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Thursday, March 13, 2008


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Not Your Kids

Kim du Toit
March 13, 2008
9:09 AM CDT

A whole bunch of people have written to me to ask why I didn’t comment on this piece of legal bastardy:

In a blow to parents everywhere, the Los Angeles 2nd District Court of Appeals ruled last week that under provisions in the state’s education code, parents do not have a constitutional right to home school their children and in fact criminalizes efforts to do so since they are not certified teachers.

Ummmm it’s California (People’s Soviet of). Why should I be surprised that, in the manner of statist pricks everywhere, some liberal asswipe of a judge has decreed that parents are not qualified to teach their kids propery? The foolishness continues:

One National Education Association (NEA) official has referred to home-school parents as “gullible, amateurs” who don’t have the skills to teach their own children.
...
University of San Diego law Professor Shaun Martin told the San Diego Union-Tribune that the ruling means “parents no longer have the right to home school their kid any way they want.”

Yeah… NEA-certified teachers have done such a great job of educating our kids. This would explain why, in just about every field and by any yardstick imaginable, home-schooled kids clean the clocks of their State-educated peers.

Home-schooled kids win spelling bees, win all sorts of writing competitions, have a higher GPA than high-school graduates, and have lower drop-out rates in college. Strikes me that we homeschoolers are not the gullible ones, and compared to the results earned by the “professionals”, we amateurs can wear the mantle proudly.

None of that is the point. The comparative education standards between home-schooled kids and public-schooled kids is a dead issue: it’s over, finished, kaput—home-schooled kids and their parents have won: game, set and match.

So why are “the authorities” so worried about The Children that they have to rely on liberal asswipe judges to make rulings against homeschooling?

When in doubt, follow the money. The fewer kids enrolled in public schools, the less federal and state money the school gets. Here’s a little more financial incentive. Every time the public education system is shown to be lacking, the pressure grows for them to have their performance measured, tested, and corrected. This, of course, is total anathema to the unions, who consider their job done if they show up and remain conscious for the duration of the school day.

And finally, of course, is the statist mindset that your children are not yours, but the property of the State. Only Big Nanny can be trusted to educate your children: you rubes and amateurs can only harm them.

Right.

Of greater concern is the often-correct saying that “as goes California, so goes the rest of the country”:

The ruling is estimated to impact more than 166,000 California children who are currently taught at home. And the chilling effect could move beyond California. Prior to the court’s decision, home-school advocates say they have already seen an increase in the number of anti-home schooling bills this year. The state of Nebraska — one case in point — nearly banned home schooling after legislation crafted by a state senator called for an overhaul. She was forced to back down when the governor threatened to veto it.

Bah. I don’t know the facts, but I will offer odds that the aforesaid Nebraska state senator was either a teacher, or someone involved with state education.

We are past the age of homeschooling our kids—all three are in college, and doing fine, thank you. In addition, Texas is (so far) a very friendly state for homeschoolers (conservative CA residents, take note; hippies, go somewhere else).

But The Mrs. and I are looking forward to being spared to homeschool our grandchildren in future years, and if some federal- or state apparatchik ever threatens to prevent us from doing so, watch me go to the guns.

Yes, I feel that strongly about it.




Comments

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  1. Why do I get this feeling that those against the homeschooling are demoncraps? I mean, after all, you can’t program the little darlings properly if they’re not in the care of the state, now can you

    cmblake6 | 3/13/2008 09:32 AM CDT | #116813
  2. CMB,
    There’s no “feeling” involved; it’s a fact. Unions, statists and liberals are not constituency groups within the Republican Party, for all its faults.

    Kim du Toit | 3/13/2008 09:40 AM CDT | #116815
  3. And of course there are home-schoolers who are complete losers and their kids come out worse off than they would have been had they gone to public school.  But that doesn’t mean that the majority who are doing a good job at it should be given the shaft.

    Kim - Congrats on having the kids off to college.  HAVE I BEEN READING THAT LONG?

    My guess is though that you haven’t given up on educating them one bit.

    Jeff | 3/13/2008 09:41 AM CDT | #116818
  4. Just remember that the Titanic was built (and sailed) by professionals.  The Ark...by amateurs.

    woodswalker | 3/13/2008 09:45 AM CDT | #116819
  5. Stand by: this ruling will not stand.
    For the first time I can remember, the First Lady, Maria (Kennedy) Shriver, has taken a very vocal and public stand on an issue. She was outraged. I guess she is more of a “parent” than a Democrat.
    I predict legislation in the very near future protecting the rights of parents. In the long run this (ruling) will probably be a good thing.

