On February 29, homeschooling was declared illegal in the state of California. Over 166,000 families can now be found in contempt of court and forced to put their children into a public or private school. This not only shocked, but sobered me.
For starters, I was homeschooled. I consider myself to be bright, possessing an above- average intelligence, the recipient of a vast and varied number of extra-curricular activities, and in no way deprived of anything good, right, and wholesome in my growing up years. I could also say the same of my two sisters, my best girlfriends, my husband, and many others I know who were also homeschooled. I’m not saying this lightly either. I have no desire for this to be taken as some sort of braggadocios post with a definite homeschooling slant. I think our SAT scores, college grades, degrees, our jobs, what we have done and our doing with our lives can speak for themselves as facts. I also know people who have gone to public or private school, and likewise, turned out well. They got good grades in school, worked hard, and are useful contributors to society.
On the other hand, I know some pretty lousy homeschoolers. The parents are easily manipulated by their children, have no idea how to get a days worth of school completed in a 24 hour period, and whose entire day is unstructured and undisciplined. Their completely normal children (I’m looking at this from a mental viewpoint…some people would have hardly called my family “normal”) perform embarrassingly below what is expected not only on academic levels, but also a social level. In the same way, I have seen too many families to count who are an embarrassment to the public school system. I look at them, and somehow feel that my tax dollars are being wasted–by a system that is supposedly governed by “experts”. Many of those schools have 17 year-olds in ninth grade who can only read at a sixth grade level (I know this, I work part-time at a tutoring company). I know bright kids whose parents could care less what they do in school, so long as they don’t play in hooky in order to do drugs with their friends. Thus far, their schools just continue to let them repeat grade after grade, no one caring, no one stepping in to make sure they get the education I’m paying for. The kid sticks around until he’s old enough to drop out. The girls stick around until they can get pregnant. Somehow, many of those I know keep getting passed by for much-needed counseling…which may help educators find a way to get them that educated.
But this post is not about the merits of one method of education over any other. They all have flaws, they all have good points; we could go round and round in a circle comparing them, but that would be pointless right now when there is a far greater issue at stake. It is an issue, that when looked at carefully, should strike fear, and inspire a sense of urgency in the hearts of all Americans–at least, those who love freedom. It is the right of parents to choose what is best for their children. That is it. Seemingly so simple, and yet, suddenly, it has become a matter of such complexity that a court has now weighed in, trying to have the final say.
When you take an honest, unbiased view of the whole education argument, one thing stands out. The children who succeed, the ones who do well, those who “make it”, are–in the majority of cases–those who have parents who feel that their child’s education is their responsibility. It is something they have a choice about. A choice to decide where they will be schooled, how they will be schooled, and how they will reach necessary academic goals. Whether those parents decide that they will wake up at a certain time, gather the children around the kitchen table, and work steadily and efficiently until the day’s lessons are over, or pick up the kids from school, see that homework gets done, they’re passing all their classes, and projects are turned in on time, these parents feel that their child’s education is their responsibility because they know they have a choice in the matter. And in most cases it pays off, because their child succeeds.
There are other parents who act as though whatever choice they arrived at somehow happened by default…if they happen to think about it. Homeschooling parents who are flippant about this matter do put a little more thought into the matter of choice then others in the “default” category, but they seem to think that the choice to homeschool was the end of the choice, not the beginning. Others just find out what public school their kid is supposed to attend, and what time the bus will pick them up. They don’t mind much about grades, practical knowledge, that their kid might be just putting the time in, or anything else. Do we have to wonder when some seemingly bright kids seem to struggle in school?
The fact that stands out with blinding clarity, that it is the parent behind the child who makes the difference, is what frightens me the most about this recent court decision. It is taking away the right of parents to choose what is best for their children. Yes, sometimes, parents make mistakes (some of them by simply refusing to choose). But I think we can hardly call the public school system mistake-free. For that matter, we can hardly call the Federal government mistake-free. Do you know anyone who has always been happy with all forms of government? Those who succeeded in the system were those who had parents behind them who had made a choice, and were determined to make it work. Those who managed to succeed without a parent behind them, managed to because someone stepped in to fill that void, be it a concerned teacher, sympathetic counselor, involved youth worker, etc.
Some people might be thinking, “Well, that’s just California. They’re _________ (fill in favorite lame California joke).” That’s wrong. California and New York are the leaders in fashion, art, technology, religion, politics, etc. It is said that America is only a decade behind France morally. I propose that the rest of the country is only a few years behind California and New York in whatever path they’re going down. I’m not even sure I’d give them a decade. This should be a matter of concern to all citizens, whether parents or not. Because unless you stand up and protest, unless you call your congressmen and senators, urging them to denounce the court decision, it will become law in your state. And suddenly, what you think is best for your child won’t matter anymore. Your right as an American to have a choice won’t matter. Even more frightening, this could just be the beginning.
It is ironic. The liberal left clamors for the “woman’s right to choose”, when advocating abortion. Now suddenly, they’ve decided that once that child has entered the world, the right to choose is gone. All because some people were willing to neglect their rights as parents. They didn’t choose to be involved, to take responsibility, and now, a case is in court (is it the first of many?) that should have never been there from the beginning.
