Free Republic

Please refer to the earlier post on this subject which serves as an introduction. One commenter on FreeRepublic.com rhetorically asked after reading that introduction, “Is it any wonder many people today want to homeschool kids?” For reasons including their safety from predator teachers in our schools as well as the facts that discipline is often chaotic and actual education is a hit or miss proposition in those schools, homeschooling is easily the better choice for those parents who can handle the challenge. For further information and resources on homeschooling your kids, see http://www.home-school.com/, http://www.thehomeschoolmom.com/, and http://www.homeschoolcentral.com/. “Jennie,” (not her real...

You see them at the grocery, or in a discount store. It's a big family by today's standards - "just like stair steps," as the old folks say. Freshly scrubbed boys with neatly trimmed hair and girls with braids, in clean but unfashionable clothes follow mom through the store as she fills her no-frills shopping list. There's no begging for gimcracks, no fretting, and no threats from mom. The older watch the younger, freeing mom to go peacefully about her task. You are looking at some of the estimated 2 million children being home schooled in the U.S., and the...

HOME SCHOOLERS, PASTORS, AND CHRISTIAN EDUCATORS SACRED BETRAYAL? Shall Baptists lose their identity? Baptist Heritage Briefing by James R. Beller, author of America in Crimson Red. “I have had the wonderful privilege to be a part of James Beller’s briefing on two separate occasions. What Pastor Beller gives in this presentation is essential to everyone that claims to be a true independent Baptist. This presentation makes us aware of the pivotal and important role of our Baptist faith and forefathers in American history. I heartily recommend The Briefing.” -----Pastor Kevin Folger，Cleveland Baptist Temple “In the present confusion over how we...

In 1937, Hitler ordered all German children into the government schools. He said: "The Youth of today is ever the people of tomorrow. For this reason we have set before ourselves the task of innoculating our youth with the spirit of this community of the people at a very early age, at an age when human beings are still unperverted and therefore unspoiled. This Reich stands, and it is building itself up for the future, upon its youth. And this new Reich will give its youth to no one, but will itself take youth and give to youth its own...

An appeals court in California has ruled that state law does permit homeschooling "as a species of private school education" but that statutory permission for parents to teach their own children could be "overridden in order to protect the safety of a child who has been declared dependent." The long-awaited case resolves many of the questions that had developed in homeschooling circles across the nation when the same court earlier found that parents had no such rights – statutorily or constitutionally – in California. The ruling released this morning by the 2nd Appellate District in Los Angeles said the dispute...

STIFF RIGHT ALERT: Liberty CounselLos Angeles, CA – Today, the California Court of Appeal upheld the fundamental right of parents to homeschool their children. The ruling comes after a request for a rehearing, and reverses an earlier adverse determination. Liberty Counsel filed a brief on the case in favor of a parent’s right to homeschool their children. The court concluded that “California statutes permit homeschooling as a species of private school education and the statutory permission to homeschool may constitutionally be overridden in order to protect the safety of a child who has been declared dependent.” Much of its decision...

Democrats send AB 2567 to Governor Schwarzenegger Sacramento, California – AUGUST 7 Campaign for Children and Families (CCF), a leading California organization protecting parents' rights and children's innocence, condemns the passage of AB 2567, which will instruct all California public schools to "conduct suitable commemorative exercises" in support of the anti-religious, sexual-anarchy agenda of the late San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk. On Thursday, August 7, the California Assembly passed AB 2567 on a 43 to 26 vote, Democrats for, Republicans silently against. Earlier this week, AB 2567 passed the California State Senate on a 22-13 vote, Democrats for, Republicans against....

LOS ANGELES - -- A state appeals court reversed itself today and ruled that parents in California have the right to home school their children even if they lack a teaching credential. The Second District Court of Appeal in Los Angeles had ruled Feb. 28 that the state's compulsory education law requires parents to send their children to a full-time public or private school or have them taught by credentialed tutors at home. The ruling caused an uproar among home-schooling advocates and could have made truants out of an estimated 166,000 children in California who are taught at home by...

An appeals court in California has ruled that state law does permit homeschooling "as a species of private school education" but that statutory permission for parents to teach their own children could be "overridden in order to protect the safety of a child who has been declared dependent." The long-awaited case resolves many of the questions that had developed in homeschooling circles across the nation when the same court earlier found that parents had no such rights – statutorily or constitutionally – in California. The ruling released this morning by the 2nd Appellate District in Los Angeles said the dispute...

