Luz Shosie and Ned Vare

Joyce notes:

> Interesting that you say that it was one superintendent that caused all
> this trouble but then blame the N.E.A.

Ned wonders:
Are you really trying to say that it's not the NEA that is working hard to
eliminate, or at least limit and harass homeschooing across the country?
Gee, if it weren't, then why are there so many restrictions on our practice?
What...Are we trying to limit our own freedom? No. Somebody is behind it.
Let's agree that it is the NEA and the other school employee unions, who are
trying to influence politicians (whose elections they help pay for) to do
it.

In the case in CT this past spring, yes, all it took was one superintendent.
We were told that he was backed by others, but he was the front man. My
point was how easy it was for such a person (a legal agent of the state
school system and therefore with easy access to the legislative process) to
have a law written, sponsored and presented for approval by a legislative
committee so that it could be recommended to the full legislature to be
turned into a LAW that would have virtually eliminated homeschooling from
this state. Homeschoolers in CT had only three working days warning !

Yes, the NEA is the force behind all the efforts to eliminate homeschooling
in America. The NEA, you can be sure, put that superintendent up to it, even
helped write his script for the hearing, and paid for lawyers to help write
the law. The NEA pays lobbyists in every state capitol and in DC especially,
and their goal is to fight against our rights to educate our own children.
To them, it's a business, and they're well organized and have truckloads of
money.

Are you suggesting that this is trivial? Are you suggesting that it is not
likely ever to happen or that it really can't have serious consequences for
unschoolers. In my own prepared short speech to that committee (which I
didn't get a chance to give) I was ready to tell the lawmakers that
everything my wife and I did in order to assure that our child was getting
educated would have been ILLEGAL under the law they were considering, and
our son would probably have been taken from our home and put in the "care"
of welfare and social workers at state-run foster homes, all because of our
unschooling. I would however, in my defense, have told them that our
family's total absence of schooling was the main reason why our son had the
tools to attend a fine college and achieve at the highest possible academic
levels for four straight years and graduate Magna Cum Laude.

Unschoolers are in the same war as all other homeschoolers. I don't think
that is Off Topic at all.

Now, back to whether Israel is a country....

Ned Vare

Tia Leschke

>Joyce notes:

It was me.


> > Interesting that you say that it was one superintendent that caused all
> > this trouble but then blame the N.E.A.
>
>Ned wonders:
>Are you really trying to say that it's not the NEA that is working hard to
>eliminate, or at least limit and harass homeschooing across the country?

The NEA is trying, but are they succeeding? Up here, the BCTF has tried,
but it hasn't done them any good.

>Gee, if it weren't, then why are there so many restrictions on our practice?

Actually, there are none here. And I think there are at least some states
where there also are none.

>What...Are we trying to limit our own freedom? No. Somebody is behind it.
>Let's agree that it is the NEA and the other school employee unions, who are
>trying to influence politicians (whose elections they help pay for) to do
>it.

I can agree that they're trying, in some places. It seems to me that in a
democracy, people have the right to try to influence legislation to suit
them. And other people have the right to oppose that legislation.


>In the case in CT this past spring, yes, all it took was one superintendent.
>We were told that he was backed by others, but he was the front man. My
>point was how easy it was for such a person (a legal agent of the state
>school system and therefore with easy access to the legislative process) to
>have a law written, sponsored and presented for approval by a legislative
>committee so that it could be recommended to the full legislature to be
>turned into a LAW that would have virtually eliminated homeschooling from
>this state. Homeschoolers in CT had only three working days warning !

But my point was that superintendents are *not* the NEA. At least they
don't belong to the union here in BC.


>Yes, the NEA is the force behind all the efforts to eliminate homeschooling
>in America. The NEA, you can be sure, put that superintendent up to it, even
>helped write his script for the hearing, and paid for lawyers to help write
>the law. The NEA pays lobbyists in every state capitol and in DC especially,
>and their goal is to fight against our rights to educate our own children.
>To them, it's a business, and they're well organized and have truckloads of
>money.

Amazing how unsuccessful they've been then. Really. The number of
homeschoolers is going up, not down. And more and more people from all
different walks of life are homeschooling, including teachers. My cousin
is a teacher who says she wishes she had homeschooled her kids. She didn't
know then that it was possible. She actually helped influence my son to
decide not to try high school this year. Teachers see what goes on in the
schools, and a lot of them don't like it.


>Are you suggesting that this is trivial?

I don't think it's trivial, but it reminds me of some of the people in the
50's, who saw communists under every bed. I just don't believe in the big
conspiracy theory.

>Are you suggesting that it is not
>likely ever to happen or that it really can't have serious consequences for
>unschoolers?

I agree that you had a threat in your state. It seems to have been stopped
by homeschoolers working against it. Democracy in action. I don't believe
that government bureaucrats sit around all day dreaming up ways to force
homeschoolers into the schools.


>In my own prepared short speech to that committee (which I
>didn't get a chance to give) I was ready to tell the lawmakers that
>everything my wife and I did in order to assure that our child was getting
>educated would have been ILLEGAL under the law they were considering, and
>our son would probably have been taken from our home and put in the "care"
>of welfare and social workers at state-run foster homes, all because of our
>unschooling. I would however, in my defense, have told them that our
>family's total absence of schooling was the main reason why our son had the
>tools to attend a fine college and achieve at the highest possible academic
>levels for four straight years and graduate Magna Cum Laude.

Would have been a good speech. Too bad you didn't get to give it.


>Unschoolers are in the same war as all other homeschoolers. I don't think
>that is Off Topic at all.

I'm not in a war. One of many reasons why I left the U.S. is the tendency
there to turn everything into a war. (war on poverty, war on drugs,
etc.) I'm really a pretty peaceable person.
Tia



What you think of me is none of my business.
*********************************************************
Tia Leschke leschke@...
On Vancouver Island