Posted on 06/06/2008 9:29:37 AM PDT by Bullpine
The response of California's teachers' union to pro-family attempts to protect home schooling in that state has outraged one attorney who is working on the case.
Numerous organizations on both sides of the issue have filed friend-of-the-court briefs in the appeal of a California court's ruling that parents have no right to home school their children. But one reaction in particular caught the attention of pro-family attorney Brad Dacus, president of the Pacific Justice Institute.
"The California Teachers Association ... decided to file an amicus brief arguing before the court that parents should have no right over the education of their children, should not have a right to home school, and that these children should be literally forced to be put back into the public schools -- even though parents object," the attorney explains.
Dacus did a double-take when he read one specific charge made by the teachers' union. "In their brief, the teachers' union said that to allow parents to be able to home school without being credentialed teachers could result in 'educational anarchy,'" he shares.
That argument, he says, discounts reality. "This is ignoring the facts that home schooling is widespread in California," he exclaims. "Over 200,000 children are being home schooled right now in California -- and they score higher academically than not only public school children, but also children in traditional private schools. If there's anarchy, the anarchy is in public schools."
Both the state superintendent of public instruction and the California Department of Education have filed briefs supporting the legality of home schooling. A brief filed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Attorney General Jerry Brown argues that home schooling is perfectly legal under California law and states that the practice "has a long and positive history in California and across the nation." The California Court of Appeal intends to hear oral arguments in the case sometime this month.
To a communist anything less than dictatorship is anarchy.
“If there’s anarchy, the anarchy is in public schools.””
BUMP!
more grist for the mill !
This is what happens when an industry is socialized. Socialized schooling has no place in a free society. We need to return to a capitalist, free market schooling industry.
http://www.schoolandstate.org/home.htm
http://www.freedomofeducation.net/
Good grief - but I’m not surprised.
It isn’t what you do that bothers these people. Its that you do it without their permission.
You didn’t apply for a permit, you didn’t get approval, you’re not under their continuing supervision.
They don’t care if you breathe, but they want you to have a permit to breathe, and they want to be the one issuing the permit, and they want to be the one to decide who gets one and who doesn’t.
If they cannot alter the minds of the next generation, they lose their authority.
In other news, 89% of home-schooled children are able to spell “anarchy” and state its definition, as opposed to 17% of public-schooled kids.
(And 78% of statistics are made up on the spot. :D)
They may have a point, as any homeschool mom will probably agree... gosh I put my mother through a lot. I remember some very anarchic days.
Of course even if it’s complete anarchy, that’s still the parents’ right to choose for their kids.
I agree. What is it with these people? They fail to see the flaws in public education. They fail to recognize the drop out rates and how horribly students are doing at the hands of these educations. Give them a chance! Who cares if its in a private school or at home! As long as they are LEARNING what does it matter?
I’m all for school choice.
Keep in mind that the job of any teachers' union is to look out for the teachers. They care only that their members are on the payroll. Financially speaking, it is in their interest to ban homeschooling because that would lead to a demand for more teachers.
There, fixed it.
Cordially,
Homeschool ping
“The California Teachers Association ... decided to file an amicus brief arguing before the court that parents should have no right over the education of their children, should not have a right to home school, and that these children should be literally forced to be put back into the public schools — even though parents object,”
OK - then let CTA pay for their upbringing!
It is amazing to me that there are so many stupid people consuming the resources of this planet.
Please put my abilities against any credentialed teacher. I am as smart and as educated. However, I have my children's best interests at heart, not "The System's." Yes, there are good teachers and thank G-d for them. But sadly, here in CA they work for the system, not the children, and the system is not working.
Case in point: our neighborhood received the other day a plea for donations from the local public elementary school, or they would be forced to quit their art and computer programs, due to funding cuts. I already know that each child is expected to bring in about $40 to $50 worth of school supplies each year to their classrooms. All of this when we know that for each little scrubbed face in a seat, the public schools receive $11,000 from the government.
In my little "anarchy" here, on one humble salary, we can afford to visit the best art museums, study from ANY book ever published, and have high speed internet and a great computer system for the kids.
Even still they should be worried about job secuirty...which is why they are so opposed to parents chosing where their children go to school...
