In reference to the most recent attack on Homeschooling in Oklahoma SB375 I sent this message to Senator Jim Wilson:
Senator Jim Wilson
wilson@oksenate.gov
2300 North Lincoln Blvd.
Room 426
Oklahoma City, OK 73105
Senator Jim Wilson,
While I do not know your motivation behind this bill, I do know that I and many other Oklahoman’s won’t sit by and let you trounce all over our personal freedoms with this ill-conceived bill. Senate Bill 375 is nothing more than ploy to try and remove our religious and social freedoms. We parents have the constitutional right to direct the education of our children. The State does not have the right or responsibility to interfere with the education of children not in the public school system. Aside from the Oklahoma Constitution and Oklahoma Supreme Court decisions, as recently as the year 2000, the U.S. Supreme Court in Troxel v. Granville, stated: (“In a long line of cases, we have held that, in addition to specific freedoms protected by the Bill of Rights, the ‘liberty’ specifically protected by the Due Process Clause includes the right … “to direct the education and upbringing of one’s children” (citing Myer and Pierce)). In light of this extensive precedent, it cannot now be doubted that the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment protects the fundamental right of parents to make decisions concerning the care, custody, and control of our children.
Homeschooling parents and children do not appreciate being treated as criminals by you, sir. You are assuming we are a group that does not care about our children as much as you do and this line of though I do not understand. What makes you think you have more interest in the education of my children? My six year old can read at a 5th grade level, my four year old can already read well beyond a 1st grade level, if I had trusted the public schools for their education, they would be as far behind as most children are. I, sir, cannot conceive of a world where you think this kind of bill would be tolerated by Oklahomans. What kind of threat do fine, upstanding, intelligent homeschooled children present to the, as you so kindly put it, “the preservation of the public peace, health and safety”? I haven’t heard of any beating, shooting, drug problems, or child molestation by teachers in any homeschools lately. I think you should focus on fixing the problems with the public school system, before you start attacking parents who are trying to make a better future for their children. I am curious how you and Connie would like being told how to raise your children. Is it not a parent’s right to help try and choose the best path for their children. You are not only attacking our civil liberty, which is bad enough, you are also attacking the spiritual belief of many. In Proverbs 22:6 the bible says “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.” This is a parent right and responsibility, and I will not tolerate you attacking it.
If, by some amazing feat of the Oklahoma Legislative body, you were able to pass some this atrocity, I guarantee that there will be a long legal battle ensuing to fight you on it.
Senator if you have actually read this far, I do hope you come to your senses on this issue, but seeing how that this is very unlikely, I would offer you these pieces of wisdom from two well known people.
Albert Einstein — “It is… nothing short of a miracle that the modern methods of instruction have not yet entirely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry; for this delicate little plant, aside from stimulation, stands mainly in need of freedom; without this it goes to wreak and ruin. It is a very grave mistake to think that the enjoyment of seeing and searching can be promoted by means of coercion and a sense of duty.”
Dr. Raymond Moore –”In general the best teacher or care-giver cannot match a parent of even ordinary education and experience.”
Respectfully,
Jason W. Britton
You can see the full Senate Bill here or continue reading.
(Read on …)
On the OKhomeschooling mailing list we were blessed to actually received a strong response from OK Senator Kathleen Wilcoxson who is a Co-Chair for the Education Committee that would have to see this bill.