It’s that time of year again as parents scramble to pick up the necessary supplies to send with their children as they are bussed off to the public school (I call them government indoctrination centers) across town. Unlike years ago, when our parents sent us to school with a notebook for each class, a couple of pencils and our lunch money, today’s child will lug clear or mesh backpacks filled with such necessities as liquid anti-bacterial hand soap, boxes of baby wipes and, in the case of Hermitage Elementary School in Hermitage, Arkansas, their first graders will supply two rolls...

I was reading about the math curriculum at the Lexington, MA public schools at the site above. For grades 1-5, it says they will "Continue with Everyday Mathematics (EDM) as our core elementary curriculum. Purchase pilot ancillary materials to address identified program gaps and needs of special populations. Both Singapore Math and Saxon Math, teacher and student materials, will be purchased by the special education department to pilot with various students based on individual needs." I think of Singapore and Saxon math, which are both pretty popular with homeschoolers, as being for kids of normal abilities (not just for the...

A mother and father who have been homeschooling their children have been given four weeks to submit a formal appeal of their three-month prison terms, according to a new report. A statement released today by the Home School Legal Defense Association said Juergen and Rosemarie Dudek of Archfeldt, Germany, "have just received their formal written sentence of three months each in prison because they homeschool." "Although the family knew of the sentence after the hearing last month, the court took weeks to prepare its formal written opinion," the HSLDA said. "The family now has four weeks to submit their written...

My wife and I have 3 children (ages 1, 3, and 5), and we recently purchased a home in Winchester, Massachusetts, because its schools have a good reputation and its students do well on the MCAS . I looked at the "Academics" section of the school district web site and found "Math literature lists" (what happened to textbooks?) for various grades. The 4th grade list at http://mail.winchester.k12.ma.us/~mkerble/mathlists4.doc lists dozens of books, including Count your Way Through Africa Count Your Way Through Arab World and 7 move "Count your Way" books Amazon says the "Count your Way Through Africa" book "uses...

TALLAHASSEE -- The citizen panel empowered to put amendments before voters ended its first meeting in 20 years with a bang Friday, asking Floridians to defy the state Supreme Court by allowing tax money to pay for kids to go to private schools. The proposal to allow the state to pay for private school vouchers was the last constitutional amendment -- one of seven -- the Taxation and Budget Reform Commission agreed to put on the November ballot. If 60 percent of voters agree, the measure will undo a 2006 Supreme Court ruling that threw out the vouchers as unconstitutional....

When it comes to getting a good education, apparently, there's no place like home. When homeschooling first came into prominence in the late 1980’s many viewed it with skepticism, but it has proved itself over and over the past two decades. Whether the average homeschooled student is getting as good an education as the average public school student is no longer a question. The verdict is in. The results of numerous studies show the average homeschooler is receiving a better education than the average public or private school student. In a 1997 study, Strengths of Their Own, Dr. Brian Ray...

When it comes to getting a good education, apparently, there's no place like home. When homeschooling first came into prominence in the late 1980’s many viewed it with skepticism, but it has proved itself over and over the past two decades. Whether the average homeschooled student is getting as good an education as the average public school student is no longer a question. The verdict is in. The results of numerous studies show the average homeschooler is receiving a better education than the average public or private school student. In a 1997 study, Strengths of Their Own, Dr. Brian Ray...

A controversial legal ruling that outlawed most forms of home schooling in California will face greater scrutiny because the underlying family court case was dismissed earlier this week. News of the decision broke Friday as thousands of members of the Christian Home Educators Assn. of California met in Long Beach, where they opened with: "We pray God you deliver home-schoolers in California from the mouth of the lion. . . . Change the hearts of these judges, we pray." The issue remains in legal limbo. On Thursday, the family court judge terminated its jurisdiction over two of the eight children...

Barack Obama addressed the issue of official languages yesterday by endorsing one: Spanish.  Instead of worrying about immigrants learning English, he told an audience, America should be teaching its children Spanish.  Every child should be bilingual, Obama said, but listen to the language he chooses later: "It’s embarrassing when Europeans come over here, they all speak English, they speak French, they speak German. And then we go over to Europe and all we can say is merci beaucoup." Well, which is it — should we teach them Spanish or French? Maybe we should teach them Chinese, or perhaps Arabic. Immigrants...

