Since 1938, when Hitler banned it, homeschooling has been illegal in Germany, and, indeed, one German family is now suffering from a Nazi law still hanging around. When I posted about this before, I said,
Not here–yet!–but given the antipathy the “prisons for kids†system of public “education†has for homeschoolers (and the justifiable fear politicians and others have of citizens who can actually think), can it be far off?
Well, it’s not far off, and in fact, it is here, now.
New Jersey Judge Orders Penal Charges Against Mom for Home-Schooling
Why do I characterize the judge’s actions as “Hitlerian” (if not outright Nazi-like)? Well, do note that Hitler’s edict forbidding homeschooling was just that: an edict without legislated law. The judge in the New Jersey case specifically disparages New jersey statute law allowing honmeschooling and preventing state interference, and simp-ly issued an edict punishing the mother by requiring her to take actions the law does not allow the state to impose.
And he is getting away with this sort of high-handed “screw the law, I’ll do what I want” attitude/action because… ?
Tar. Feathers. Rope. Tree. Some assembly required. At least, that’s the nature (if not the exact) of response the colonists had when such high-handed, contra-legal actions were taken by a king usurping the People’s rights.
Add this one to the “long train of abuses” stacking up as normative for a governmental attitude that’s ever more abusive of its citizens… at every level of government.
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“The court’s opinion seethes with contempt for parental primacy in education, for large religious families, and for the democratic process itself…”
After reading the linked article, this one line jumped out as the root problem. The judge should be removed from office in a very public way as a means of driving home the point that he has violated something held sacred in America.
(BTW- The “challenge code” box has prevented me from leaving comments recently when it would not show anything to repeat.)
That is just scary. Sounds like the ruling will get tossed if it is appealed though….
dang my wordy comment poofed!..no back button on the code error..arg!
I respect a parent’s right to school their child as they see fit and I agree that this judge may be past his mandate but I also sometimes wonder if parents that home school their children might be doing their kids a dis-service.
I was in high school in the deep south when home schooling really came into it’s own about fifteen years ago. Four kids on my block were home schooled. While one girl was raised specifically to make a good wife to whoever it was she married at eighteen, I forget his name, and hasn’t had to find employment, I’ve heard from two of the other three in the past few years. Both of them had trouble getting into secular colleges and, despite both being intelligent and articulate, one failed to get into college entirely even though his SAT’s were in the 1300’s. Both of them have told me that, in retrospect, they would have preferred to have attended public school with the rest of us if only to have had better life chances and regular socialization.
I still say the judge is probably wrong and that parents should have the right to educate their own offspring but I’m not sure that homeschooling is such a good idea as it sounds.
Thomas,
You raise some pretty standard objections to homeschooling. Both the socialization and difficulty “getting into secular colleges” arguments have a long history. And both are largely spurious. The first is even dangerous. Think about it: what’re the socialization skills being taught in America’s “prisons for kids”? Right: MTV, pop idol, lowest commo0n denominator, fit in with the herd “skills” that will assure that the socialized have the best chance of becoming sheeple, conforming to the crowd, whether that’s by being good, complacent sheeple or defining themselves as “individuals” by joining a herd of pseudo anti-sheeple with no other identity apart from the herd. Lemmings one and all. (Yes, I know sheep are referred to in groups as flocks, but sheeple aren’t shepherded as much as they are herded by Mass Media Podpeople, politicians *spit* and Academia Nut Fruitcakes).
The second objection, difficulty entering a secular college or university, is an interesting one. Maybe a good thing, too, in the cases you cite, but you cite only two data points, and I’m familiar with many more who have been readily accepted at the (secular) college or university of their choice. “You say tomayto, I say “tomahto.” What are the hard numbers? I haven’t seen any. Your experience with two people butts heads with my experience with dozens. Maybe it’s a problem of population sample in one or the other case.
Here’s one argument you make for honmeschooling:
Now, I was never an English teacher (as one might be able to tell were my mother to take a red pencil to my blog :-)), but even I can see that there are grammatical and orthographical errors abounding in the selection above. And yes, grammar (syntax) makes a difference in logical expression of thought. And orthography tends to reduce errors of transmission in thought (although there’s a well-known orthographical error above that is merely irritating, not seriously harmful in semantic content, simply because context reveals you cannot possibly mean “it is” by the usage of “it’s” for “its” :-)).
Of course, my use of your casually-ttyped comment as an argument that better instruction is more likely in a home schooled situation is unfair, because
1.) I don’t know your background, and
2.) I have only my own experience telling me that homeschooled folk are more likely to use English well, and
3.) A casual comment on a blog (especially MY blog, the way I fracture grammar, spelling and just about as many elements of English usage as I feel I can get away with :-)) is just bad manners. *heh* Par for the course around here. 🙂
Of course, backing up my assumption that you are pubschooled is the general content and tenor of your comment, as well as the fact that my long experience (on both sides of the desk) with public schools supports the broad evidence that pubschooled students are becoming less and less literate as time progresses.
Before I ride my high horse too far, let me reiterate something I’ve said on this blog before: I am pubschooled (although my experience with that particular form of torture began over 50 years ago), and I am also much less literate than either my paternal or maternal grandfather.
I suppose I ought to post a bit about homeschool vs. prisons for kids, so I’ll back-burner some thought on the matter, and eventually I guess I’ll do that very thing. Thanks for the swift boot in an appropriate place to encourage that.