    Oh, and woodswalker, remember who the Prime Contractor was on that Ark project?

    FlintlockTom | 3/13/2008 09:59 AM CDT | #116828
  6. It has been my experience that only a very small percentage of homeschoolers underperform and may of those don’t really “homeschool” but just cannot be bothered to take their kids to school because of their own drug addictions, etc..

    Compared to public high schools where the drop out rate is extraordinarily high and often many of the graduates are poorly educated, there is no contest.

    As far as the legality of regulations overriding the Constitution… yeah.  I would suggest going to the guns too.

    arkythehun | 3/13/2008 10:04 AM CDT | #116831
  7. I have already commented about this already under the “Acting Stupid” post, but for those of you that missed it:

    Yet the hue and cry is for more “sex education”, namely by the state, and less moral instruction by parents, as evidenced by the California court ruling on homeschoolers:

    “Specifically, the appeals court said, the trial court had found that “keeping the children at home deprived them of situations where ... they could develop emotionally in a broader world than the parents’ ‘cloistered’ setting.”

    With 1 in 4 young girls carrying an STD, “cloistered” is just what the Doctor needs to order. “Get thee to a nunnery!” indeed.............. or are they saying that being exposed to an STD is part of proper emotional development?!?!?

    The basic theme of Socialism is that everyone in the group should be equal. If everyone is miserable, that’s ok, just so long as they are all equally miserable- witness Cuba. The Socialists view homeschoolers as a threat in many ways- they make the Public Schools look bad, and are viewed by some teachers as taking the smartest kids out of the system (as if there were a finite amount of intelligence available or something!) and bring down the average of the group by their abscence......

    Jeff Cooper long ago noted that it is the intersted amatuer that produces Excellence, for the amatuer strives for perfection. The Professional, on the other hand, is only interested in “good enough.” The phrase “Close enough for Government work” comes to mind.

    As for Nebraska State Senator DiAnna Schimek........... BINGO! Education Major. With honors bestowed upon her by the NAACP, and the ACLU, no less........... I have testified before her (she sits on the Judiciary Committee) and she is a Statist of the Worst Stripe: She means well. She TRULY and DEEPLY BELIEVES that she knows what is best for the People of Nebraska. Her intentions should be taken out of the Legislature and straight to the Nebraska Department of Roads for their Road to Hell Project’s paving needs............ I had to sit through an hour of testimony from her friend, Mrs. Fauntelroy of the Unitarian Church’s Society For The Presevation of Everything, on why we NEEDED “More beds and More Meds” for mental patients getting out of the State Pen....... I had a pill in mind, of which 1 230 grain dose would be sufficient to prevent the rampant recidivism exhibited by these people, but I digress..............

    jimbob86 | 3/13/2008 10:11 AM CDT | #116834
  8. homeschooled kids fail in the one test that decides whether their education was successful, and that’s the political correctness test.

    They lack the proper leftist political attitudes they should have been indoctrinated with, the political correctness that should be second nature to all subjects.

    jwenting | 3/13/2008 10:11 AM CDT | #116835
  9. Remember also, that this is not just job protection. They want the minds of our children. That’s why Dewey promoted kindergarten in this country.

    Ed Bonderenka | 3/13/2008 10:12 AM CDT | #116836
  10. School control:  It’s not about school, it’s about control.

    Infidel | 3/13/2008 10:12 AM CDT | #116837
  11. Thinking about this makes me nauseous.  Yet another point to add to our growing list of reasons to never have children.  Hell, we can’t even raise ‘em how we’d want to anyway, so why bother?  I’ll just donate some sperm, my wife can donate some eggs, the gov’t can breed ‘em in a lab and produce as many slack-jawed clones as they’d like.  God forbid we might try and teach a child to think for themselves, that won’t work in socialist America…

    skinnybeast | 3/13/2008 10:24 AM CDT | #116842
  12. Thinking about this makes me nauseous.  Yet another point to add to our growing list of reasons to never have children.  Hell, we can’t even raise ‘em how we’d want to anyway, so why bother?  I’ll just donate some sperm, my wife can donate some eggs, the gov’t can breed ‘em in a lab and produce as many slack-jawed clones as they’d like.  God forbid we might try and teach a child to think for themselves, that won’t work in socialist America…
    skinnybeast | 3/13/2008 12:24 PM CDT | #116842

    skinny, you seem to be operating under the mistaken notion that you are unable to vote with your feet. California has not YET forbidden folks to flee, but that will happen as soon as enough producers do so to threaten the stability of the Welfare State. Get out while the gettin’ is good.

    jimbob86 | 3/13/2008 10:33 AM CDT | #116846
  13. Sometimes, the best course of action is to simply ignore the tormentors and go about your business. I mean if the govt can’t seem to find my address even though they issue me a driver’s license, they prolly really shouldn’t be able to REALLY regulate what you teach you kids. Schools should be PUBLICLY FUNDED - not publicly operated and should be used more of a resource rather than a the total solution....

