundation and super-structure of who and what we are SUPPOSED to be, we are now thoroughly confused, hopelessly divided and constantly at each other's throats.

Instead, we should be in the business of UNITING to SOLVE the REAL problems humanity faces such as the conquest of DISEASE, securing affordable ENERGY SUPPLIES, and PROPER education of our children–––i.e. teach them to be LITERATE, be proficient in ARITHMETIC, fill them with FACTS, train them to develop SKILL and SELF-DISCIPLINE, encourage them to KNOW and APPRECIATE the manifest high achievements of the past and to LOVE all things, beautiful, fine, noble, brilliant, marvelous, and to DESPISE what is vulgar, degenerate, self-destructive, morbid and unwholesome.

Encourage them to WONDER at the vastness and complexity of the Cosmos, the improbability of The Ascent of Man, and not so much to JUDGE each other with doctrinaire theories fabricated insincerely more for the purpose of gaining Power and Control than to "help" anyone.

~ FreeThinker

Z said...

Free Thinker: With all that's going on today, I'm thinking the ASCENT OF MAN won't take more than half a recess period in school to study,if THAT..........we're on such a DEscent that would be much more fascinating and comprehensive to study, huh?

What the HECK are we going to do? ? MARXIST TERMITES...great term...they've been eating away at our structure/foundation since we THOUGHT we won the Cold War... Sure "Let them think they won....they beat us with missiles...we'll send in our professors...a few apples can really turn a barrel.."

Now what?

nothing, that's what..we're all WUSSES doing nothing but type our little indignant fingers to the bone. BUt, maybe I should only speak for myself. I'm sure everybody else is risking everything to stand up for this country.

RIGHT?!

Brooke said...

You are correct: It's ALL about the money.

Ol' Arnie stuck his finger in the air and felt the breeze of outrage.

Z said...

thanks for dropping by, ANONYMOUS, but, actually, the homeschooled kids are testing better than public school. Check it out.

elmers brother said...

The only people who home school are those who want to keep their kids as dumb as the are so they wont be embarrassed by their own children...losers who breed losers.

You'll find those test results here anonymous.

elmers brother said...

to summarize my point and then I'm done

Parents should have a choice, Christian or not, whether the schools are good, bad or mediocre to educate their children in a way they see fit.

ANYWHERE that doesn't allow this and punishes them is totalitarian.

elmers brother said...

The only people who home school are those who want to keep their kids as dumb as the are so they wont be embarrassed by their own children...losers who breed losers.

I'll remember that the next time I drop my 14 year old off at his college class.

bwahahahaha

Brooke said...

I find it amusing that Anonymous decries the supposed stupidity of homeschooled children with a comment rife with grammatical mistakes.

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