CBS Homeschooling Segments: Your calls are having an effect!

email ^ | J. Michael Smith

[hsmomx3]

From the HSLDA E-lert Service...

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October 15, 2003

Dear HSLDA Members and friends:

Your calls are having an effect! Due to the overwhelming response from homeschoolers we have included additional contact information for CBS Evening News.

Please continue to express your opposition to the biased reporting and smear campaign against homeschooling.

To view the second part of the series click here - http://www.hslda.org/elink.asp?ID=1140

Highlight the fact that the families in question were already known to social services and homeschooling was not the cause of the tragedies.

Viacom (parent company of CBS)

P - 212-258-6000

CBS Evening News

Comment Lines:

P - (212) 975-3247

P - (212) 975 7825

CBS Evening News with Dan Rather

524 West 57th St.

New York, NY 10019

Email: evening@cbsnews.com

Sincerely,

J. Michael Smith

HSLDA President

[GovernmentShrinker]

Alas, THIS will not help a bit:

http://abcnews.go.com/wire/US/ap20031015_1232.html

SYRACUSE, N.Y. Oct. 15 — An 11-year-old girl apparently hanged herself in her bedroom after being raped by her father earlier in the day, police said.
Valerie Charlene Lucie was found dead on Sept. 30. Timothy Lucie, 46, was arraigned Tuesday on charges of rape and sodomy.

Lucie told police he raped the girl in the shower after threatening to cut her hair unless she did what she was told, authorities said.

"It's a case that leaves you numb," Sgt. Tom Connellan said.

Lucie recanted after meeting with his lawyer, Raymond Dague, who said Lucie gave the statement only after police told him he failed a lie detector test and threatened to take away his four other children.

The defense attorney said Lucie is wrongly accused.

The girl left no note, and her death has not officially been ruled a suicide. Medical examiners found no evidence of chronic sexual abuse, said District Attorney William Fitzpatrick.

"Our evidence indicates this was just one incident, that there was an assault and then for whatever reason in this poor little girl's head, she felt it appropriate to end her life," Fitzpatrick told WTVH-TV.

Valerie and her four brothers were home-schooled by their parents.

If convicted, Lucie faces up to 25 years to life on each charge. He was jailed on $20,000 bail.

[Support Free Republic]

Thank you very much, thank you very much!
It isn't every day, good fortune comes me way
I never thought the future would be fun for me!
And if I had a bugle, I would blow it to add a sort
o' how's your father's touch.
But since I left me bugle at home, I simply have to say
Thank you very, very, very much! Thank you very, very, very much!

[jimkress]

Valerie and her four brothers were home-schooled by their parents.

Valerie and her four-brthoers also watched tv, drank coke, and went to the movies. What possible reason would home-schooling be mentioned, in the context of this horrific crime, if the intent was to do anything but demonize home schooling?

[netmilsmom]

Why are we writing to CBS?

[Shadowfax]

Goodness knows, children who are institutionalized in schools NEVER know the pain of abuse.

I just watched the CBS News video. It is an unapologetic hit piece. It doesn't even attempt to get across the truth - that these cases of abuse are rare, almost unheard of. And that abuse of schooled children is far more prevalent.

If rates of abuse were the criteria for how children should be schooled, all kids would learn at home. For every kid whose parents abuse them under the guise of homeschooling, there are hundreds of examples of teachers and parents of traditionally schooled children torturing and killing them.

And I would even argue that taking bright, intelligent, active kids and institutionalizing them in schools where their main occupation is sitting in desks being bored out of their skulls listening to adults talk at them about things that they couldn't care the least about is, in and of itself, abusive.

[mountaineer]

taking bright, intelligent, active kids and institutionalizing them in schools where their main occupation is sitting in desks being bored out of their skulls listening to adults talk at them about things that they couldn't care the least about is, in and of itself, abusive.

Amen. I wish the morons at CBS could meet my home-schooled nieces, both bright, happy, imaginative, well-behaved and loving little girls. I shudder to think what would happen to them in the lousy public schools of the district in which they live.

[GovernmentShrinker]

To be fair, whenever something like this happens to a child who does attend school, the news coverage usually mentions what school the child attended.