    Achilles | 3/13/2008 10:45 AM CDT | #116849
  14. good call jimbob, but as I tend to be both a stubborn donkey AND a wishful idealist I think instead of packing up and moving I’ll choose to dig in my heels and try to change things.  who knows?  enough like-minded people might be able to make Kalifornistahn inhabitable again!

    skinnybeast | 3/13/2008 10:56 AM CDT | #116855
  15. Yeah, Kim, but the downside is you gotta live in Texas if you move there. No thanks.

    The wife and I homeschool, our kids are little, and this CA thing has us queasy, and pricing moving vans, just in case.

    Bane | 3/13/2008 10:58 AM CDT | #116856
  16. I had hoped for immediate, massive lawsuits from enraged Kali parents.

    tenmikemike | 3/13/2008 11:06 AM CDT | #116860
  17. LOL Bane.

    Kim du Toit | 3/13/2008 11:14 AM CDT | #116863
  18. My guess is though that you haven’t given up on educating them one bit.

    Jeff | 3/13/2008 10:41 AM CST | #116818 | [Edit within 10 mins]

    Nor ourselves.  It’s a journey, not a destination.

    Connie du Toit | 3/13/2008 12:13 PM CDT | #116880
  19. My favorite part of his ruling is the part where he says parents “have no Constitutional right to home school” their kids. 

    Huh?  This is so stupid it is hard to get a fingernail under the corner to start peeling, but just for starters:

    1) Where is the Constitutional right of the state to ownership of your children?

    2) Where is the Constitutional right of the state to mandate idealogical education for your children?  Keep in mind, Cali will now be teaching Blowgull Worming to the incarcerated.  Er, the property.  I mean, the children (damn Freudian slips!)

    3) Does everything we wish to do need to be specifically addressed by the Constitution?  Isn’t there an amendment which addresses this very point?  If we’re not paying attention to that amendment, then where are the ones allowing us to purchase dairy products?  To smile at a pretty girl?  To sing ever-so-slightly off key to the radio?  To *own* a radio?  Etc, etc.

    I’m done now.

    baboy | 3/13/2008 12:38 PM CDT | #116890
  20. I am sure home schooling follows the 80/20 rule that most other things follow.

    80% of home school parents do a FABULOUS job and the kids turn out educated, responsible and all is well
    20% are some kind of slackers and don’t turn out such great kids.
    but compare that to public schooling and I really doubt you will find such good odds.

    You could go through this point by point, but the bottom line is—We the People, are supposed to be a (relatively) free bunch with all kinds of freedoms.  One of those freedoms is / should be to educate your child publicly or privately (to include at home).  So long as your child is being educated and can pass minimal educational standards (the ones already in place with the public education) then what does / should anyone care.

    And yes, I realize it is more about indoctrination, union jobs and nanny statism than anything about kids and “education”.  I’m just saying it shouldn’t be.

    Precision | 3/13/2008 12:51 PM CDT | #116892
  21. heh 80/20 rule, with 80 being on the fabulous side.

    I might flip that.

    The point is that they do a better job than the public schools… The bar is pretty low for doing better than they do.

    Connie du Toit | 3/13/2008 12:59 PM CDT | #116899
  22. The ruling may not be as dire as presented. Granted, the attitude towards homeschooling still sucks, but…

    ...according to Ace of Spades:

    The short version: The LA Times got it wrong in the first sentence of their article. Parents without teaching credentials can still educate their children at home under the various exemptions to mandatory public school enrollment provided in § 48220 et seq. of the Cal. Ed. Code. The parents in this case lost because they claimed that the students were enrolled in a charter school and that with minimal supervision from the school, the children were free to skip classes so the mother could teach them at home. There is no basis in law for that argument. If only the parents had attempted to homeschool their kids in one of the statutorily prescribed methods, they would have prevailed.

    He goes on to describe the requirements ofr one of those prescribed methods, a “private school”:

    To be a private school in California, all the parent has to do is be “capable of teaching” the required subjects in the English language and offer instruction in the same “branches of study” required to be taught in the public schools. They also have to keep a register of enrollment at their “school” and a record of attendance. Once a year they have to file an affidavit with the State Superintendent of Public Instruction with things like their names and address, the names of the students and their addresses, a criminal background check (since we don’t want unsupervised felons teaching kids), and their attendance register. That’s it.