If the school doesn’t preform, if the teachers don’t teach, if the students don’t learn and the parents have the ability to remove the children from that school and place them in a homeschooling environment or recieve a voucher for them to go elsewhere where ya know LEARNING takes place...then the bad or unqualified teachers loose their jobs...
GOODS AND SERVICES PEOPLE! Don’t they get it? We live in a capitalist society...you don’t provide a service you don’t get paid...why should education be any different? We see it on the college level where schools compete to get the best professors to intice students to bring their money...why is this concept lost on these unions????
**sorry this issue bugs the crap outta me**
Private vs. Public Schools: What's the Difference?
Notable paragraph: Parochial schools generally charge less. According to the National Catholic Educational Association, in their annual statistical report in 2005-2006, the average elementary school tuition for Catholic schools (in 2005) was $2,607; the average freshman tuition (for 2002-2003) was $5,870. Catholic Schools enroll more students (49%) than any other segment of private schools.
vouchers
Gun rights, talk radio and homeschooling are in the sights of the left. When Obama gets into power, they will start taking action.
As a Public School Teacher, I am constantly reminded in meetings of the importance of differentiated instruction (modifying each lesson for each child). Since homeschoolers do that automatically and with far more information about the needs of their students than we have, I find it hard to believe that the resulting "anarchy" could be a bad thing. I can teach at least 95% of my students better than their parents could, perhaps over 99% when it comes to the advanced math I teach. Still, it is not my place and certainly not a judge's place to tell the parents that they must send their child to my class. If I can't convince the parents of the value of my classes or my school based on my merits as a teacher and my track record (areas where some public schools have huge weaknesses), then the parents have a natural right to homeschool their children.
Perhaps this teachers' union advocate should look at the outcomes from the low end schools with credentialed teachers and explain why a judge should believe that those credentials have any relevance to the quality of education.
The mere fact that this question is at issue makes me fear for the future of this grand experiment. Education of our children is a concern for my spouse and I...not the government, not churches, and certainly NOT the socialist Teachers’ Union. It doesn’t take an Einstein to recognize their argument comes from their own interest in self-preservation. Without public schools (and some private schools) they have no constituents.
It is issues like this that will bring on the second revolution.
Time for the progressives to go away, the libtards to muzzle themselves, and the DhimmiRats to retire from the public discourse.
I think you've nailed it.
Gun rights: A well regulated Militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed.
Talk Radio: Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press ...
Homeschooling: The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.
Debate over. Let's move on to the legitimate powers of the federal government. [I wish and pray that these decisions will become as clear in political debate as they are when reading the Constitution and Bill of Rights.]
Anarchy: from the Greek for "without ruler". It doesn't necessarily mean chaotic or evil.
We could use a lot more of our lives, including education, that are "without rulers", especially considering the evil intent those would be rulers have.
But, I thought “It Takes A Village” to raise a child?
When it comes to visceral fundametals (rights to speech, teach, and defense), the drive to preserve such right for oneself ultimatly trumps the drive to deprive others thereof.
We, too, will start taking action.
Forced to indoctrination camps, we can still teach kids at home.
Forced to silence, we can still whisper and write.
Forced to submission, we can still make tools of liberation.
The left does not realize that only cooperation maintains their implementation of order ... and cooperation is voluntary.
I don’t know what the California laws are, but some states have varying degrees of a “cafeteria” approach to public school enrollment, i.e. where parents can choose to have their children participate selectively in certain courses and activities at their local public school. I suspect advanced math would be one of the courses that a lot of primarily homeschooling parents would choose to delegate to a public school assuming there was a good teacher.
Overall, the cafeteria approach is a good one, since it puts competitive pressure on public schools to offer what parents want, and in a way that parents want it. I don’t know the details of the laws in my state, Pennsylvania, but I do know that private school students are entitled to school bus transportation at state expense. Anything that pulls money away from the public school monopoly and makes it less expensive and easier for parents to choose homeschooling or a private school is a step in the right direction.
It’s all about the money. Add 200,000 to the pubic schools and the need of additional teachers goes way up. Thus more dues collected and more power to the unions. Amen.
I agree, mostly. Anything that gives parents control over where that money goes and allows them to send the money in a direction that produces results is good. I like my students and want them to have the best possible education. If their parents can do better in one or more areas than we can, I can't imagine standing in the way of that better education. I am disgusted with those NEA and AFT goons who would harm children to further their political power.
