Is this homeschooling's Roe V. Wade?
The real hallmark of Roe v. Wade is that in one decision, the Supreme Court (made up of unelected, serving for life, unaccountable judges) created whole cloth a new "right" to have an abortion. Never mind that even the most convoluted and tortured of logic is inadequate to explain where this right magically appears from the Constitution. In one fell swoop, the judiciary created a right, and made that right the law of the land. The big problem is that the judiciary is supposed to determine if laws passed by legislatures and signed by the executives meet Constitutional muster. Are these laws constitutional. In Roe v. Wade, the pattern is reversed and the court created a law, and in doing so essentially prevents the legislature from passing a law reversing their decision because any such law would automatically be considered unconstituional.
We have a similar situation developing in California, where a state Appellate Court has decreed that parents without teaching certificates are disqualified to teach their own children.
A California appeals court ruling clamping down on homeschooling by parents without teaching credentials sent shock waves across the state this week, leaving an estimated 166,000 children as possible truants and their parents at risk of prosecution.
It is a stunning move but one that should have been obviously inevitable for some time. The intrusion of the state into the affairs of families has been getting more and more egregious, and the wedge being driven between children and parents by the state is becoming more pronounced and bold. The issue at hand, as far as I can tell, is the question of whether or not parents are inherently unqualified to teach their own children. What makes one "qualified" is a certificate apparently. By having the job title "teacher", one becomes more qualified than the parents to care for and raise up children.
What makes these teacher's so much more qualified to teach our children? The ability to draw up a lesson plan? Training to control a class full of 30 kids? Being a subject matter expert on the topic they teach? Please! Show me an average public school teacher and I will show you someone who has a rudimentary knowledge of the subject they teach. That may seem unduly harsh and it may seem like a broad brush, and certainly anyone can come up with examples of teachers who are really conversant in their topic (like my sister who teaches biology and physiology), but for the most part teachers have education degrees and the focus is on education methodology, not on the subject that they teach. (That may have changed since I was in college).
Needless to say, the teacher's union is giddy about the ruling:
The ruling was applauded by a director for the state's largest teachers union.
"We're happy," said Lloyd Porter, who is on the California Teachers Association board of directors. "We always think students should be taught by credentialed teachers, no matter what the setting."
No shock here, as the teacher's unions all assume that a) parents are incompetent to teach their own children and b) as a union they have a direct interest is forcing as many kids into the system as possible to boost the number of teachers, and therefore the number of dues paying teachers. I get that, they are an advocacy group and their constituents are teachers, but let's not pretend that this is about the children. It is about $, and that is it.
Ostensibly this ruling came about because the family in question was allegedly doing a poor job of educating their children. Oddly enough, when parents are accused of doing a poor job of educating kids, the state decides to force the kids back into the school system and the teacher's union applauds. When teachers in public schools do a poor job educating whole classrooms full of kids, the teacher's union defends them to the death and the state acquiesces quietly.
We have a perfect storm of liberal judicial activism and nanny statism combined with the iron-mailed fist of the "education" lobby. The Left in America is following the lead of the Left in Europe, and seeking to replace parents with the state. The elite in government and bureaucracy is suspicious of and almost overtly hostile to the parent-child relationship. Parents are viewed as less capable than the state in raising up useful and pliable citizens. The adversarial role of parents and the state leaves children in the middle, being told one thing on Sunday morning and Wednesday night, and something completely opposite and contradictory in school during the week. No wonder are kids are confused.
One of the biggest culprits in this problem is not the teachers, not the teachers union, not the judges. They are just doing what Godless, secular institutions should be expected to do. The big culprit has a different mission and should know better. It is the church. The church ought to do everything it it's power to see that children are raised in a Christian learning environment. Money spent for overseas missionaries is great and vital, but every church that is able should devote some of it's resources, or pool it's resources with other local churches to provide a means for Christian education for those families who are unable to home school or how cannot afford existing Christian schools. That is an absolute necessity, and non-negotiable. Sunday school and AWANA for a couple of hours is great, but the big need in our children and youth is Christ-centered education and far too many parents are not providing that for their kids, and very few churches are doing anything to help.
Think letting Hillary or Obama be the next President because McCain isn't conservative enough is worth it? Wait until decision like this bubble up to the Supreme Court and ask yourself who you want choosing the justices that will hear these types of cases: judges selected by John McCain or judges selected by Hillary Clinton? That should be an easy choice.
(HT: Josh Gelatt)
(Dr. Albert Mohler will be discussing this issue on Monday's edition of the Albert Mohler Show, this show absolutely must be listened to)
2 comments:
I read this on Mohler's blog and was appalled. I definitely think you are right in that the church should be calling their members to such godly education. The church should be calling the government to be good government and not interfering in matters that God did not give them authority.
I pray the church is not silent on this issue but resounds with this call for justice. Truly sad...
The more I think about this, the more I point the finger of blame at ourselves and less at the courts. Why would we expect secular courts to do anything different? It is our fault as His people for abdicating the responsiblity for education our children and trying to live in peaceful co-existance with the world. Whenever we try to compromise with hthe world, we compromise the Gospel itself.
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