There are new studies and new polls that strongly suggest that we are breeding increasingly stupid kids here in America. Like our tasteless tomatoes, they merely look good and healthy. But of course there is more than one way to test intelligence. So, while only 43% of our 17-year-olds know that the Civil War took place between 1850 and 1900, as opposed to, say, 1750-1800 or after 1950, they are very good at text-messaging. They also probably know the names of Britney Spears’ kids, which is more than Ms. Spears does at any given moment, but they have no idea...

An advocate for homeschooling in Germany, where the activity has been illegal since Hitler's golden days in 1938, says his nation has aligned itself with China and North Korea regarding human rights with the sentencing this week of two parents to three months in jail – for homeschooling. Joerg Grosseleumern works with an advocacy organization that is part of the Netzwork-Bildungsfreiheit, the German organization promoting in that nation the recognized European Union right of parents to determine their children's schooling. "Homeschooling is a criminal offense, comparable to a trucker who repeatedly gets behind the wheel drunk," he told WND in...

WASHINGTON – Voters are demonstrating widespread dissatisfaction with public schools in a series of surveys. In the latest scientifically representative poll conducted by the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice among Idaho voters, only 12 percent of parents said they would choose government school for their children if other options were available. The results were similar in other states, including Illinois, Nevada and Tennessee. The Indiana-based Friedman Foundation is using the surveys to gauge American attitudes toward school choice. In addition, the Idaho survey revealed only 4 percent of parents between the ages of 36 and 55 would use public schools...

Should parents need teaching credentials to home-school their kids?

Poll Question: Should parents need teaching credentials to home-school their kids? Article Quote: “If upheld, the California ruling will send shock waves nationwide,” says Richard Kahlenberg, the author of a number of books on education. He says the case “pits those who believe parental rights are paramount against those who place a premium on well-educated citizens.”

...On May 29, 2008 the Worcester Telegram & Gazette published a story concerning a ten year boy who was immediately suspended when a school employee found him with a spent blank shell. According to the story entitled "Souvenir Rifle Shell Gets 4th Grader Suspended" the young man was given two of the spent casings by a uniformed veteran after a Memorial Day event. "This is a tragic example of how far over the edge this state and our schools have gone. For the school officials to react in such a manner is simply inexcusable," said Jim Wallace Executive Director of...

“Cindy Benefield, the Tennesseee Department of Education Executive Director of Field Services, who oversees the state’s homeschooling office, recently declared that a diploma from a church-related school is “not worth the paper it is written on.” That is not just the idle opinion of one uninformed bureaucrat, but has become Department policy. Bredesen’s education commissioner, Tim Webb, told four legislators in April that until the legislature passes a law stating that the diplomas given by church-related schools are acceptable, they aren’t acceptable for certain kinds of employment.”

It’s true. The State of Tennessee has officially declared that from this point forward it will accept only less educated student applicants for state, county and city jobs in the Volunteer State. Why would the kindly folks in Nashville make such a stupid rule? Well, it’s all about control, you see. The state controls the less educated kids and they don’t control the ones that show higher academic aptitude. It really is just that simple. It has come to pass that the State of Tennessee has officially invalidated the high school diplomas of thousands of home-schooled Tennessee kids, at least...

When Zachary Cataldo's daycare provider picked him up after school on Monday at Piedmont Avenue Elementary in North Oakland, she found him lying on the ground. An older kid had apparently slammed the 7-year-old into a tree, and he was too dizzy to stand up, according to Zachary's aunt, Janine Cataldo. Zachary was admitted to the intensive care unit of Children's Hospital-Oakland with a fractured skull and was released last night, Cataldo said. It wasn't the first time the boy was attacked at school. Cataldo said her nephew's front teeth were knocked out last year, when he was in kindergarten,...

Did you catch the video this week of a student kicking the stuffing out of an art teacher in Baltimore, Maryland while the rest of the class cheered the pounding on? Y’know, if that teacher was moi, and some F-bomb dropping Darwinian throwback came over my desk to accost me, I’d grab my handy dandy scissors and plant ‘em in the feral teen’s skullcap, Jason Voorhees style. From there I would proceed to snag the American flag from the corner of the room (if there was one) in order to stave off the rest of the flesh eating zombies ‘til...

If your kid comes home from college one day and tells you that your Christian faith is stupid, welcome to the world in which I live. The college environment does that to our kids. It makes good Christian students stupid. By that I mean it turns them into liberals, atheists, or both. Three out of four Christian kids (that’s 75% for those of you who attend UNC-Wilmington) abandon the church when they go to college and only about a third of them return by age 30. In other words, most stay stuck on stupid. Christians and conservatives could simply whine...

