The Homeschool Homefront (And A Happy Birthday)

Deuteronomy 6:6-9 (New International Version)

These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

I'm thankful I don't live in California and I'm thankful that Governor Schwarzenegger has committed to speak out for the homeschool families that do. This is a scary development and as we were talking about it in small group tonight, the ends are limitless. Will we need to be graduates of seminary school to teach our children the Word of God? It sounds far fetched, but then again, so did the prospect of of partying like it's 1999.

Here is what Time said:

Parents of the approximately 200,000 home schooled children in California are reeling from the possibility that they may have to shutter their classrooms — and go back to school themselves, if they want to continue teaching their own kids. On Feb. 28, Judge H. Walter Croskey of the Second District Court of Appeals in Los Angeles ruled that children ages six to 18 may be taught only by credentialed teachers in public or private schools — or at home by mom and dad but only if they have a teaching degree. Citing state law that goes back to the early 1950s, Croskey declared that "California courts have held that under provisions in the Education Code, parents do not have a constitutional right to home school their children." Furthermore, the judge wrote, if instructors teach without credentials they will be subject to criminal action.

Luke Perkins has been living "two disparate lives," court documents say: one at school in Berthoud, ...

This news raised a furor among home schooling advocates, including government officials. "Every California child deserves a quality education and parents should have the right to decide what's best for their children," Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said in a statement today. "Parents should not be penalized for acting in the best interests of their children's education. This outrageous ruling must be overturned by the courts and if the courts don't protect parents' rights then, as elected officials, we will." "It's kind of scary," says Julie Beth Lamb, an Oakdale, California parent who, with no teaching credentials, has taught her four children for 15 years. "If that ruling is held up, this would make us one of the most restrictive states in the nation."

If you want to do something about it, head over to HSLDA and sign the petition. I think it's time I joined HSLDA, this is my wake up call.

Happy Birthday to my little sister, Antoinette!