    Todd Barney | 3/13/2008 01:32 PM CDT | #116907
  23. I was listening to Hugh Hewitt on this topic last night. He had on the “Smart Guys” - lawyers John Eastman (conservative) and Erwin Chemerinsky (flaming liberal.) Even Erwin agreed that this was a very poor decision. And he also believed that even the 9th Circuit would overturn the ruling, it was so poor. There is a small hope for the Republik of Kalifornia.

    BryanB | 3/13/2008 01:55 PM CDT | #116914
  24. Let it happen.  Just as with England, the more rapidly the kettle approaches the boil, the more rapidly the smarter frogs will jump out.  One would hope that the well-networked homeschool community across the country would stir itself to assist the New Israelites in resetling.
    .

    stencil | 3/13/2008 02:18 PM CDT | #116926
  25. ..who consider their job done if they show up and remain conscious for the duration of the school day.

    -My 6th grade teacher didn’t even manage this low standard.
    -Then there was my second grade teacher who shook me violently and put her hands around my throat.
    -In third grade I was tied in my chair with a playground jumprope.

    -My wife was repeatedly told that she was stupid, even though she was reading more than four times the recommended number of books each year.

    We decided to homeschool our only son.

    This is your brain:  grin

    This is your brain in public school:  shut eye

    This is your brain in a PRK publik skool:  big surprise  red face  sick  question

    Any questions?

    tweakphile | 3/13/2008 02:56 PM CDT | #116942
  26. -Then there was my second grade teacher who shook me violently and put her hands around my throat.
    -In third grade I was tied in my chair with a playground jumprope.

    Tweak,

    You prolly deserved it.

    wink

    Kim du Toit | 3/13/2008 03:03 PM CDT | #116947
  27. There’s no “feeling” involved; it’s a fact. Unions, statists and liberals are not constituency groups within the Republican Party, for all its faults.

    Kim, that’s one out of three incorrect. Republican statism is different than Democrat/Socialist statism, but it certainly exists. Nixon was as statist as any president since FDR, and he was pretty popular with Republicans. Not to mention the dweebs that want the government to prevent them from doing anything they wouldn’t want their minister to catch them at.

    markm | 3/13/2008 03:35 PM CDT | #116951
  28. This case looks to me a lot like a nitwit of a judge making up law to reach the same results for the particular case as would have resulted from reading and correctly applying the laws as written. The parents don’t seem to have remembered to include any schooling or education in their “home schooling”, and they should have lost simply because they didn’t meet the legal requirement of seeing your kid gets educated somehow[1]. But rather than ruling about that, this judicial nitwit had to invent law that applies to all homeschooling cases. I doubt that even CA appeals courts will hesitate to overrule him, but it won’t do the parents any good unless they come up with evidence of some actual education that wasn’t apparent before.

    [1] Of course, one might think it a bit unfair to require this of homeschooling parents when it’s certainly not required of the public schools.

    markm | 3/13/2008 03:44 PM CDT | #116954
  29. I can think of no nobler reason to pour walls of lead on the forces of evil than to protect your own children.  I was homeschooled all my life other than a couple years in German public school when we were stationed over there.  College is going great.  My children (when I find a younger incarnation of tech support) WILL be homeschooled.  It is the most basic of man’s God-given rights to have a raise our children.

    [Quote removed by TS--that quote is attributed to him on the Internet, but there is no source for it.]

    SpiderSlayer | 3/13/2008 03:51 PM CDT | #116958
  30. Lemmeseehere...If I homeschool my tots that’s a coupla kids not taking up space at the local asylum and yet I still get whacked for all the taxes that get sent on to the school district.  Now if the local asylum is funded based on their headcount, where is my money going???  Hmm???  Beuller???  I should think that they’d be glad homeschoolers exist, talk about free money…

    yahyah ibn alli | 3/13/2008 05:19 PM CDT | #116984
  31. Our schools ARE funded based on how many butts are in the seats. And as Public Schools go, ours are good, at least at the Elementary level. I have some reservations avout some of the “Teachers” at the local HS...... we can always opt out.....

    jimbob86 | 3/13/2008 05:31 PM CDT | #116987
  32. One of my kids is handicapped, and the schools are drooling over him, because he is worth any five normal children in income for them. Maybe more. The last time we sent him to school, he had his own handler. She was no help at all. After the third time he crapped his pants because his little hands couldn’t handle the buttons and zippers, I pulled him out.