The state Senate's Education Committee received a bill this week that would allow home-schooled special education students to receive services from the local school district. In January, the state Education Department sent out a memo stating public schools can no longer provide these services - such as speech, occupational and physical therapy - to home-schooled students. The ruling stemmed from a 2006 case currently under appeal by a St. Lawrence County family in federal court. The proposed bill states home-schooled students would be eligible for special education services only from the public district they would attend, and they must receive...

As a home schooling mom, I welcome any and all into the fold who realize that the government- run education system is a dismal failure that is not turning out the “best and the brightest,” but rather global warming-embracing, would-be Socialists with little in the way of math, reading and communication skills. The news this week has been saturated with stories of teenagers committing various acts of violence against fellow students and even a bus driver. Third graders plotted to kill their teacher. Jesus was expelled from the school system long ago, yet while the United States is at war...

I think its a wise decision, and who can blame them after such a horrifying situation? Their daughter was beaten by 6 other teenage girls just to put the video of it on youtube. Meanwhile, one lawyer is seeking a gag order on the case. See video of father's decision to homeschool here.

Madison Browning, 8, spent a recent school day coloring, playing on swings at a park and whirling to Japanese string music at a cozy dance studio. Caedyn Curto, 13, studied biblical scripture at his family's kitchen table before tackling decimals, completing a biology test and revising a journalism essay. The Browning and Curto families, both of whom live in the South Bay, have embraced very different styles of education. But they now find themselves on the same side of a battle to continue teaching their children at home in the face of an appellate court ruling that home schooling in...

There was a time in America’s history when the Republican party stood for limited government. No more. The conservative Republican posterboy and architect of the “Contract with America” gave a speech at the American Enterprise Institute, where he “called on the secretary of defense to give a speech every year on the state of our schools.” Why would he call for such a thing? Because Newt Gingrich says that America’s schools are “a matter of national security.”

LANCASTER [CALIFORNNIA] - The first thing to know about the typical home-schooled family is that there is no typical home-schooled family, say parents who teach their children. "You can't generalize," parent Alice Moreland said. "Everybody does it for a different reason and does it in different ways." The Lake Elizabeth mom home-schools her two youngest children, Sarah, 14, and Kasey, 12. Two of her three other children, now grown, also were home-schooled. "Public school's great for some kids - sometimes I've used public schools for my kids - but I'm just really, really grateful for the opportunity to have a...

From HSLDA -- Action Requested: 1) Attend the House Education Committee hearing on S.B. 337, which will be held on Wednesday, April 2, at 10:30 a.m., in Legislative Office Building 207. CheNH and other pro-homeschooling representatives will be attending the hearing as well. When you arrive, please sign up to oppose the bill. Signing in does not obligate you to testify; however, if you would like to testify, you may. A talking points memo will be distributed in the next few days to assist you in preparing for your testimony. 2) Call or email the members of the House Education...

LODI, Calif. — Like dozens of other Pakistani-American girls here, Hajra Bibi stopped attending the local public school when she reached puberty, and began studying at home. Her family wanted her to clean and cook for her male relatives, and had also worried that other American children would mock both her Muslim religion and her traditional clothes. “Some men don’t like it when you wear American clothes — they don’t think it is a good thing for girls,” said Miss Bibi, 17, now studying at the 12th-grade level in this agricultural center some 70 miles east of San Francisco. “You...

A state appeals court has agreed to reconsider its decision last month that barred homeschooling by parents who lack teaching credentials, raising the possibility that the judges will change a decision that has infuriated homeschool advocates nationwide. The Second District Court of Appeal in Los Angeles granted a rehearing Tuesday at the request of a couple who have taught their eight children at home without credentials. It is not unusual for appeals courts to reconsider decisions, and the result is often a minor revision that leaves the original conclusion unchanged. But the three-judge panel in the homeschooling case hinted at...

There is a technology war coming. Actually it is already here but most of us haven't yet notice. It is a war not about technology but because of technology, a war over how we as a culture embrace technology. It is a war that threatens venerable institutions and, to a certain extent, threatens what many people think of as their very way of life. It is a war that will ultimately and inevitably change us all, no going back. The early battles are being fought in our schools. And I already know who the winners will be. This is a...

