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01/14/2006: Dial 911 for that 'Whaaaaambulance'...
Right after the Christmas Holiday I read this dreck from Cal Thomas:”…Religious parents should exercise the opportunity that has always been theirs. They should remove their children from state schools with their "instruction manuals" for turning them into secular liberals, and place them in private schools - or home school them - where they will be taught the truth, according to their parents' beliefs. Too many parents who would never send their children to a church on Sunday that taught doctrines they believed to be wrong, have had no problem placing them in state schools five days a week where they are taught conflicting doctrines and ideas.
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Rulings such as this should persuade parents who've been waffling to take their kids and join the growing exodus from state schools into educational environments more conducive to their beliefs.
And these two other faux debate pieces from both Cal and Bob Beckelis here and here.
Great Ideas...I don't have any problems with this - Until you get to lawsuits like the civil rights lawsuit filed by Calvary Chapel which alleges that the 10-campus University of California is "is trampling the freedom of a religious school to be religious" for failures to meet academic standards in certain course studies. UC asserts its rights to set its own admissions standards and academic standards for attendance.
But advocates (idiots) - like Mr. Thomas - want to have it BOTH ways. They want the Freedom to choose the religious instruction to the "truth, according to their parents' beliefs", but not the *consequences* of that decision when it applies to meeting academic standards in the real world.
When, using these self-selected standards, they fail to meet strict academic criteria...then they dial 911 for the Legal *Whaaaambulance.*(Hat tip to Shakespeares Sister.) And it arrives as their vehicle of choice to sue to enforce the lacking-in-credibility educational selections beyond the bounds of their religious schools even when the don’t meet the admissions standards at the university level.
It's Fine for parents to select any Religious School of their Choice and Teach their Children ANYTHING...but don't then expect the Legal system to afford a remedy for these failings to meet rigorous academic standards in educational studies. Or to bypass University level admissions standards using these religious criterion.
It's the children who WILL suffer for the choices of their parents - But *consequences* for choices are the model we live under. And choosing to be under-educated in science (or any subject) has a consequence. But apparently that is not a Price Calvary Chapel accepts for its "religious freedom."
Karen on 01.14.06 @ 02:49 PM CST
