| BATTLE ESCALATES OVER HOMESCHOOLED CHILD SEIZED BY SWEDISH GOVERNMENT | | Posted by Diane on Wednesday, June 30, 2010 at 8:16am |  | The following is an article from the HomeSchool Legal Defense Association warning of what will happen in the U.S. if our government ratifies the UN Convention for the Trights of the Child.
Purcellville, VA—On June 25, attorneys with the Home School Legal Defense Association and Alliance Defense Fund filed an application with the European Court of Human Rights asking it to hear the case of a 7-year-old boy seized by Swedish authorities because his parents homeschool.
“We are gravely concerned about this case because of the threat it represents to other homeschooling families,” said Mike Donnelly, staff attorney for HSLDA and one of nearly 1,700 attorneys in the ADF alliance. “In response to our inquiries, Swedish authorities have cited the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child to explain and defend their actions. If the U.S. were to ever ratify this treaty, as the White House and some members of Congress desire, then this sort of thing could occur here,” he added.
Swedish authorities forcibly removed Domenic Johansson from his parents, Christer and Annie Johansson, in June 2009 from a plane they had boarded to move to Annie’s home country of India. The officials did not have a warrant nor have they charged the Johanssons with any crime. The officials seized the child because they believe homeschooling is an inappropriate way to raise a child and insist the government should raise Domenic instead. Social services authorities have placed Domenic in foster care as well as a government school and are only allowing Christer and Annie to visit their son for one hour every five weeks.
“Parents have the right and authority to make decisions regarding their children’s education without government interference,” said ADF Legal Counsel Roger Kiska, who is based in Europe. “A government trying to create a cookie-cutter child in its own image should not be allowed to violate this basic and fundamental human right. The refusal of Swedish authorities to respect that right has left us no choice but to take this case to the European Court of Human Rights.”
HSLDA and ADF attorneys decided to file Johansson v. Sweden with the ECHR when the Supreme Administrative Court of Sweden refused to review a lower court’s December 2009 ruling in Johansson v. Gotland Social Services that found that the government was within its rights to seize the child. The lower court cited minor post-seizure medical concerns with Domenic as well as the provably false charges that homeschoolers do not perform well academically and are not well socialized as reasons to uphold the apparently permanent seizure of young Domenic.
Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) is a 27-year-old, 85,000 member non-profit organization and the preeminent national association advocating the legal right of parents to homeschool their children.
ADF is a legal alliance of Christian attorneys and like-minded organizations defending the right of people to freely live out their faith. Launched in 1994, ADF employs a unique combination of strategy, training, funding, and litigation to protect and preserve religious liberty, the sanctity of life, marriage, and the family.
| | | | | Caution: Public School at Home Programs to Recruit Homeschoolers | | Posted by Diane on Wednesday, May 26, 2010 at 6:39am | The following article is taken from the HSLDA page and warns parents about the dangers of enrolling children in the public school-at-home programs. HSLDA does not offer protection of parents rights in these situations.
The governor’s recent signature on SB 738, giving state approval for “virtual school programs,” guarantees that public-school-at-home programs, under various names in different places, will soon ramp up their efforts to recruit homeschoolers.
Participation in these programs—full time or part time—will immediately turn your child into a public school student. Newly enacted Virginia Code § 22.1-212.27.A says, “Any student enrolled in any online course or virtual program offered by a local school division shall be enrolled in a public school….”
This means your child will be required to take the Virginia SOL tests. It means the program’s teachers cannot teach your child about God. It means that the free books they require you to use must not teach about God.
You will be told that the curriculum is wonderful. But pause to think a moment: They are offering the exact same curriculum to thousands of students. One curriculum can’t possibly be best for all of them!
Of course, they will tell you that you can “supplement.” But the demands of the mandatory curriculum may swallow up the time and energy of many a well-intentioned parent who told himself he would supplement.
In other states, public-school-at-home programs have hired recruiters who are well known local homeschool moms. The person who soon tries to talk you into giving up your freedom and joining one of these programs may actually be your best friend.
HSLDA membership services are not available with respect to a child enrolled full-time in a public-school-at-home program.
Homeschool students across the country are achieving outstanding academic results partly because their parents can educate them without public school restrictions and red tape. Your freedom to pick the right curriculum—and change it as necessary—is a key in helping your child do his best. Homeschool parents personally keep educational responsibility—rather than delegating it to a public school program—and the kids are the winners.
And if you want your child to grow up understanding the truth about God, one of the very best things you can do is make sure that your curriculum teaches your child the same truths that you are teaching.
 Education
| | | | | You heard it right ... class credit for keeping quiet! | | Posted by Diane on Thursday, April 29, 2010 at 10:29am | A high school in New Hampshire recently awarded credits toward graduation for students who participated in a national school-based observance for homosexual rights.
Officials at Bedford High School gave credit for a course called "Real World Learning" for students who remained silent all day long in class on the "Day of Silence" in a show of support for homosexuality. The move has stirred protests from parents who say they were not notified about the plan.
Kevin Smith, executive director of Cornerstone Action in New Hampshire, says school officials now claim that any group can be eligible for credit for attending civic meetings or participating in other political events. Smith believes school officials are merely trying to defuse public pressure.
