homeschooling mom forced to send her kids to public school

due to religious teachings. hm. seems like it's unconstitutional on two fronts.

http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/4727161/

 

Actually, it is constitutional if they receive any public funding. I know if you homeschool your children, then you're entitled to funds from your local school district (textbooks, supplies, etc..). You cannot integrate ANY religious belief system into your teaching while you're following a public school curriculum. They were teaching creationism opposed to evolution, so this could be a problem.

 

she was going through her church, which i believe wouldn't accept public funding anyway.

 

o ok, well then it isn't constitutional. I didn't read that part I guess.

 

It is important that they be taught REAL science. There is no way to know form this article if she was planning to teach about evolution at all or completely discard it. If she was, then she should not be teaching them.
However, if she were to teach science AND religion, I would not see a problem.

I am surprised this is coming from North Carolina - very religious state.

 

That's outrageous. What right do they have to force this mother to send her children, who were obviously thriving, to a public school system? The kids were testing 2 levels above what is considered the norm for their grades!

Sounds like the father is trying to get back at the mother if you ask me, punish her by forcing her to send her children to a public school, something of which she doesn't believe in.

Sad really, and yes, unconstitutional!

 

First of all, I need to say that while I don't believe in EVOLUTION, I do believe in evolutionary adaptation. Meaning strictly, that while I don't believe that an alien race implanted the first cells here, or that the first cells were sparked off the back of crystals, I do believe that all races of every genus have adapted and changed according to their environment. In that vein, I do believe that strict evolutionists are incorrect.

HOWEVER, ANY parent has EVERY right to teach their children HOW THEY SEE FIT. If you think about it in the larger, abstract grand scheme of things, even the schools teach a biased education. They teach history as seen by the winners, leaving out the largest, most important bits and nuances because they are uncomfortable talking about things like murder, lust, governmental corruption, or anything else that the average middle-schooler could look at and say "hey, that all sounds like the US today."

You look at languages taught in the majority of smaller city and rural schools, and you'll see a bare minimum or no foreign language at all. The arts are also on the wayside.

Science classes, while hard to truly bias (outside of that pesky evolution stance), is watered down to just allow for children to pass standardized testing and nothing more.

Basically, why stop a parent from teaching their children, doing so with passion and love, giving up a seat in a crowded public school so there is one less student dividing a harrowed teacher's attention. As long as the child is on standard with the education provided their public school counterpart (ie. same level of competition on the job market come adulthood) it doesn't matter if he was taught evolution, creationism, or that we are pan-dimensional beings that got stuck in this dimension.

Another point, coming straight from the article, is that homeschoolers, even religion-based, are almost always ahead of their public-school peers. Ivy league schools are starting to court more and more home-schoolers, there are larger groups of them and they are more diverse. Most children either graduate early, or transition in their mid-teens to a community college environment where they excel and rocket toward actual degrees. They have drive, initiative, respect, courtesy, and a thirst for knowledge that is not met in the typical PS curriculum. Forcing a mother to offer her child sub-par when she is offering what she sees as the gold-standard is cruel, and unconstitutional.

 

You are right. I take away my earlier argument. Unless they are directly or intentionally harming the child, then all is fair.
I'm fucking pissed that that Adolf Hitler got taken away from his parents.

 

As a teacher, I have MANY intelligent students. Just because a child is homeschooled does not mean they're smarter than other students. I see it this way, typically, parents who homeschool their children are more aware. People who have hectic lives can also be very aware. Intelligence has a huge genetic component.

Ok, now on the other side of the issue, a lot of parents are asked to homeschool their children because their behaviors are harming others.

I'm NOT trying to argue if homeschooling is appropriate or not because I believe that parents should have the choice to educate their children if they want to, but I think that it is totally inappropriate to say that homeschooled children are smarter than children who go to public schools.

There are A LOT of good teachers out there.

 

i was never homeschooled, i won't ever homeschool my kids. but no one in here really said homeschooled kids are smarter than publicly educated kids. maybe hippy freak murmered around it a bit, but it'd be shoveling shit and calling it sunshine if we didn't bring up that educational standards within the usa are often sorely lacking. if kids are testing well above their grade level, why fix what isn't broken?

 

Evolution and creationism are both lies which are played off one another to create more polarization. The Darwinian theory has been disproven by scientific fact, and creationism according to the Bible simply cannot be proven at all.

 

I believe it wasn't too long ago that they tried to force a California parent to send her kids to public school and it was later overturned. Yes, this is unconstitutional. Homeschoolers sometimes have to fight to keep their rights as they're constantly on the verge of being undermined. I feel very blessed to have the freedom to homeschool my child right now and I dread the thought of losing that right. Although nothing would surprise me at this point. I don't take any rights for granted anymore, or feel entitled to keep them, except on principal perhaps.

