Friday, March 7, 2008

No more Homeschooling in CA?

Boy am I lucky I got orders to Okinawa instead of California. It was really a choice between the two.

If you haven't read by now, "The Second District Court of Appeal ruled that California law requires parents to send their children to full-time public or private schools or have them taught by credentialed tutors at home." If the State has not anointed you as an official educator of children, you have no right educating kids.
"California courts have held that ... parents do not have a constitutional right to homeschool their children," Justice H. Walter Croskey said in the 3-0 ruling issued on Feb. 28. "Parents have a legal duty to see to their children's schooling under the provisions of these laws."

Parents can be criminally prosecuted for failing to comply, Croskey said.

"A primary purpose of the educational system is to train school children in good citizenship, patriotism and loyalty to the state and the nation as a means of protecting the public welfare," the judge wrote, quoting from a 1961 case on a similar issue.
Another quote from the same article:
But Leslie Heimov, executive director of the Children's Law Center of Los Angeles,... said her organization's chief concern was not the quality of the children's education, but their "being in a place daily where they would be observed by people who had a duty to ensure their ongoing safety."
There are soooooo many things wrong with this decision, I hardly know where to start. Am I mad? Concerned? Scared? Cautious? I don't really know what to feel about it other than relieved I don't live in California.

Let's start with the line, Heimov said her organization's chief concern was not the quality of the children's education, but their "being in a place daily where they would be observed by people who had a duty to ensure their ongoing safety."

Thank goodness we, as parents, no longer have this responsibility. There was a story the other day about a "mother" who placed two children, 3 and 1, into a tub and got wrapped up watching American Idol with her 7 and 5YO before "remembering" about the other two and then sending the 7YO (hey, the mom was busy watching Idol, remember?) to get the two out of the tub. When the 7YO found them unconscious, she called her mom (probably a commercial break by now) who did CPR and called 911.

It's not this "mom"'s fault. A teacher should have been watching her kids. We need to make sure these children are watched by people who have a duty to ensure their ongoing safety, and those people are credentialed teachers.

Meanwhile, you've got millions of families who are very successful at watching their own damned kids, but I' sure they won't mind a little intrusion by the nanny state if it means protecting two little girls who might otherwise have died.

I did a little experiment. You can play along at home if you like. Just make sure to get the authorization of your local school board first.

Go to Google News and type in the search criteria, "Teacher Arrested". Ok...I've already done the work for you, just click the words and see how many hits you come up with. Take a quick look at the headlines (make sure no kids are around... ESPECIALLY if they attend public school) and see what these "approved educators" are up to.

HERE's a link to a nice little story of John Corcoran. Corcoran was a public highschool teacher in Oceanside, CA. He was well respected among his peers, he was popular with the students. Corcoran was fully illiterate until age 48. Sure he's ashamed... he's lied... he's doing his penance. But the point to be made here is that this lying, cheating hypocrite was credentialed by the state of California to educate children while they will use fines, imprisonment, and police force to prevent a fully functioning parent, college degree or not, from teaching their own children at home.
"A primary purpose of the educational system is to train school children in good citizenship, patriotism and loyalty to the state and the nation as a means of protecting the public welfare," the judge wrote, quoting from a 1961 case on a similar issue.
Catholic schools don't teach you to question catholicism. Military schools don't teach you to question the military. Government schools don't teach you to question the government. What if we want our kids to question religion, question military might, and question the government?

The role of public education has never been education. It has always been a method by which you can get the masses just smart enough to work in the factories without drooling on themselves. Destroy vouchers. We don't want the "common man" having access to elitist education. We need a working class if this nation is to survive. We need serfs who practice "good citizenship, patriotism and loyalty to the state and the nation" in order to maintain production. Don't worry, we'll feed them the old line that it is "protecting the public welfare".

The following is a very short list of the ongoing problems with public education. Shorter still because I limited it to California alone. See if you can find what is wrong with this picture:A side note on that last one... how many signs, protests, and articles do you see day to day about how to fix our homeschools?

One last insert before I go off to bed... the following are home listings in California. Most are 1/2 a mil or above. ... $2.6M, $1.4M, nice houses... look carefully at the side notes and tell me if their children go to public school. More to the matter... part of the selling points are the hyping of the schools. You'll see that they are award winning, hyped as the best, but the test scores show otherwise. This is where they want our kids (the schools, not the houses.)

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