[OrangeDaisy]

This is not meant to flame. I have honest misgivings about home schooling and would like someone to give me some facts that might make me see the light.

I teach a Sunday School class of 5th & 6th graders, and I haven't had good experiences with home schooled children. One child is several years behind compared to the others in the class. Her mother seems almost illiterate, but the state (or something) allows her to continue homeschooling her child. Several other home schooled children I have encountered over the years had difficulty interacting with the other students in their Sunday School class. I have never encountered a home schooled child that seem didn't seem to isolate themselves from other children. I admit they were very intelligent but were also very arrogant about their intelligence. Are these home schooled children be able to cope when they enter the real world?

[hsmomx3]

I just called CBS and left my comments with a woman who did not come across as being too happy. The line was busy for several minutes (1 212-975-3247). I had asked them to do a comparison of homeschoolers vs. public schoolers when it comes to parental involvement, ritalin, testing, etc.

[hsmomx3]

Unfortunately, I rarely see the name of a school mentioned. Maybe it depends on whose doing the reporting.

[hsmomx3]

Sorry to hear about this because I haven't seen this. You will probably be directed to several articles by FReepers but you could also go to http://www.hslda.org and read their articles.

[jimkress]

Got any examples? The press in Michigan doesn't do that.

[skyman]

We homeschooled all 3 of our kids. 1 is now graduated from a major university and the other 2 have 2 year degrees and are now attending universities.

Neither my wife or I graduated from college, although we did attend. None of our kids are exceptionally smart, but they all know how to work hard, have respect for others and unlike most public school kids were never dependant on their peers.

Studies prove that home schoolers on average are better adapted, do better in college and are more mature than public school kids.

Sky

[Lady Heron]

I teach a Sunday School class of 5th & 6th graders, and I haven't had good experiences with home schooled children.

In my son's Sunday school class he and the other homeschooled girl in his class of about 23 public schooled kids are the only ones that get called on to read because the others can't. This is still happening now that they are in the 8th grade. Very sad.

[Lady Heron]

I have never encountered a home schooled child that seem didn't seem to isolate themselves from other children. I admit they were very intelligent but were also very arrogant about their intelligence. Are these home schooled children be able to cope when they enter the real world?

My oldest 2 homeschooled kids wanted nothing to do with the Church's youth group when in high school. They are very much able to cope with the real world (the more mature adult world), they just wanted nothing to do with the imature teen scene.

They spent their teen years trying to be as successful as they could in their respective intrests. Both have well thought of reputations in the adult world and have acheived things that many adults are striving for in their carriers. This before they even start a carrier.

Sometimes it is hard to get past what is considered normal for a child and see where they are going with their education. The real world is not what is experienced in schools wierd social structures, that is just how we have become use to our kids acting.

[N3WBI3]

This has not been my experience with home schooled children, at my old church in NY the pastor and his wife homeschooled their five girls and they were exceptionally polite, kind, and outgoing kids.

Parents who homeschool often have their kids engage in programs like the Boy/Girl Scouts (thought I would not let my daughter attend Girl Scouts as it is run by NOW), sports, church activities, and the like so that the kids do socialize with other kids.

My wife (to be) and I are going to try and have kids right after we get married (less than 2 months). She wants to homeschool them until they are old enough for high-school, we both want them to have homecoming games, the prom and all that fun stuff but we also want them not to be indoctrinated eight hours a day by the government while they are very young..

[Onelifetogive]

This before they even start a carrier.

I suspect that when they do start their "carriers", the will be very effective at projecting their power.

[dawn53]

I called CBS, said if they want to do a story about home schooling failures, then they should at least have the decency to prove they're unbiased (LOL) and do a story on homeschooling successes.

[keithtoo]

We have 5-6 home schooling families in our church, plus several other families that have home-schooled at some point in their childrens education. I see virtually no difference between these kids and any others. If anything, they seem more secure and mature than most others.

It is possible for undisciplined parents to under educate their kids in a home school environment, but guess what? Kids who attend public schools can be woefully under educated as well.

The bottom line is that kids are the responsibility first and foremost of their own parents, and not the government.