Friday, March 21, 2008

Craziness in California

So what else is new, right? Speaking as someone who was born and raised in southern California I would like to say that I am very glad we now live elsewhere. The recent court decision involving a parent's right to homeschool their children is just amazing to me - amazingly stupid.

This morning I saw a report about it on Fox News. I had heard about it before this morning, but one of the comments made by a woman with an organization to help protect children really shocked me. She said (I'm paraphrasing here) that judges need to have the ability to demand that children are put in either public or private schools if the children are in danger. She also mentioned that there are 500,000 children who have been identified as being "in danger" in homeschool situations. Who these children are, she didn't say. But after the report I realized that what she seemed to be saying inbetween the lines is that children who attend public or private schools are not in danger. I never realized that this was the case, but am so very happy to hear that children who attend public and private schools, and their families, apparently live in Shangrila!

Are there problems in some homeschool families? Yes. Are there problems in some public/private school families? Yes. Should these children be helped? Of course! But I have yet to hear anyone say that all children in public or private schools should be homeschooled when something terrible happens to a child - or because of a child - who is in public or private school. Remember Columbine? And if you really want to be realistic, there does seem to be more problems with children in public schools than with those who are homeschooled.

If you follow the logic that is apparently being used in California you might come to some interesting conclusions. Alcohol would be outlawed because of those who abuse it and subsequently injure others. Tobacco would be outlawed because of the harm done to the smoker and to those around them. In fact, we wouldn't really have to think at all as the government would think for us, telling us what we should and shouldn't do because we really can't figure that out for ourselves. Wait a minute! Maybe that's why they want all the children in public schools - so that they can be conditioned to have the government think for them. Hmmmm.... I just wonder.

Back to Living Waters Homeschool

1 comment:

Julie said...

Had to comment on this too! This seems to be happening everywhere. In the UK recently we had a government review that concluded 'whilst there was no evidence' that homeschooled children were being abused - the government needs access to our children 'without their parents being present.' Again - the conclusion seems to be that children who go to school are safe. Yet that couldn't be further from the truth.
I agree with you - the governments just don't like that they aren't in control of our children.
Thanks for the post - it was interesting to know it isn't just the UK.