This is a radical concept that would never penetrate the Uunion mentality, but what if the teachers' unions emphasized improving the quality of education? What if public school parents needed tutors far less often because the schools did their job more consistently? What if we tried to improve teacher pay by delivering more value for the dollar? I can't imagine a better way of encouraging that change than by giving parents as much choice as possible, including a cefeteria option.
And are accurate 53.295% of the time.
If someone is going to “literally force” people’s kids into public schools,
there are going to be more than a few Henry Bowmans that pop up in “protest”.
This is the world view of collectivists. Their centrally planned, self-credentialed arrangement is “order”, the self-organizing dynamics of the free market is “anarchy”.
Moreover, once they get in control, they will never let go. This is the lesson going back almost 100 years. With this lesson in mind, we must kill “cap and trade”, for it will quickly become the status quo that will destroy the economy of our nation.
We must also do everything possible to pass school vouchers, so parents have full control over where their children are schooled.
MIL used that line as the “closer” on an argument.
There wasn’t time, but I’m willing to bet that she couldn’t explain what that brainless phrase even means without admitting a preference for a collectivist state over the family.
You shouldn’t give ‘em ideas. They’d love to do that - with your tax dollars, of course: “Its soooooo unfair that some children have rich and/or loving parents and this injustice needs to be rectified immediately...”
/sarc, just in case.
Hey, how come I hadn’t realized you were homeschoolers? So are we. (Or did I know this and forget?)
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“Over 200,000 children are being home schooled right now in California —
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This means that there are millions of successful **graduates** of homeschooling! The 200,000 is merely those who are currently homeschooling.
They may have a point, as any homeschool mom will probably agree... gosh I put my mother through a lot. I remember some very anarchic days.
. . . but that proves nothing about anarchy in government schools. There are any number of stories of teachers who find it impossible to teach because the administration won't back them up, and the parents are impossible.But of course the signal benefit of the homeschool is that there is no division of responsibility - what the parent wants, the teacher provides (which may of course involve the parent changing her mind about things which may prove "too hard."
DManA, I just posted this on another thread but it is appropriate here. Yes, of course the communists who have thoroughly infiltrated the government schools love have captives to indoctrinate.
Even the “good” ones ( government schools) have the following problems:
1) No, school, government or otherwise, can be religiously neutral. Every school has a religious worldview that has non-neutral religious, political, and cultural consequences. Government schools **are** godless in their worldview. They must be by law! Therefore...Government **establishes** the godless religious worldview of some citizens in its schools and undermines the God-centered world of other citizens.
2) Our First Amendment does **not** say that we have God-given rights except for parents and youth attending government schools! Yet, government tramples **every** First Amendment Right, every minute of every day of both parents and children in its prison-like “school” buildings.
3) The government should **not** be in the business of ordering children into prison-like centers under the threat of police action! ( See your posted article.) These children have committed no crime.
4) Even in the very best of government schools children ( who have committed no crime) are treated like prisoners by the government. They are marched about to bells. They are told when they can eat, talk, exercise, go to the bathroom, marched about in packs, have lock downs, metal detectors, body searches, forced physical exams, and in-house detentions. The schools look like minimum security prisons, and their buses like prison road gang buses.
5) It is cruel to force a child into government buildings where they are tempted daily by clothing , foods, music, and language that violate the cultural and religious traditions in the home. The younger, and more immature, the child the more emotionally abusive it is.
6) Children even in the best government schools are subjected to physical, emotional, and sexual harassment and abuse by students, teachers, and other staff. Thankfully we have the Internet and we read evidence of it everyday. Most often these reports are from schools that would be considered “good”.
7) Even in the best of government schools that statistics on children remaining faithful in their religion are abysmal!!!
8) Even the best of schools have abandoned tracking. It is emotionally abusive to frustrate, on a daily basis, children who can not keep up with the class. It is equally abusive to bore the gifted child out of his mind. This is true even if they throw and hour or two a week of special classes for the gifted child.
9) All curriculum and textbooks used by the government schools are highly influenced by communists who have thoroughly infiltrated the government school system.
There is more...but this should give you the idea.