A California appellate court has struck terror in the ranks of home schooling advocates by ruling that their children can't be taught at home without at least some oversight. Public education foes see this as an all-out attack on the concept of home schooling. That is not the case. And members of The Times editorial board didn't get it right either. (snip) It's evident that the vast majority who teach their offspring in front of the television do so because they don't want their children to be subjected to such dangerous doctrines as evolution, abortion, global warming, equal rights and...

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. -- Orange County Public Schools is investigating claims that a student was forced to use a lunchbox as a toilet in front of his class at Meadowbrook Middle School.The teacher will not be coming to school. She will be relieved of her duty with pay as the school district investigates, officials said. "If you gotta go, you gotta go," student Quonterious Thomas told Eyewitness News in an interview Monday. Thomas, 13, says his language arts teacher, Jameeka Chambers, gave him two options when he had to go to the bathroom at Meadowbrook Middle School in Orange County....

The California appeals court decision criminalizing parents who homeschool their children is only the tip of an iceberg. Nationwide, parents are already being criminalized in huge numbers, and it is not limited to homeschoolers. During the Clinton years, the trend toward turning children into tools for expanding government power increased rapidly. Otherwise indefensible programs and regulations are now rationalized as "for the children."

Last week, the California Supreme Court effectively banned home schooling, leaving about 166,000 children truant, and 166,000 parents legally liable. Here's the full story. From the article: "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.'" Of course, I understand the intention of the California Teachers Association. They want to make sure every child is being taught by a reputable and educated instructor. But they also...

Teachers’ unions are pro-choice on abortion, but not on education. They use their enormous political capital with the Democrat Party to block voucher initiatives in whatever state or municipality proposes them, including in California. Consequently, many parents home-school their children at their own expense, even though they still have to pay local property taxes which are spent mostly on public schools their children do not attend. Right now, about 166,000 California children are taught at home. But last week, an California appeals court declared that all children must be taught by a “credentialed” teacher. It means that most home-schooling parents...

SACRAMENTO—State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell announced today that the California Department of Education has completed a legal review of the February 28 California Court of Appeal ruling regarding homeschooling. O’Connell issued the following statement: “I have reviewed this case, and I want to assure parents that chose to homeschool that California Department of Education policy will not change in any way as a result of this ruling. Parents still have the right to homeschool in our state. “Every child in our state has a legal right to get an education, and I want every child to get an...

It was like opening the New York Times on a Wednesday morning in February 2008 and seeing the headline “Lindbergh Baby Kidnapped” or “Hitler Marches Into Rhineland.” Like the movie “Groundhog Day,” where the same thing keeps happening over and over. Definitely déjà vu, as actress/author Simone Signoret put it, all over again. The headline in question: “Survey Finds Teenagers Ignorant on Basic History and Literature Questions.” And this time around it’s not farce, it’s still tragedy. Because the same headlines announcing the same deplorable facts appeared 25 years ago, and nothing seems to have changed in the intervening years....

What do you think of home schooling? Thumbs up 66% Thumbs down 34% Total Votes: 90,519 Do you agree with the appeals court's ruling? No 73% Yes 27% Total Votes: 74,411

An appellate court in California recently ruled that parents who home school their kids may be breaking the law. The decision requires parents to have filed paperwork to run their own private school, or to have enrolled their kids in a satellite school or to have credentialed tutors to do the teaching. Luis Huerta, an assistant professor of education and public policy at Columbia University, says the decision could have massive implications not just for the nation's home schoolers, but for privacy advocates and future California Supreme Court decision-making. It's difficult to give a snapshot of the people who home...

And you thought schools were only teaching your kids how to add, subtract, and use condoms. How naive. Welcome to a nation where parenthood is increasingly viewed as a joint project between you and state officials. Take, for instance, the inclination to push politically motivated school curriculums. Across the country, there has been an outcry — rightly so — when local Christian-heavy school boards attempt to teach evolution as fiction or refer to a fetus as a living entity. Appalling, indeed. Well, especially appalling when you disagree with the syllabus. Recently, California passed two bills that would dictate that state...

Protect Your Parental Rights - Protect Your Child There once was a time when a mother and father had the right, under the Constitution of the United States, to decide how and where they wanted to educate their children. If Judge Walter Croskey's rogue ruling is upheld, that day will be gone in California. If those who care about a parent's right to choose do not respond aggressively to overturn this offensive ruling, criminal charges could be enforced on California parents who homeschool their children and force them to send their children to secular institutions provided by the state of...