From: lmollett@lunatix.uucp (Laura Mollett)
Subject: Re: What to Teach Your Children (Was Re:  Homophobia )( Was Re: Homeschooling (spp's response to multiple) posts)
Organization: Lexington Public Access Unix. -KY- (606) 255-9121
Date: Sun, 10 Jan 1993 16:19:33 GMT

In article <1indm0INNg6s@transfer.stratus.com> lmann@vineland.pubs.stratus.com writes:
>
>>Laura Mollett writes:
>>I dislike too much government interference in
>>the private sector.  I think the government is running way out of line in
>>the name of protecting the most innocent of our society - our children...to
>>the point where I sometimes wonder if I'm going to be allowed to raise my
>>children within my own beliefs.  Protecting children is a very
>>emotion-charged issue, but I worry that allowing the government to interfere
>>(even in cases where it is necessary) leads some to believe that the 
>>government has the _right_ to tell parents what to teach their children, what
>>to believe, etc.  It could easily get out of hand (imo). 
>
>Where has the government been running "way out of line?"  If anything,
>I think the government has often let vocal minorities get away with
>murder in terms of public education.  We have an increasingly
>mediocre public school system, and I'd put the blame on middle
>management bloat, crime in the cities, and much of the textbook
>industry paying too much attention to the religious and PC fanatics.
>
>There are many biology "textbooks" that don't cover either sex ed or
>evolution. 
>
>There are many history textbooks who try so hard to not offend anyone
>that historical facts (as opposed to conjecture) are completely
>ignored.

I wasn't refering to the public education system, which I dislike and
spend a lot of my time arguing with/to/and about on behalf of my 2 children
who are there (and the one who is yet to be there).  Actually, I would 
probably attempt to homeschool my own (as others here wish to do) and
considered it, however I _am_ a liberal, and honestly believe all children
should have the same right to a good education.  I attempt to change the
system, wherever my voice has any weight, and feel that change should
really come from within the system...thus I don't choose to remove my
children from it.

I was thinking more of what the government is legislating in order to 
protect children from the abuse and neglect of their parents in their own
homes.  Yes, most people have a desire to see all children have a happy
and unmolested life, but sometimes the responses of the government seem
extreme to me.  For example, due to the recent case in KY where a child
was removed from school by his step-mother-to-be and murdered, KY. has
new laws regarding when and how children can be taken out of school.  I 
cannot remove my children from their school in the middle of a school day
without a doctor's excuse - despite the fact that they _are_ my children
and I have legal custody of them.  In response to the recent case where
the couple left their children alone for 2 weeks and went on vacation, there
has been much discussion of what constitutes neglect, and it appears (tho I
could be mistaken on this.  I think I understood it properly) that leaving
a child under 9 alone for _any_ period of time constitutes neglect in
this state.  In response to cases where religious groups refused to give
children medical treatment (and they died), the state now mandates many
kinds of medical treatment for children.  In response to the kinds of cases
where a woman neglected her children (and one of them drowned), what kind
of food you have in the refrigerator and how clean your hourse is constitutes
grounds for cases of neglect.  I have heard of a case where a woman disliked
her neighbors and wished to do them some harm, so she called the child
welfare board.  The board almost immediately removes children if there is
any suspicion of neglect, or abuse.  They search houses (without warrents,
btw) and take the kids, and it can be very difficult to prove that one is
_not_ neglecting them and take them back. 
			Laura Mollett
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books