Posted on 05/10/2011 11:23:09 AM PDT by markomalley
Four children ages 9, 7, 5 and 3 from a homeschooling family in Notre-Dame-des-Bois in Québec, Canada have been ordered into public school for socialization. The Roman Catholic family, who have been homeschooling their children for four years, were reported to the youth protection services (YPS) for neglect and had a four-day trial in November 2010. The judge in the case, Judge Nicole Bernier, ordered that the children remain in school or in day care until YPS officials approved a plan for socialization. However, because of apparent bias against homeschooling and these parents, this is unlikely to ever happen.
HSLDA of Canada, a sister organization to HSLDA, has invested significant financial resources in the family’s defense. In a press release, Paul Faris, president of HSLDA of Canada, expressed dismay over the outcome.
“This is a shocking decision,” said Faris. “Even more concerning is the judge’s decision to order the younger children who were not of compulsory school age into day care for socialization.”
Faris believes the family was denied a fair trial.
“The judge refused to hear expert witnesses and evidence regarding the value of homeschooling over public schools,” he said. “Unfortunately the judge placed excess weight on protective service experts who found that one child’s hearing impairment ‘indicated’ that the parents could not be trusted and therefore all the children should be enrolled in public school programs.”
HSLDA President J. Michael Smith agreed.
“It’s incredible that a judge in Canada would order three-and-half and five-year-old children into public-funded day care for socialization reasons. From what we know of this Catholic family, they have worked very hard to provide an adequate education for their children which included opportunities for social interaction with others. We are gravely concerned with this decision,” he said.
HSLDA of Canada is appealing this decision. Faris noted that this year HSLDA of Canada has spent more money than any other year in defending homeschooling families.
Canadian homeschoolers are not alone in having to defend themselves against government officials with a bias against home education. HSLDA Director of International Relations Michael Donnelly noted that homeschoolers in other countries such as Sweden and Germany experienced similar difficulties.
“There is homeschooling freedom in most of Canada. However, it appears that Québec is more like Germany or Sweden when it comes to homeschooling regulations,” said Donnelly. “This judge’s decision reads like one from these countries that are repressing homeschooling. The philosophy represented by this judge’s decision must be resisted.”
We are asking our members to stand with us in support of HSLDA of Canada and this family. Investing in the defense of homeschooling freedom internationally is important. Those who would like to may support this family and the rest of our work supporting homeschooling freedom by making a donation to the Home School Foundation’s International Fund. It is our intent to stand behind HSLDA of Canada, this family and other persecuted international homeschoolers financially and with other support.
Hoooboy! I think I’d be moving to the US if I were them.
Privatize the standards too, or the “standards” will require
exposure to degeneracy. A second thought: this would
put homeschoolers at risk if one kid was not mathematically
minded, or just took slower to reach the standard.
I’m not sure how you can privatize standards, since it is the parent’s doing the teaching. Unfortunantly some parent’s despite the best interests at heart, are not good teachers and, while most home schoolers do very well compared to the general population, it isn’t always the case.
Some people have been set at a permanent disadvantage because they were home-schooled by somebody who didn’t do the job properly.
>>Some people have been set at a permanent disadvantage because they were home-schooled by somebody who didn’t do the job properly. <<
Oh, and they would have done SO much better in Public School, right?
I take your isolated incident and raise ya the fact that HALF of Detroit PS kids CAN’T READ. I hate to tell you this, but in most cases, those who didn’t learn at home, wouldn’t have learned in school either.
Fixed it for you.
Public schools do not educate these days. They indoctrinate.
Kids aren't graded on quality of work but for *trying*. They are passed from one grade to the next because the school dare not hold them back or little Johnny or Suzie's mom will tear them a new one.
Public schools are an abysmal failure the vast majority of the time. Any child who doesn't learn in a homeschool setting will NOT learn in a public school setting.
If a one on one education isn't enough to instill some education, then herding the child through the public education prison system as part of a group isn't going to educate them either.
Every single argument that the anti-homeschool crowd tries to throw at homeschooling in a condemnation of it can be applied a hundredfold to the public school system.
The problem isn’t having a public education system in-itself, because there was a time when the public education system was the best in the world.
The problem is that the institutions have been hijacked by those with an ill agenda. However, the American public is capable of taking back those same institutions if they try hard enough.
I was vacationing in Quebec once with the family and it was at the time the French speakers were angry and talking about spliting off into their own country.
At a gas station a young man suggested it would be great if Quebec could join the US. I laughed.
Better to join HSLDA now - without support, there may not be homeschooling when your daughter is five.
>>The problem isn’t having a public education system in-itself, because there was a time when the public education system was the best in the world.<<
That’s not now. You can’t educate on memories and wishful thinking.
