Exposing the Trojan Horse

Exodus Mandate

Homeschooling Goals

I am reposting this from Lori’s blog:

I snatched this from the Heart of Wisdom blog. The article was “Do We Shelve the Academic Requirements”

We want them to learn:

Science—All about God’s Creation
Math—About God’s order
History—About His-Story, His plan for the world and the redemption of His people
Government—How God has established human government for specific purposes
Language Arts—How to tell others about God’s truth (both writing and speaking)
Literature—To read of how He has affected other lives
Economics—To understand stewardship, God’s rules about money
Arts—To appreciate God’s gifts of music, drama, dance, and art, as forms of worship to Him
Health—To learn of God’s plan for nutrition and health

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There really is no better goals for educating our children.

Why is it Crucial to Protect Our Rights As Parents?

When we start setting up restrictions on parental rights, we set ourselves up for a dangerous end result.  Read the article below to see what could happen if we continue to allow the government to trample our freedom as parents and to remove our God-given rights to educate our own children!

German home schooling family seeks asylum in U.S.

Pete Chagnon – OneNewsNow – 11/25/2008 4:15:00 AM

A home school advocate is helping a German family who is seeking asylum in the United States.

Mike Donnelly is a staff attorney with the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) and says home schoolers in Germany are under great persecution. He also notes many German families home school in secret, but if they get caught, they can face fines in the thousands of dollars, lose their personal property, get thrown in jail, or even have their children taken from them.

One family, according to Donnelly, has suffered so much persecution that the HSLDA is now helping them seek asylum in the United States. The Romeike family was faced with thousands of dollars in fines and the potential loss of their five children if they did not comply with the demands of German social workers who wanted to put their children in government-run schools.

“And so they were able to get here to the United States,” he explains. “They relocated to East Tennessee where they have been warmly welcomed by home schoolers in that area, and they are just so happy to not have to be looking over their shoulders wondering when the social workers were going to come and try to take their children or when they were going to get another letter in the mail saying they were going to have to pay another couple thousand Euros or dollars to the German government for home schooling.”

Other German home school families have followed suit, and Donnelly says they have hired an immigration attorney as they seek political asylum. He is hopeful that asylum will be granted in these cases.

What Can We Expect under an Obama Administration?

Dear HSLDA Members and Friends of Homeschooling:

Since the election of Barack Obama as U.S. president, HSLDA has received more than a few calls from both members and nonmembers. Some are quite concerned about the future of homeschooling under an Obama presidency.

First of all, let us always remember that “God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:7). He also instructs us to be wise, plan, and be prepared in everything we do.

Despite HSLDA’s efforts prior to the election to get an official statement from the Obama campaign regarding their position on homeschooling, we received no response.

So where does that leave us?

We do know that the Democratic Party has an official position of supporting public education. The National Education Association (NEA), which is the national teachers union, is a major supporter of the Democratic Party. We know that the NEA’s position is that every child should be either taught by a certified teacher or supervised by one. Additionally, their position is that the curriculum used by all homeschoolers should be approved by the state, and children should only be able to continue to be homeschooled based upon systematic evaluation by the state.

It is important to remember that under the United States Constitution, the federal government has no authority over private and home education. This is not to say that they will not attempt to exercise authority in these areas. And whenever private educators accept grants and benefits, there are conditions to receiving those benefits, including being subject to regulation.

Just because the federal government has no constitutional authority over home education, however, doesn’t mean that federal bureaucrats or legislators might not attempt to impose some form of regulation over private and home education. We saw this back in 1994, when the reauthorization of the Secondary and Elementary Act (H.R. 6) contained an amendment which would have conditioned funding to the states for public education to require that all teachers be certified in every subject area they teach. The homeschool community rose up; over a million phone calls were made to the U.S. Congress, and the amendment was defeated. During that process, Representative Dick Armey from Texas introduced an amendment which stated that the federal government and Congress have no authority over private and home education. This protective language was passed by the House of Representatives.

With your help and the help of homeschoolers all across America, we will vigorously resist any effort on the part of the federal government to regulate home education. Obviously, this will take resources—which come from our membership—and we would encourage our current members to continue standing with us, and encourage others to join us.

An immediate concern to watch is the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Although we do not know what Barack Obama’s specific position on the treaty is, we know that future Vice President Joe Biden has publicly indicated that this UN Convention should be ratified by the United States.

It does appear that we will soon have the challenge of keeping the UN Convention from being ratified by the U.S. Senate, ratification requiring a two-thirds majority to pass.

Should the UN Convention be ratified, it would impose the United Nation’s view of children’s rights on America. Under the U.S. Constitution, treaties become the Supreme Law of the land, taking precedent over state laws and state supreme court decisions.

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child is not in the best interest of parents or children, as it would undermine the parental authority that our laws currently recognize. For further information on the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child visit ParentalRights.org.

To summarize, homeschoolers should not live in fear, but we do need to be wise, and we will need to be vigilant to protect parental rights and homeschooling freedoms in the future. We stand prepared, with your help, to do that as we’ve done for 25 years.

