Post by Daniel on Jan 20, 2016 19:47:18 GMT -5
Homeschoolers, Be Ready for That Knock on the Door
by Matthew Hennessey January 20, 2016
Every homeschooler lives in fear of an unexpected knock on the front door.
We’ve all heard stories of families that have had their kids taken from them because of the shoddy judgment of social workers who didn’t like how they were spoken to by free people or who were simply ignorant of the law. The fear manifests itself in a kind of embarrassment in the exercise of one’s rights — sneaking around during the day lest some busybody or another sees you at the playground with your kids “when they ought to be in school.”
If that busybody picks up the phone, as busybodies often do, it might send you and your family into a costly and exhausting battle to establish that, no, you aren’t a crazy maniac and, no, you aren’t abusing your children. Savvy homeschoolers learn to be discreet. Shopping trips and other necessary errands are timed so as not to draw attention.
You don’t have to be too clever to realize that waiting until 2:30 to go to the post office will help you avoid questions such as, “Kids home sick today — all six of them?”
It’s one thing, however, for a grocery-store clerk to look sideways at a homeschool mom for dragging a couple of boisterous and healthy-looking kids through the checkout line at mid-morning. It’s quite another for an anonymous tipster to report a family to a child-protection agency because they homeschool.
That appears to be just what happened recently in West Virginia, where a mom answered the dreaded knock on the door to find a social worker investigating a report of “unsocialized homeschoolers.” This mom had the presence of mind to immediately contact the Home School Legal Defense Association — a bulldog when it comes to reminding local authorities that Americans still have the right to opt out of traditional compulsory education if they want to.
In a post on the organization’s website, HSLDA attorney Mike Donnelly notes that the West Virginia social worker quickly backed off, telling the mom that “she had a ‘nice-looking family,’ that everything seemed fine, and that she intended to close the case.” Things could have been worse for this family, but a happy ending shouldn’t obscure the central question: What is a state worker doing investigating a report of “unsocialized homeschoolers” in the first place?
That’s hardly the sort of charge that should trigger a mandatory investigation, unless you imagine that homeschooling itself is a form of abuse — and many do. The lefty Internet is teeming with calls to regulate homeschooling and force homeschoolers to open their homes to inspection and prove that what they are teaching aligns with the secular progressive ideals of the liberal education establishment.
“Why is that even allowed?” is the usual subtext. “It’s still a free country” is my preferred answer, though at some point, I suppose, that claim will no longer pass the giggle test.
Read more at: www.nationalreview.com/article/430016/homeschoolers-rights-social-workers
by Matthew Hennessey January 20, 2016
Every homeschooler lives in fear of an unexpected knock on the front door.
We’ve all heard stories of families that have had their kids taken from them because of the shoddy judgment of social workers who didn’t like how they were spoken to by free people or who were simply ignorant of the law. The fear manifests itself in a kind of embarrassment in the exercise of one’s rights — sneaking around during the day lest some busybody or another sees you at the playground with your kids “when they ought to be in school.”
If that busybody picks up the phone, as busybodies often do, it might send you and your family into a costly and exhausting battle to establish that, no, you aren’t a crazy maniac and, no, you aren’t abusing your children. Savvy homeschoolers learn to be discreet. Shopping trips and other necessary errands are timed so as not to draw attention.
You don’t have to be too clever to realize that waiting until 2:30 to go to the post office will help you avoid questions such as, “Kids home sick today — all six of them?”
It’s one thing, however, for a grocery-store clerk to look sideways at a homeschool mom for dragging a couple of boisterous and healthy-looking kids through the checkout line at mid-morning. It’s quite another for an anonymous tipster to report a family to a child-protection agency because they homeschool.
That appears to be just what happened recently in West Virginia, where a mom answered the dreaded knock on the door to find a social worker investigating a report of “unsocialized homeschoolers.” This mom had the presence of mind to immediately contact the Home School Legal Defense Association — a bulldog when it comes to reminding local authorities that Americans still have the right to opt out of traditional compulsory education if they want to.
In a post on the organization’s website, HSLDA attorney Mike Donnelly notes that the West Virginia social worker quickly backed off, telling the mom that “she had a ‘nice-looking family,’ that everything seemed fine, and that she intended to close the case.” Things could have been worse for this family, but a happy ending shouldn’t obscure the central question: What is a state worker doing investigating a report of “unsocialized homeschoolers” in the first place?
That’s hardly the sort of charge that should trigger a mandatory investigation, unless you imagine that homeschooling itself is a form of abuse — and many do. The lefty Internet is teeming with calls to regulate homeschooling and force homeschoolers to open their homes to inspection and prove that what they are teaching aligns with the secular progressive ideals of the liberal education establishment.
“Why is that even allowed?” is the usual subtext. “It’s still a free country” is my preferred answer, though at some point, I suppose, that claim will no longer pass the giggle test.
Read more at: www.nationalreview.com/article/430016/homeschoolers-rights-social-workers