Supposedly the Buffalo city council was to meet today to “address” the case of a homeschooling mother who was arrested, and her two small children taken away from her, for alleged “educational neglect”–even though she jumped through all the hoops required by law before you’re allowed to homeschool in Buffalo.
All we’ve learned today is that one of the councilmen called the situation “unacceptable” and added that the children ought to be returned to their mother right away ( http://www.wkbw.com/news/wingo-calls-homeschooling-arrest-unacceptable ).
This mess was easily avoidable. Someone at City Hall forgot to pass on the homeschooling papers to the Board of Education; and so school officials, responding to the children’s’ unexplained absence from school, called in Child Protective Services.
No one bothered to discover the facts of the case before acting on it. A few minutes on the phone with the right person at City Hall, and the whole thing would have been straightened out right then and there. But no! Grab the kids and put ’em in foster care!
This illustrates a general principle of modern life: the more power you give to government at any level, the more you’ll regret it.
Somebody needs to be fired for this, and the city ought to compensate the family for its trouble.
And in the long run, public education must be abolished. It has long outlived its usefulness.
I would be shocked if anyone were fired, although I agree they should be. The power hungry authorities make it nearly impossible. They’ve insulated themselves with union jobs – especially civil service union jobs.
I agree completely that public education has outlived its usefulness. Educators anguish about reaching children that don’t do well in school, but they never ask themselves if locking children in a school 6+ hours is the best approach. I submit that it is not, especially for the more intelligent and creative students.
To say nothing of the folly of making a child’s age-group peers the most important persons in his life…
I hadn’t thought of that, but you’re completely right. Before school, I barely knew anyone outside my family, plus a few people from church. When I started school there was a culture shock, being suddenly exposed to all of those people that held far different values from those of my family.
The greatest memory I have of school is of wasted time. I was there to learn, but there were kids constantly interrupting and causing distraction. I’m not against a bit of playfulness, but an awful lot of time was spent listening to rude armpit noises and other cultural “treasures”.
In the end, in line with your earlier stated opinions, conformity ruled supreme. The most conformist kids tended to do the best.
I’m all for true education. Reading is vital for almost any endeavor. Solid math skills a also vital, but from what I encounter in my everyday business, there are a lot of people out there that can barely count change, not to mention use math to analyze their finances.
Evidently this problem isn’t confined to Buffalo, but appears to be statewide: .
http://thefreethoughtproject.com/homeschool-education-cps-reporting/
Hopefully homeschooling parents in other states are paying attention.
How about that! Another bureaucratic cockup that really hurt innocent people!
The more power we give government at any level, the more we regret it.
“The more power we give government at any level, the more we regret it.”
Amen! Somewhere after 9/11, the motto no longer included to serve and protect.
When they say “serve” nowadays, they mean it like in that classic Twilight Zone episode: “To Serve Man” as lunch, supper, or a midnight snack.
Lol! I remember that episode, Lee 🙂
Me too.