Bad American

San Francisco Chronicle

Here’s where I throw another curve to those who put me in the ‘one size fits all’ liberal box.

I’m slightly to the left of Che Guevera on many things but I’m foursquare for the Second Amendment and I believe that parents have the absolute right to home school their kids.

And I don’t care if you’re doing for religious reasons or not - you have (or should have) that right.

And in California, it looks like the state is now coming after the 166,000 home-schooled kids.

The ruling arose from a child welfare dispute between the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services and Philip and Mary Long of Lynwood, who have been homeschooling their eight children. Mary Long is their teacher, but holds no teaching credential.

That’s part of the rub here: California wants the kids to be indoc, er, educated by those who have swallowed the blue pill at the Schools of Education Theory at universities. The parents are largely un-credentialed by the STATE so obviously, they will not be able to properly indoc, er, ‘educate’ their own children.

See, its not just the teachers the state has an interest in. Dig this:

Some homeschoolers are affiliated with private or charter schools, like the Longs, but others fly under the radar completely. Many homeschooling families avoid truancy laws by registering with the state as a private school and then enroll only their own children.

Yet the appeals court said state law has been clear since at least 1953, when another appellate court rejected a challenge by homeschooling parents to California’s compulsory education statutes. Those statutes require children ages 6 to 18 to attend a full-time day school, either public or private, or to be instructed by a tutor who holds a state credential for the child’s grade level.

“California courts have held that … parents do not have a constitutional right to homeschool their children,” Justice H. Walter Croskey said in the 3-0 ruling issued on Feb. 28. “Parents have a legal duty to see to their children’s schooling under the provisions of these laws.”

Parents can be criminally prosecuted for failing to comply, Croskey said.

And here’s the punch line:

“A primary purpose of the educational system is to train school children in good citizenship, patriotism and loyalty to the state and the nation as a means of protecting the public welfare,” the judge wrote, quoting from a 1961 case on a similar issue.

Well, that backs up what I have always figured the American public schools to be about. Notice that there’s nothing in the judge’s quote about education in terms of teaching critical thinking skills, such as being able to discern government bullshit when you hear it and questioning authority.

In fact that last thing American public schools are meant to teach is for its students to question authority or think for themselves. Good citizenship: as defined by who? Patriotism and loyalty to the state? Hitler and Goebbels couldn’t have worded it better. Protecting the public welfare? How do you define ‘public welfare?’ And for whose benefit?

The state is coming for you, homeschooling Californians. The state has a greater interest in your children than you do.

Homeschooling parent Debbie Schwarzer of Los Altos said she’s ready for a fight.

But what happens when your truant officer shows up with an armed cop with a ‘tell it to the judge’ attitude? Your well-crafted arguments aren’t going to have much of an effect then, eh?