Solution: Completely privatize universal K-12 education. Let these matters be decided privately among the private principals, teachers, and parents
OK - then let CTA pay for their upbringing!“The California Teachers Association ... decided to file an amicus brief arguing before the court that parents should have no right over the education of their children, should not have a right to home school, and that these children should be literally forced to be put back into the public schools — even though parents object,”
. . . not that that even begins to recompense the mother for bearing the child and getting up 5 times in the night when he or she is restless or sick.Every child needs someone who is crazy about him/her. The CTA nor any bureaucracy in the world can provide that. It is by definition the work of an amateur
1784, "one who has a taste for (something)," from Fr. amateur "lover of," from O.Fr., from L. amatorem (nom. amator) "lover," from amatus, pp. of amare "to love" (see Amy). Meaning "dabbler" (as opposed to professional) is from 1786.Thus, the conceit of professional child care has a hole in its core - a hole the shape of a heart. No matter how nice a teacher might be, in comparison to a parent, a teacher just simply doesn't care about a kid. Which, to align with your point, the teacher will instantly prove if asked to foot the bill for the child's college education out of her or his own pocket.
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Pity the poor 1 to 5%! They get to waste their talents. Geeze! It **is** the top 1 to 5% that represent the true geniuses of our nation!
Would you and your school have been prepared to teach my children? Would you and your school even have had a program in place for them? I **doubt** it! Our district certainly didn't. In fact, they did there level best to convince me that my children were average.
All three began college level math classes at the community college at the ages of 13, 12, and 13. All finished all general college requirements and Calculus III by the age of 15. Two graduated with B.S. degrees in mathematics at the age of 18. The older of these two recently finished a masters degree in math at the age of 20. At the age of 18, as a teaching assistant she was teaching college students older than she.
The oldest is an internationally and nationally ranked athlete. He choose accounting since it meshed well with his training. He has traveled worldwide. Spent 2 years in Eastern Europe and returned home completely fluent in Russian, and continues to train and compete. He will finish his masters degree at the same age as his contemporaries. He was recently elected to his schools professional honor society, and is in the top 10% of his class.
There isn't a government school in the U.S. that is prepared or has the flexibility to handle students of this level of talent and proficiency. The best they can do is say, “Wait until you can take an AP course or two from a high school teacher.”
Even children attending Boys High or Girls High in Philadelphia or the Stuyvesant School in New York are not getting that level of education.
I can teach at least 95% of my students better than their parents could, perhaps over 99% when it comes to the advanced math I teach. Still, it is not my place and certainly not a judge's place to tell the parents that they must send their child to my class.
I respect your humility and your professionalism.My second daughter was a pill in seventh grade, and wasn't recommended by her math teacher for 9th grade math in eighth grade - effectively putting her behind the eight ball to keep up with her academic peers in high school. As a senior she took preCalc and AP Calc simultaneously to catch up.
As an engineer, I confidently assured her that she would have full tutoring support from me to enable her to keep up. But the first time she asked for help on homework, it was a definite integral, and I spent some time looking hard at the problem. My daughter said, "Dad, I know you don't do Calculus every day at work." But that wasn't the issue; in fact I had had a refresher math course a few years earlier - and hadn't been in dire need of it, but still.
I knew how to do the problem, all right. It was just that it looked like, and actually was, a trick question - the limits of the integral spanned a discontinuity and therefore the correct answer was, "this does not compute." You can't blame me for wanting to be sure of my ground before telling her that!
Nice tag line.
That's downright funny!
How many videos have we seen lately of kids fighting kids, kids fighting teachers, teachers fighting kids? All of these were in public schools, weren't they?
This reminds me of the old joke about "socializing" the homeschooled kids: Once a week the parent is instructed to shove their kid up against the living room wall and steal their lunch money.
You are absolutely right.
Thank you for your post #21! As a homeschool parent, that was so heartening to read. We do enroll our children into classes taught by teachers from time to time. But, just as you said, the decision should be ours to make.
I wish we could find teachers who share your line of thinking. Around here, too many have an anti-homeschool attitude that keeps us away from their classes. I’m referring to classes in the local community programs - they’re supposed to be open to everyone in the community. Once one community program refused to accept my child because he is homeschooled.
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