Right here, right now, a kid has a better chance of coming up with an education at home than in ANY public school. AND with the ability to purchase a curriculum on CD-ROM or online, I would say that any parent can homeschool and certainly better than the lib indoctrinated, Prussian school model we use here in the US can do.
Stick around a little longer than five months Jonty. You’ll learn that you still think in the terms that the MSM feed you.
Fundamentally, I agree with you in all respects. Parents should be responsible for the welfare of the child, and that works well when you have parents who take a vested interest in their children to make sure they grow up to become well-adjusted and productive adults.
However, their are parents out there who are so disinterested in their children’s welfare that those kids are, in effect, are orphans. I was one of them.
If these kids were left dependent upon their parents for an education, they would receive no education or very little. That’s the part I have trouble with, abandoning children to the whims of parents who wouldn’t care for them or are incapable of caring for them the way children should be.
>>If these kids were left dependent upon their parents for an education, they would receive no education or very little. That’s the part I have trouble with, abandoning children to the whims of parents who wouldn’t care for them or are incapable of caring for them the way children should be.<<
You don’t want to see the point. The Public Schools ARE NOT educating them either. They can’t read, they can’t do simple math.
Our schools in Canada are fine. Canadians score very well against international tests. However, I am well aware of how poorly American kids score in the world, especially considering how much your country spends per kid.
You need to break the unions, not close the schools. In Alberta, my province, there are a number of charter schools and the system is working well.
You need to fight for a system where the schools, teachers, and everybody feels the need to prove themselves.
The people from Quebec don’t know how good they have it.
Personally, I do not believe in institutionalizing children.
If these kids were left dependent upon their parents for an education, they would receive no education or very little. That’s the part I have trouble with, abandoning children to the whims of parents who wouldn’t care for them or are incapable of caring for them the way children should be.
I was one of those too Jonty30.
In my case, if my education had been left up to my parents, I would have been illiterate and working on my grandparent's cotton farm by age 12. As it was, the 4 of us were sent there every summer to work from a very young age. I was dragging a 50 pound sack of cotton by age 8 and 100 by age 12. School was my refuge and I knew that getting an education was my only way out - and with no help from my parents, who actively discouraged all 4 of us from high school and were SHOCKED when I decided to go to college.
There is no way I am an outlier...I see way too many disinterested parents still today.
And I don’t believe in abandoning children to their fate.
I’m fine with home schooling them. I’d probably be willing to do that if I had kids and found that I had the ability to teach them well.
With all respect, you don't see a point (and there are many points)- not all parents are as good as you are, as interested in their kids as you are, and as invested as you are. There are way too many out there that either don't care or see their kids as a cash cow.
In a better world, children would be taken care of by their parents, but in the current world, too many times, the public school is the best thing going.
BTW, I don't really have an answer, but I just know what isn't realistic and that is shutting down all public schools and leaving a large percentage of children to the tender mercies of their parents.
>>And I don’t believe in abandoning children to their fate.<<
LOL!!!!!
Spoken like a true social engineer.
So YOU volunteer and teach both the parent and the child how to raise and educate a child. Become a mentor, not a socialist.
Government and institutions are NOT the answer. Especially when you pick a pocket to do it.
>>not all parents are as good as you are, as interested in their kids as you are, and as invested as you are. There are way too many out there that either don’t care or see their kids as a cash cow. <<
And the schools are?
Have you noticed that the Unions and their ilk care little about the kids?
Seriously, I’m there. I’m not a teacher and not a parent, but an employed observer with no dog in the fight. Those people care about the kids if it’s convenient. Individually, an employee cares but collectively, they don’t. And seeing the parents, tons more do than don’t.
Do you see what you’re saying? That schools raise kids better than parents? Really? Are you sure you’re on the right site?
The schools either don’t care or see the kids as a cash cow, too. And the more we take the attitude that “parents don’t care” the more they are given the opportunity not to. You see parents who have had their kids wisked away for six hours a day and told that they MUST do what the administration wants or risk consequences. You don’t see parents who have to parent. The schools are for that. THAT is the attitude those parents have been taught. You expect anything more?
Yes, there are times that the teachers in a school care more about a child than the parents that created them. And that's just sad.
The devil is, as always, in the details. There are also very, very bad schools and very bad teachers that I wouldn't trust to watch my dog. It is important that parents have the freedom to determine the best place for their kids (as you have done) but not stand in the way of other legitimate choices.
I do think that as a nation we are going towards more funded options for parents, and I think this is a good thing.
Who knows, maybe more parents would be more involved if they had more options other than home-school, private school (that they pay for), or public school.
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