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Homeshool rights being questioned
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by Susan Marie Kovalinsky | August 29, 2009 at 10:53 am
368 views | 30 Recommendations | 12 comments
A 10-year-old homeschool girl described as "well liked, social and interactive with her peers, academically promising and intellectually at or superior to grade level" has been told by a New Hampshire court official to attend a government school because she was too "vigorous" in defense of her Christian faith.
The child in question is a New Hampshire 10 year old daughter of a single mother ( her parents divorved when she was very young). The girl's mother believes schooling her at home and keeping her intensely interested in the Christian faith serves her best interests. Her father believes she ought to be allowed the chance to experience public school, interact with other kids, and have access to other views. This is a thorny issue: Who is to say what is in the best interest of the child? The judge agreed with the father. The mother, I am sure, could make her own very good argument from the opposing side. I am not sympathetic with the Christian aspect; however the right to homeschool, passed as legislation in my own state of New Jersey in 1967, has a particular virtue surrounding it, in a time when public schools are too often overrun with drugs, sex, a nd violence. (Depending, of course, on the area in which one resides.)
The decision from Marital Master Michael Garner reasoned that the girl's "vigorous defense of her religious beliefs to [her] counselor suggests strongly that she has not had the opportunity to seriously consider any other point of view."
The recommendation was approved by Judge Lucinda V. Sadler, but it is being challenged by attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund, who said it was "a step too far" for any court.
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Recommendations (30)
Amy Judd
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Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (12)
at 13:13 on August 29th, 2009
It's always amazing to me how the courts get involved in some matters like this, but I think it will be interesting for the child to attend school, even if for a little while.
at 13:33 on August 29th, 2009
I think in this case, you are right. Being alone with your mother and studying the Bible is not like getting to have a wide variety of activities and people at school. Sometimes, in rough areas with crime and drugs, homeschooling may be the best, but in this case the child probably needs a change.
at 14:12 on August 29th, 2009
Yes, the child is a "she" in this case, but yes, I think children need to see more than a parent's view.
at 14:58 on August 29th, 2009
schools hate competition for shrinking funds
at 15:13 on August 29th, 2009
Yes, I do not like the government telling who can homeschool or not; "vigorous" may be in the eye of the beholder, or in the heart, as an envious vice- had terrible issues with it with my son, and evil family members calling DYFUS: Let me not think on it! :( --arrrgh, yes, the funds, all about the funds........and supporting overpaid teachers ( they have not been underpaid in the NYC area for 20 years now...............
at 15:19 on August 29th, 2009
Your last sentence says it all: It has been a massive argument against liberalism that it does not view the child as the private "property" of the parents, but belonging to all, which winds up meaning, the schools, the social workers, the courts. THAT i do NOT endorse! :(
at 16:32 on August 29th, 2009
I think you make a good case about "power plays": I had not thought of that, but yes indeed, the father may really only be trying to get at the mother, with no true concern for the girl. And yes, at 10, why should her OWN wishes not be taken into account????
at 17:24 on August 29th, 2009
When it comes to home schooling, I'm a firm believer. I can understand why some might be concerned with the social aspect of home schooling. But most kids that are home schooled engage in many social activities such as sports, music, etc. The public schools in my neck of the woods are pretty good and the kids are well disciplined. And I have no problem with my daughter attending those schools.
I'm curious about the religious aspect to this story. Half the kids that I grew up with back in New York attended Catholic parochial school. They were taught by nuns and they got a large dose of religion everyday right along with their academic studies.No one complained about that.
at 17:49 on August 29th, 2009
That is a very good point. Tons of kids I knew, including cousins, went to the Catholic schools. Of course they were indoctrinated, fully. And yet their Catholic parents had the right to choose that. Suppose the mother in this article has a bias against the secular view, and does not want that "vigorously" defended?
at 18:40 on August 29th, 2009
Why did the government make this decision?
at 04:44 on August 30th, 2009
That is the question.
at 12:15 on August 30th, 2009
The government has no business getting involved in the education of children or even "mandating" that a child should be educated at all. Lincoln had little formal schooling and was homeschooled by a fundamentalist Christian mother. And in divorce situations such as this, the father is not the custodial parent - the mother is. That should be the decision of the primary caregiver - and if there is shared custody, then that detail should be included in the shared custody arrangement insofar as the schooling of the child, and if there is no agreement, then obviously how the child should be raised fundamentally must have been part of the differences which lead to the divorce and so the awarding of custody itself should be then approached in that manner.
Sounds like this father simply wants to continue to control his ex-wife to me, and using their child in order to do so.