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Judge Forces Children into School in NC (or This Is a Test of the Emergency Broadcast System)

13 March 2009 7 Comments

OMG! Time to panic! A judge orders homeschooled kids into school! Make sure you send this message to everyone you know so they can panic and be angry too!

That’s what’s been going around the homeschool e-lists and blogs in the past few days. Really, fellow homeschoolers, what is this about?

The story is, a homeschooling couple in North Carolina get a divorce. The dad wants the kids to go to school, the mom wants to continue homeschooling. They can’t work it out on their own, and get a mediator involved. Still not being able to work it out on their own, the judge has to make a decision, and decides in favor of the dad. And the kids have to go to school, instead of homeschooling.

And people are angry. How DARE the judge make such an insensitive decision! He’s biased! He’s anti-homeschooling! This sets a precedent!

People, how do you know that’s true?

Facts:

1) We have only the news to base our opinions on. When there are stories going around about homeschoolers who cause problems, like killing people, or stories about how homeschooling is “bad” for kids, what do we cry? “The news distorts the truth and only reports the scary stuff!” Now, when the shoe is on the other foot, what do we say? “The news is right! The judge is wrong! How can this be?” Please tell me that there are people who see the irony, and hypocrisy in this?

2) None of us were there during the trial. We have not seen the evidence. We do not know what this mom is really like. We don’t know what the dad is really like. The judge does appear to have a bias against homeschooling, but maybe, just maybe, he had other reasons to make his decision? Nah. If that were true, wouldn’t the media tell us the whole truth? (that’s sarcasm, BTW)

3) This is a divorce case. The parents were unable to manage this on their own. The judge had to make a ruling. There are some pretty p’d off folks that think that the judge overstepped his ground by doing his job, and making a decision. He had two choices. He picked the one we don’t like. If he picked the one that we do like, would we be saying how unfair it is that he has to make a decision as part of his job? Would we be so quick to question the judicial system? We need to take a serious look at our reaction and ask if it’s warranted.

I have to say that I’m disappointed in the homeschooling community’s reaction to this. But, I also have to say that I’m not surprised. This is how it goes, every time there’s something that we don’t like in the news, we test our emergency broadcast system sending this stuff around. One email I got was this:

Subject: Homeschoolers forced into public school!

Send this to every homeschooler you know!

http://wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=91397

Jane Doe

Is this how we conduct ourselves? Is this what homeschoolers do? Is this our mature and adult-like way of dealing with strife and challenges, by making each other scared and angry with very minimal, superficial and hyperbolic information?

Through all of this, I am impressed by one thing, however. Homeschoolers are very, very connected. Our Emergency Broadcast System is working so well. There is nothing that we miss. And for that, I’m quite proud. When something serious does come down the pike, I know I won’t be in the dark about it!

In the end, this will pass like all of the stories like this one have passed. It will not have a significant impact on much (except maybe reinforce the general public’s idea that homeschoolers are bunch of crazy lunatics. But hey, maybe they are right. And hey, maybe that’s not such a bad thing.) It’ll all pass and we’ll be on to a new story and a new thing to get worked up over.

But I hope, one day…that homeschoolers all over our beautiful country can learn from our own mistakes, and learn how to handle adversity with a little more grace and maturity. When we do that, we not only will be even stronger than we are today, but we may even become one of the driving forces of national education. Can you imagine what that would be like?

Until then, I’ll keep my eye on the homeschool EBS.

7 Comments »

Julie B. said:

Beeeeeep! It’s just a test, not the real thing ;o) Thanks for posting this, Tammy, now I have a blog to refer people to who aren’t on the state list we both saw this originally “broadcast: on.

I DO understand the need to be alert, and the concerns of people. I’m a Christian homeschooler, and I went through a custody and homeschooling challenge with my oldest son’s father a few years back. It was hellish, highly emotional, and I lived on adrenaline for a while until it was finally over. I also learned that I too have biases and blind spots that I needed to overcome or I might not be in a position to protect my son’s choice to homeschool.

I don’t know the facts of this woman’s case, but I do know that I went into my court battle fully informed of what court mediators and judges encounter in homeschooling custody situations, and I prepared myself to respectfully address their concerns. I had begun to prepare, actually, years in advance to be sure if homeschooling was challenged, that my son had a fighting chance of keeping the status quo. In spite of the mediator’s stated bias toward public school, and the fact the father was a credentialed teacher, we won the mediator’s and the judge’s approval of continued homeschooling on behalf of my son.

This case isn’t headline news, it happens fairly frequently nationwide. These situations can be decided both ways, and we need to recognize that these personal battles between parents for what they think is best for a child are not synonymous with a general homeschooling challenge to parents who agree to homeschool their children. No matter what decision this judge made, he would have “violated” one or the other parent’s right to choose their children’s educational path, and he would have validated the other.

Homeschoolers are paying attention because the parent that chose public school was validated in this case, but of course, in my case, it went the other way. Would WND have sympathized with my son’s father and printed a story on how his parental rights were violated because the judge ordered his son to continue homeschooling? Hardly.

Equating this unfortunately commonplace custody battle as an all out attack on homeschooling by homeschoolers leaves us looking like we are unable to think logically and see the clear legal distinctions.

But I’m glad, like you Tammy, that the HEBS is in place, it should be! We all saw that with the California case last year. Hopefully we’ll just never see a real emergency as homeschoolers become more and more accepted :o)

Julie Brennan

# 13 March 2009 at 5:29 pm

Cynthia said:

Tammy,

Thank you, Thank you for a reasonable response. My friends here are all in a panic. My first thought was that we do not know all the details and it certainly isn’t a reason to fear that all of our children are going to be ordered back to school.

# 13 March 2009 at 6:45 pm

Daryl Cobranchi said:

This one burned up the NC list-servs for a day or two until folks figured out that maybe WND isn’t the most neutral source of info. It really is amazing how every homeschool controversy is somehow tied to Hitler and the Nazis. It’s like WND has never heard of Godwin.

The lists have calmed down for now. I don’t doubt for on second that WND will attempt to fan the flames with this case the next time there’s anything homeschooling related in the news.

Daryl Cobranchi’s last blog post: HAPPY PI DAY

# 14 March 2009 at 11:17 am

Candy said:

Maybe Joy Behar could say something again so they can shift their hysterics.

# 15 March 2009 at 5:25 am

Angela said:

Very pertinent, rational and thought-provoking post on the topic. Thank you from homeschoolers everywhere (or at least this one!)

Angela

# 16 March 2009 at 4:56 am

Principled Discovery » What if the NC judge’s ruling against homeschooling is the best possible? said:

[...] me about the attention this case is receiving. On the one hand, I think I agree with Tammy of Just Enough and Nothing More. Like all rulings, editorials and politician’s comments, these stories race through [...]

# 19 March 2009 at 8:43 pm

PeregrinJoe said:

Thanks for being a voice of reason and common sense. My wife and I home school our three sons and have been regularly amazed at how many home school parents push the panic button on stuff like this.

I appreciate you keeping your finger off the button and encouraging us all to take a step back and look at this objectively and rationally. You know, like we are supposed to be teaching our kids to do.

PeregrinJoe’s last blog post: Those AIG Monsters

# 20 March 2009 at 4:36 am