"They certainly didn't promote that idea when they said they were going to give credit for the Day of Silence; they certainly weren't being very open at that point," he recalls. "I think it's only because they've now had pressure put on them that they're starting to whistle a new tune."
The New Hampshire activist says the newly announced policy will "open up a huge can of worms."
"Your going to have political ideologies from all across the spectrum now saying that they want credit for doing such and such during the school day -- and it really takes away from the learning environment," he laments. "It takes away from the activities and classes and the subjects that they should be focusing on --and now we're politicizing the classroom even more."
Smith believes politicizing issues, whether they be on the left or the right, have no place in the classroom.
Bill Bumpas - OneNewsNow - 4/29/2010 6:00:00 AM Education | | | | | The Wave | | Posted by Diane on Wednesday, April 14, 2010 at 6:43am | In 1991 an after school program was designed to teach students how the Nazi party came into power in Germany. The program was based on a real story of a teacher and his experiment on his class in Palo Alto California. I watched this special and I realized how appropo this is to our times. High School juniors in public schools across America are being recruited to serve President Obama by signing a contract called Organizing for America. Watch this video and see for yourself why it is so important.
To see this video, click here. | | | | | Teaching Children Their Rights | | Posted by Diane on Saturday, March 20, 2010 at 12:43am | When did we start telling the children it was all about them? When did we start telling them they could be anything they wanted to be? When did we start telling them that they were entitled to higher education and all the things our money could buy? When did we start telling them they could have it all?
It was around the time we stopped telling them that it was about God. We stopped telling them that the single most important thing they can do in this life is figure out what God created them to do. We stopped telling them that they have all of eternity to have it all. We stopped telling them that if they want to save their lives, they have to deny themselves, take up their crosses and follow Jesus Christ.
Here is an article I found thought-provoking. I think you will enjoy it too.
The Christian's Bill of Rights by Steve Camp
1. As believers in the Lord Jesus Christ we have only one right: and that is to give up all rights to ourselves (2 Cor. 5:14-16; Romans 14:7-9).
2. We have the right to deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow Him (Mt. 16:24-26).
3. We have the right to esteem others more highly than ourselves; and love our neighbor as ourselves (Mt. 22:39;Phil. 2:1-5).
4. We have the right to fulfill the law of Christ in bearing one another's burdens of sin (Gal. 6:1-3).
5. We have the right to be wronged and to maintain a faithful testimony (1 Cor. 6:1-8).
6. We have the right to live in unreciprocated, self-sacrificial love (Eph. 5:1-2).
7. We have the right to forgive others the smaller debt, as God in Christ has forgiven us the larger debt (Eph. 4:31-32; Matthew 18:12-35).
8. We have the right to suffer for the gospel and to take the blows for the One who took the blows for us (1 Peter 2:21-24)
9. We have the right to be "subject to rulers, to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good deed, to malign no one, to be uncontentious, gentle, showing every consideration for all men" (Titus 3:1-2).
10. We have the right to not be political agitators trading the truth of His Word to play politics with men's souls; thinking that true spiritual change occurs through legislation rather than the transforming power of the gospel of grace. (1 Peter 4:10-16).
11. We have the right to turn the other cheek (Matthew 5:39).
12. We have the right to be stripped of all earthly things (Matthew 5:40-42).
13. We have the right to not repay evil for evil and to be at peace with all men as much as it depends on you (Romans 12:17-18).
14. We have the right to love our enemies, do good to them that hate us, bless those who curse us and pray for those that despitefully use us (Matthew 5:44-45).
15. We have the right to pursue holiness-not personal happiness (1 Peter 1:13-16).
16. We have the right not to be ashamed of the gospel (2 Tim. 1:6-18).
17. We have the right not to harbor revenge, anger, bitterness, clamoring, wrath, malice and slander when wronged by another (Ephesians 4:31).
18. We have the right not to quench or grieve the Holy Spirit. (Eph. 4:30; 1 Thess. 5:19).
19. We have the right to repent of and not cherish our sins (Psalm 66:18).
20. We have the right to guard the trust; and to contend for the once for all delivered to the saints faith (1 Timothy 6:20; Jude 1:3).
21. We have the right to train our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord (Ephesians 6:1-3).
22. We have the right to reflect God's covenantal relationship with us by honoring our vows in the covenant of marriage with our spouse Mt. 19:6).
23. We have the right to worship Christ Jesus as God of very God; Creator; Redeemer; Sovereign Lord and Ruler of all (Col. 1:15-19; Hebrews 1:8; Phil. 2:5-11).
24. We have the right to present our lives as living sacrifices everyday to God (Roms. 12:1-2).
25. We have the right to live in the expectancy and hope of the Lord's return by which we purify ourselves (Roms. 12:1-2).
26. We have the right to march daily on our knees in prayer; praying for our leaders in government; our church leaders; our fellow believers; our families; and the lost (1 Timothy 2:1-3; Ephesians 6:18-21).
27. We have the right to praise and glorify God according to how He has revealed Himself through the pages of His Word (Col. 3:16-17).
28. We have the right to honor our local church pastors; for they keep watch over our souls as those who will give an account (Hebrews 13:17).
29. We have the right to go into all the world and make disciples of all nations (Matt. 28:18-20).
30. We have the right to have no rights apart from Christ Himself; "for whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake shall find it" (Matt. 16:25: John 15:5).
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