    We have teaching material for the next five years. We don’t need no freekin public schools.

    Bane | 3/13/2008 06:41 PM CDT | #117009
  33. #27 markm - Don’t blame the GOP; Nixon was from California!!

    Home-schooling In and Of Itself is neither good nor bad; it just IS. As with any OTHER Human endeavor, how good it is depends on the effort put forth by the people DOING IT.
    I know some kids who were home-schooled and need to go back to grade school (they’re High-school graduates now). I know others who haven’t finished yet but are college-ready. It ALL depends on the parents doing the teaching, and the children doing the learning. Kim, I suspect you an The Mrs. did a superior job. Whether you do one on any grands depends upon your kids, not you; that is a decision THEY must make. Hopefully, by the time that decision is upon them, your services will NOT be required; Home Schooling is NOT a job for older persons! (We don’t stick senior citizens in combat zones, either - for the exact same reasons!)
    And PLEASE stop quoting that damned Titanic/Ark nonsense at me; look at all the big, iron ships that DIDN’T sink, icebergs or not!
    Sheesh. Enough, already.

    The Mad Yank | 3/13/2008 08:10 PM CDT | #117027
  34. She was no help at all. After the third time he crapped his pants because his little hands couldn’t handle the buttons and zippers, I pulled him out.
    Bane | 3/13/2008 07:41 PM CST | #117009 |

    Don’t ever tell me where this happened or who it was.  The teachers will be in wheelchairs if you do.

    Son David had a similar experience with a Nurse Ratchet special ed teacher.  Although she made it out of there with her body intact, she is no longer employed at the school.

    Connie du Toit | 3/13/2008 08:15 PM CDT | #117028
  35. Wow.  A court issues a ruling that even the 9th Circuit will likely overturn because of its asshattery with the law and I’m in 100% agreement with both Bane and Kim on the same day.

    Where’s my red crayon?  I need to mark this on my calendar.  I should have bought a lotto ticket today.

    Justin Buist | 3/13/2008 09:07 PM CDT | #117033
  36. I am not in overall favor of homeschooling, and it isn’t fair to compare the overall public school rate with homeschoolers--If you would do a comparison only of “Children with parents who care enough to be very involved”, I think the results would be a lot closer. 

    However, I am strongly against any sort of ban on home schooling, or requirements that the teachers be certified.  There are some public schools that are worse than inadequate, and parents must have the option.

    Sevesteen | 3/13/2008 09:32 PM CDT | #117036
  37. “Oh, and woodswalker, remember who the Prime Contractor was on that Ark project?”

    Not only Prime Contractor but Designer too.. 

    wink

    Morris | 3/13/2008 09:50 PM CDT | #117040
  38. Up here in PA they are friendly to home schoolers. We decided to home school our rugrat when he was diagnosed ADHD and the school was not going to let him back into school unless he was drugged. How the hell anyone comes to the conclusion to put a 8 year old on mood altering drugs is beyond me.  Three years later he is doing great, learns the things that are important to his parents and his grandparents, and will be ready for college properly.  Still though there are days I almost wish I had let my wife deck the principal for being such an arrogant snot the day they informed us of the ‘decision’ that our son needed medication.

    grayburst | 3/13/2008 11:05 PM CDT | #117046
  39. Gray,

    PA is one of the 6 most restrictive homeschooling states in the union.

    Connie du Toit | 3/14/2008 07:21 AM CDT | #117077
  40. This is one of the few subjects I know the du Toits are passionate about and that I’ve not thought that much about, but would likely agree with them, and yeah, thanks for weighing in on it-Tech Support’s earlier article and Kim’s have given me some more food for thought, to mull this over some more.

    CC

    CrunchyCon | 3/14/2008 09:16 AM CDT | #117108
  41. Crunchy, the only way to do it is just to do it. Like jumping off the high dive. It will change your entire life, but heck, so does having kids. So…

    Just do it.

    Bane | 3/14/2008 10:34 AM CDT | #117132
  42. Bane, I don’t actually have kids yet, but when I hear the generally-decent small-town folk my parents have made friends with, most of whom are public school teachers, crowing about their work, and then I see the, quite frankly, ass-ignorant kids graduating from a couple rural schools I won’t name, I think that in most jobs I’ve had, if I consistently turned out that shoddy a product, I’d have been canned long ago. 

    Anyway, it’s good to see Kim n Connie finally weigh in on such things, because from my reading, it seems this one issue is even more of a hot-button, do or die, make or break issue with them than even the gun issue, and for good reason.

    CC

    CrunchyCon | 3/14/2008 03:00 PM CDT | #117188

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