An INSANE situation up in Waltham, Massachusetts

Conservative Alerts.Com ^ | Chuck Muth

[coloradan]

Bookmark bump to make some phone calls ...

[jgrubbs]

Previous Thread

[rs79bm]

I would mostly agree with this. I guess at some point, if the parents so desire, they would take some sort of standarized test to assess where their kids are in relation to other kids of their age. But, nobody should be able to force them to do it, if they don't want to.

[Sarah]

I've had it with these nut cases.
Do you know that society has an interest in everyone vacinating their children? Can you handle that?
Also education. Is that too oppressive? Just take the standardized tests and shut up!
But no, people want to thumb their noses at society, the society that provides safety and decent neighbors, and police and fire departments, and then all of FR has to mail endless petitions for someone to have the luxury of living in the US and flaunting the few obligations put on a parent, by the state, for his child.
(Home schooling, yes, answering to no one, no.)

[ElkGroveDan]

It takes a village, eh Sarah?

[Arkinsaw]

They should really consider getting the heck out of Massachussetts at some point. Its no place for a free person to live.

[dark_lord]

Interesting situation. One the one hand, we don't want "the state" especially as represented by social workers to decide to just take custody of kids because they don't like the fact that the parents haven't had their kids take a standardized test. On the other hand, we don't want some nut cases deciding that home schooling means they can keep their kids pig ignorant so that all they are fit for when they are adults is welfare and crime.

While I am in no way sympathetic with the state, most home schoolers are happy to take standardized test because they consistently show how much better educated they are than the publicly schooled kids. And face facts -- if you want to get into college after home schooling (well, the vast majority of colleges especially if you want to pursue a real degree) you are going to have to take standardized tests to get in.

To take the position that homeschoolers are exempt from standardized testing (which is the least intrusive way for a state to determine that, yes, the kids are actually being educated instead of watching the cartoon channel all day) is like saying "heck, I'm a good driver, I don't need no stinkin' license, so I ain't gonna get one!" Well, yeah, maybe you are a good driver, and maybe you aren't, but if you are going to be on the roads with the rest of us we would like more than just your word on it!

[Freedom4US]

This isn't about education. It's about control.

Not quite. It's about control of education, and as you correctly note, the minds of children. The fascists are getting anxious, since these matters have to be decided one way or another for society as a whole soon. The educrat statists know the jig is up.

[grania]

Seeing as private school students do not have to take these tests in Massachusetts, it is beyond bizarre that this can happen. The parents should maybe connect with a private school and do the homestudy through them. Or, maybe a clever lawyer could get the parents defined as a private school.

I think there might be something in the home-school laws that gives the schools some rights to test the students and some obligations to let those students be involved in activities and maybe some courses. The testing goes both ways. There have been school systems that have been seriously embarrassed when home schooled students get the best grades on Iowas.

[unixfox]

Let the lines be drawn. Thsoe who step across deserve what is coming to them.

[Sarah]

A village of completely self absorbed people trying to prove some idiotic point, ignoring all the good they receive from others, to ruin a society, yes.

[secretagent]

The government has no business assuming that the parents won't educate their children, therefore has no need for a "least intrusive" test.

If we don't assume basic good will and competency of most citizens, we assume a nation fit only for rule by an elite.

[Centurion2000]

Just take the standardized tests and shut up!

And they let you vote ....

It's not about the tests anymore .... it's about the freedom to live your life away from a government intervention. I'm sure those kids can ace the tests.

The Amish don't go to public school and take stupid government tests; why can Mass. just leave them alone ?

Come to think of it, if I were these people I'd get the hell out of dodge.

[secretagent]

The educrat statists know the jig is up.

Hardly. They have just started to raise one eyelid just one millimeter.

Watch out if they even begin to feel threatened.

[servantoftheservant]

Society this, society that....you might be a...SOCIALIST!
Do you know that what makes America great and unique is the concept of INDIVIDUAL freedoms and rights?

[ElkGroveDan]

Yes, so much good flows from the arms of government. Those ingrates have no appreciation of all the positive ways that bureaucrats can come into your home and make your lives better.

[webber]

The standaradized test that the Ultra-left school board would require the kids to take would cause them to flunk the test and thus showing in writing that the parents are unfit to teach their kids. The Ultra Liberal Public school system will pack their tests with PC questions, which of course home schooled children would answer "Incorrectly" in the view of the "Pubic Skoo Sistum".

[kimoajax]

My wife and I home schooled both our daughters. We faced this same question and so we understand the reasons or fears behind home school parents not wanting their kids to take such standardized government tests (getting on a government list of some sort to later to be used for who know what purpose).

That said, it would be better for the kids if their parents side stepped the issue and had them independently tested/certified (what thousands of other homeshoolers do every year)....and live to fight another day on larger questions. Just because the government sees fit to use kids as political fodder, it does not mean parents should.

[kimoajax]

Any good home school parent should teach their kids how to lie on such tests. Tests are not given under penalty of purjury. In the end, what is the higher value? Being right or effective?