 

no one cares about the evolutionism/creationism argument. this is about a judge forcing a woman to put her kids into public school because he didn't like what she was teaching.

 

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most states have standard tests to make sure that the child is being taught the basics up to standards. it doesn't do anyone any favors for a child to be set free in the world with no workable skills or knowledge.

 

As long as the kids are learning, I don't see a problem. If they were leaning hate, and how to make bombs, THAT would be a problem.

I am not religious, and I don't believe in god, but if teaching about it is so bad, they better also close all the churches.

 

I've read a lot about this on another forum. It seems the dad committed adultry which is still punishable by prison in North Carolina. At that time the mom filed for divorce. She joined this church four years ago and began homeschooling at that time because it is required for membership in the church. The dad has decided he does not want to pay enough child support to enable the mom to stay home and continue to homeschool the kids. So he has started pushing for the kids to go to public school and the mom to get a job As part of his argument, he is now stating that the church is a cult and the children are not being taught properly because they are only being taught the curriculum approved by the church. My questions are?

Why has this curriculum been okay with the dad for the last four years and is only a problem now that the issue of child support has come up?

Why, if you think your children are being raised in a cult are you not asking for full and immediate custody of those children?

If you feel that the mom has been making good decisions up until this point why are you opposing her decisions now, especially with proof that the children are 2 years ahead of their schooled peers?

Why is this judge siding with the dad in spite of evidence that the children are thriving?

If the judge is concerned about the environment the children are living in why doesnt he pull them out of that environment?

My conclusions are that the children are doing fine with their mother, even though I personally do not agree with her religious values.

The dad doesn't want to pay support and is looking for an easy way out.

The judge is a member of the "old boys club" and will give the dad whatever he wants no matter what is best for the children.

It's sad tat the children are the ones being hurt by all this. I hope someone starts looking at what is best for them.

Kathi

 

Well I've read even more about this case and now I'm really worried about those children. The things this church is making parents do to their children is just not right. Among other things the parents are told to wake the children up at 3:00 am to do pushups while yelling at them in order to "break their will" and make them obedient. No my conclusions are:

Why the hell is this father not doing something to protect his children.
Why is a judge allowing them to live in this environment.
When are these people going to wake up?

Kathi

 

Facts of the case as per the blog site mentioned in the article....

Facts of the CaseOn Friday, March 6th 2009, North Carolina judge Ned Mangum presided over the case of Venessa Mills, and gave the following orders:


1. Three homeschooled children, who tested at grade level and two grades above, must be sent to public school.


2. The children's Christian beliefs, as taught by their mother, were to be deliberately "challenged" by their public education.


3. The children's mother was not given enough financial support to allow her to continue homeschooling, or even to adequately survive in the family home.


4. The children were burdened with a visitation schedule of equally divided time, while the mother temporarily continued to homeschool them, creating a completely unworkable and disruptive environment.


5. (The judge's intent from the beginning was to force these parents back together and out of his courtroom, acting like a liberal-biased marriage counselor instead of being a judge.)


6. The children's father, a confessed adulterer, was given freedom to stay at the family home indefinitely while continuing to play tennis with his mistress. His crime of adultery was rewarded, rather than censured.


7. The children's mother's conservative Christian beliefs were deliberately attacked and slandered by the opposing attorney, and she was accused of being brainwashed for simply upholding the truths of the Bible.



8. Despite a complete lack of evidence, she was punished with a mental health evaluation - while the judge deliberately exposed her to the continued emotional trauma of her adulterous husband living with her and her children.


9. The children's father was granted his request for the children to go to public school, the minimum level of financial support, and - with no official order to leave the home - was, in effect, given complete freedom to dictate property settlement and terms before moving out.



10. A home evaluation is to be carried out - most likely after the children's public school starts, and still in the midst of their parent's divorce, a disruptive visitation schedule, and their mother's financial hardship. The judge knows this is a recipe for failure, for which the mother will be blamed.

 

This looks like a mess, any way you look at it. Still waiting to see how things come out in the end, but I'm praying that this is just a "freak accident" rather than a sign of times to come.

Every year, there's a case or two that comes up about homeschooling, and people get all worked up about what it does or doesn't imply for those of us who homeschool - or even those of us who partially vaxx or take some other "personal interest" (don't you hate that phrase? don't we ALL?) in our children... and once the case makes it through the trials, things are left pretty much the way they were before. I'm not saying this case - or ANY one case can't change that... just that there seems to be a cycle of homeschoolers getting razzed by their state over one thing or another, and nothing much coming of it.

I've given up getting TOO worked up over these things. I've got all I can do to keep my kids in lessons these days. Elementary grades were a walk in the park, but Jr High is HARD!
love,
mom