Wednesday, September 02, 2009

New Hampshire court orders girl to go to public school

A court in New Hampshire has decreed that homeschooling doesn’t provide adequate socialization for a 10 year old girl and has ordered her mom to send her to public school.

The girl's parents, Brenda Voydatch and Martin Kurowski, divorced shortly after her birth in 1999. According to court documents, Kurowski wants his daughter to attend public schools because he believes home-schooling deprives her of socialization skills. A guardian ad litem, essentially a fact finder for the court, agreed, and that recommendation was approved by Judge Lucinda Sadler.

"[E]ducation is by its nature an exploration and examination of new things," the court order read. "[A] child requires academic, social, cultural, and physical interaction with a variety of experiences, people, concepts, and surroundings in order to grow to an adult who can make intelligent decisions about how to achieve a productive and satisfying life."

So the court has decided that homeschooling is inherently bad and is overriding the dictates of one parent, the one who has custody of this child, in favor of the other parent. Look around America, a land full of adults who are the product of a public education and tell me we have a nation of people who “can make intelligent decisions about how to achieve a productive and satisfying life.” The current administration shows that to be a fantasy.

This girl lives in Meredith, New Hampshire a town in the middle of nowhere in New Hampshire with a population under 6000 that is 98% white. How much of a variety is she going to get in a public school? Ultmiately the question here comes down to who is best qualified to decide what is the right upbringing for children, parents or the state. This case is a little more complicated because the parents are divorced, but if her dad who doesn’t have custody wants her to be more “socialized” then he should take time out of his schedule to make she sure is involved in activities that will accomplish that goal after school.

From Alliance Defense Fund attorney John Anthony Simmons:

But Simmons says the court has effectively taken away Voydatch's right, as the girl's primary-custody parent, to make decisions regarding her future, despite the fact that she enrolled the girl in three public school courses to assuage concerns of her former husband.

"It is not the proper role of the court to insist that [the girl] be 'exposed to different points of view' if the primary residential parent has determined that it is in Amanda's best interest not to be exposed to secular influences that would undermine [the girl's] faith, schooling, social development, etc.," Simmons wrote in court documents.

He says the court erred by agreeing with the guardian ad litem's assessment that the girl was found to "lack some youthful characteristics," in part because she "appeared to reflect her mother's rigidity on question of faith," according to court documents.

"The line that the court crossed here is saying that you're too sincere in your religious beliefs," Simmons said. "That's the concern here."


Pay attention here. These incidents are isolated now, but they seem to be increasing in number. What is next, an annual review by an officer of the court of who our kids hang out with, what games they play, how much time they spend in church, where they go on vacation to determine if parents are providing an adequate socialization and exposure to ideas and beliefs? Why even let parents raise their kids at all, why risk it? Just grab them at birth and send them to government facilities to be raised. Make no mistake. Children are seen as a key commodity for a number of leftist groups that have decided that the way to change our culture is to get our kids earlier and keep them longer. Our children are not precious to them because they are children but because they are chips in the culture war. If you can’t win the argument on its merit, change the rules by influencing children and keeping them away from their parents. A parent’s greatest responsibility is to raise, educate and care for their kids and you can’t accomplish that by letting the state dictate to you how to raise your own children. I barely trust the government to deliver the mail, I certainly don’t trust the government to raise my kids.



Bookmark and Share

1 comment:

Steve said...

Ironic, isn't it, that New Hampshire's state motto is "Live Free or Die!"