HSLDA | Social Worker Union Cites Homeschooling as Contributing to Child Abuse at Congressional Hearing

Its good to know HSLDA is monitoring these things. Its enough to make me want to send in my one hundred bucks one of these days. This article is about a hearing regarding the adoptive family in New Jersey whose adoptees were recently found starved and emaciated:

"On Thursday, November 6, 2003, the Human Resources Subcommittee of the United States House of Representatives' Ways and Means Committee, held a hearing to examine 'a recent failure to protect child safety'.
[.....]
Prior to this hearing, HSLDA contacted the Chairman of the Committee, Rep. Wally Herger of California, to inform him that the family at issue was reported to be a homeschooling family, that certain legislators in New Jersey had cited this case as highlighting a need to pursue new regulations on homeschooling (see http://www.hslda.org/elert/archive/2003/10/20031029171258.asp), and why this call for new regulations was in error. Our efforts were not in vain."

You go, HSLDA! Wally Herger is MY congressman and I'm glad he's getting YOUR information. God bless you in all your efforts to protect homeschool freedoms!

You'll have to click on the link at the top of this post to read the entire article, but I want to point out this part of it:

"It has long been held that the government's legitimate constitutional interest in education is literacy and self-sufficiency, not to detect child abuse. Wisconsin v. Yoder 406 U.S. 205 (1972). Moreover, it has been long understood that the government may not require all students to be required to be a part of the public school system, as children are not "mere creatures of the state". Pierce v. Society of Sisters 268 U.S. 510 (1925). Even though some parents might abuse children, it is still a presumption in America that parents act in the best interests of children. Parham v. J.R., 442 U.S. 584 (1979)."

Please take note - these are US Supreme Court cases... the best kind to cite. They take precedence over all state and appellate level cases.

If you're a homeschooler, if you care about your freedom to continue homeschooling, I advise that you get informed, and stay informed regarding cases like these. You can look them up at http://www.findlaw.com. Don't delay - the family you save may be your own.

More from the HSLDA article:

"...there is a growing trend to link homeschooling with child abuse. This trend poses a significant threat to homeschool freedom. Should it be accepted, it will pave the way for significant homeschool regulations."

BE AWARE - and BE ALERT... these trends do catch on if left unchallenged. The entire theory is that homeschool children could be more likely to be abused, and it completely ignores the facts about abuse of children in the school systems. And I do mean, IN school... not just of children who are sent to school but abused at home.

I once saw an experiment in a film in my psychology class - it showed that if you put enough rats in a closed space, they start going crazy and attacking each other just because they're overcrowded. I believe this is what goes on in public school. Yes, kids need friends - but how many do they really need at one time? I think my experience is typical. I have dozens of acquaintances but only one or two really close friends. Likewise children do not need to be forced into 'social situations' where there's dozens or hundreds or thousands of other children. It is neither healthy or safe.

Now a word about the job of social workers:

Child welfare social workers, or caseworkers as I like to call them, are not interested in abuse that happens on a school campus. Their only interest is in finding children who are being abused or neglected at home by their parents.

The reason is in the funding streams. There's no money in taking a child out of a school. The money goes to child welfare agencies only when children are removed from a home and placed in foster care. That's it. That's their focus. So they won't be out talking about the truth about children abused in their schools. They're too busy sticking their noses into family business looking for abuse whether its really happening or not. That's their job. That's what our dear government decided to pay them to do.

Awk... I am disgusted... but I am only one citizen, one simple voice. I beg whoever reads this to take note and do whatever you can to let your congresspeople know how inappropriate this situation is.

God bless you, one and all. Have a wonderful homeschooling day!

  ¶ 12:21 PM