Michael Smith
HSLDA President

The HSLDA E-lert Service is a service of:

Home School Legal Defense Association • P.O. Box 3000 • Purcellville, Virginia 20134-9000
Phone: (540) 338-5600 • Fax: (540) 338-2733 • Email: info@hslda.org
Web: http://www.hslda.org

© 2008 HSLDA. All rights reserved.

You can only do so much…No one can be everywhere at once. And you can’t be at home, teaching your children, while monitoring your state’s legislature. Through electronic legislative services, HSLDA is monitoring state legislation for you—watching and listening carefully for any proposed laws that could erode your right to homeschool.

Join HSLDA today—we’ll watch out for your future. We also provide 24/7 legal assistance and some great money-saving benefits!

More reasons to join HSLDA…

Social Worker: “All Homeschoolers Get Psychological Evaluations”

This is absolutely outrageous.  You can find the article here, at the official HSLDA website.

Florida

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November 6, 2008

The Smiths (named changed to protect privacy), an HSLDA member family in Miami, received an unexpected note on their front door from a social worker asking them to call the number on an attached business card. Little did they know, this was the beginning a nightmare they would not soon forget.

The father, a doctor, telephoned as requested. The social worker to whom he spoke asked to meet the family. Dr. Smith requested that the meeting be at a neutral site at a time that would minimize interruptions in his busy work schedule at a medical clinic. The social worker refused, and declared she would arrive at the Smith home the next morning to “enter the home and interview the children.”

Dr. Smith then asked what the allegations were. The social worker refused to answer, but indicated she knew the family homeschooled. Sure enough, when the social worker showed up at the Smiths’ doorstep the next morning, she again refused to explain what the allegations against the family were. This clearly violated federal law, which states that social workers must reveal allegations at the initial time of contact.

The social worker also did not have a search warrant, so Mrs. Smith initially refused to let her enter the family home. This prompted the social worker to call for two police officers.

With this intimidation, Mrs. Smith allowed the social worker to start talking to the children on the front porch. During the first interview, the social worker went so far as to lift up the shirt of the Smiths’ 9-year-old daughter, which greatly embarrassed the girl. Later, the family learned that the allegations had nothing to do with their 9-year-old.

At this point, Mrs. Smith called HSLDA, desperate for help.

Senior Counsel Chris Klicka took the call and asked that the phone be handed to the social worker. The social worker refused to talk with Klicka, so Klicka told Mrs. Smith to put him on speaker phone. Klicka then explained to the social worker how she was violating federal law by refusing to tell the family the allegations against them. Skeptical, the social worker went to her car to call her supervisor and ask if she really had to tell the family the allegations. At least she was out of the house.

Of course, Klicka was right, and the social worker grudgingly went back to the house to explain to Mrs. Smith that the allegation was from an anonymous tip concerning a situation from eight months earlier!

Soon after this, Dr. Smith arrived home, and both parents explained to the social worker that the allegations were mostly false. At the advice of Klicka, the Smiths gave the social worker names and phone numbers of their daughter’s medical doctors who have been treating her for depression. They explained to the social worker that the daughter’s fragile condition was being treated regularly in therapy. They explained that the traumatizing visit from the social worker would make their daughter’s condition that much worse.

Klicka then explained to the social worker that the family would be standing on their Fourth Amendment right to not allow the social worker to enter their home or talk with the children individually. While the police officer agreed to an interview with the children in the parents’ presence in the family’s driveway, the social worker refused. The social worker treated the situation like an emergency, even when she knew the situation was eight months old and the daughter was under medical care.

To make matters worse, the social worker had one of the police officers move toward Dr. Smith, and she told the officer to handcuff him so she could remove his children from the home.

After being threatened to this extreme, the family felt they had no choice but to let the social worker into their home to interview the children, who were now crying and wailing. During the interview, the social worker would not let the witness the family provided be present. She also proceeded to lift the shirts and clothing of each child, even those whom the allegations did not concern.

The social worker found nothing—but said still she wanted the family to “undergo a formal psycho-social assessment.”

When the Smiths asked “Why?” the social worker replied, “This is done in all investigations with homeschooled children!”

Needless to say, the Smiths declined the assessments, and relied on HSLDA to take care of the rest.

Klicka sent the social worker a letter outlining all the ways in which she had broken the law:

1. By entering the home and interviewing the children through intimidation;
2. By not letting them know the allegations at the initial visit; and
3. By interviewing children whom the allegations did not concern.

Klicka explained that the case should be closed immediately, as there was no evidence against the family. He also explained that the daughter’s issues with depression were being handled adequately by medical experts and psychologists familiar with the situation.

The family has not been hassled by this social worker since, and the case is closed. HSLDA is considering a civil rights suit.

HSLDA Social Services Contact Policy

We desire to advise our members in every contact with a social worker and/or police officer in investigations resulting from allegations of abuse or neglect. If homeschooling is an issue, we will represent our member families until the issue is resolved. On Fourth Amendment unreasonable search and seizure issues, HSLDA will advise our members whenever the privacy of their home is violated by forced or coerced entry for the purpose of an unsubstantiated investigation. HSLDA membership benefits do not extend to court actions resulting from non-homeschooling matters. However, in circumstances where there is a clear violation of the Fourth Amendment, HSLDA may, as we have done in the past, choose to take the case in an effort to establish legal precedent.