Brenda Voydatch has battled her ex-husband, Martin Kurowski, over the education of their daughter Amanda since she began home-schooling her in first grade. Last month, a Laconia (N.H.) family court judge adopted a marital master’s recommendation that it would be in the girl’s best interests to go to public school in the 2009-10 academic year.
“[T]he Court is guided … by the premise that a child requires academic, social, cultural, and physical interaction with a variety of experiences, people, concepts, and surroundings in order to grow into an adult who can make intelligent decisions about how to achieve a productive and satisfying life,” the master, Michael Garner, said in his order.
Kurowski had testified that “exposure to other points of view will decrease Amanda’s rigid adherence to her mother’s religious beliefs.”
Requiring children who are home schooled to take a test say every year – provides a measure of the performance of the schooling.
It doesn’t have to be onerous or even hard. But if a child can’t read after a certain point, then based on circumstances, the child may benefit from education elsewhere, perhaps additionally to home schooling. At least at that point both the parent and the child will know how the child rates against its peers in basic education.
Seems like a good proportion of homeschooling is really about religion. Generally that’s a sorry affair with people who are narrow minded, and incapable of teaching broad education. Its not necessarily that way – but if you do the research, I think you’ll find its the majority of it.
Great example of the media’s bias for sensationalism. This isn’t a judge saying that a religious mom can’t homeschool her kid. It is a judge saying that the kid’s father has the right to have input on how his kid is educated.
#21
So far, on the whole, home school kids are doing better in standardized tests than those subjected to governement schools.
I like you idea though, if applied equally. When it turns out the kids forced into government schools are falling short on their test scores, let them seek education elsewhere.
#19 fw
very well said!
Some of us choose home schooling because it is the best educational option. hslda.org/docs/news/washingtontimes/200908100.asp
#19 fw said,
“Over indoctrination/brainwashing has not done the world anything good, ever.”
Very true, which is why getting your kids out of government schools is so important.
#22 jccalhoun, I agree with you. Homeschooling may or may not be better, but the father has the right to have a say in how his kid is educated.
The article said the judge had some doubts about the honesty of the mother:
In considering the testimony of both parties, the Court has also considered Ms. Voydatch’s testimony about statements made by the Guardian ad Litem during her investigation and during negotiations, statements specifically rebutted by the Guardian ad Litem’s testimony after Ms. Voydatch testified. The Court finds the Guardian ad Litem’s recollection and testimony reliable, and has considered this finding in analyzing the reliability of Ms. Voydatch’s other testimony.
You don’t mess with the Guardian ad Litem. They have the final say in what happens to the kid.
But hey, sensationalism rules, and you gotta keep a steady stream of disinformation coming to keep the wingnuts in a constant state of fear — they’re more easily manipulated that way.
I’m sure it can all be traced back to Obama’s fault some way — right, wingnuts?
sounds to me like this one could win if it went to the supreme court. since when can one judge decide how a parent teaches their child? the child is not in any physical danger. now as for the dad having a say, well, sounds to me he gave that up long ago. if he wanted a say, then why didnt he work harder at his marriage? sounds like the court gave the mom rights to what the children say and do already. then it decides to take it away? sounds like a good legal fight….
Actually, the GaL doesn’t have the *final* say, the judge does… but the judge relies very heavily on the GaL’s findings.
#28 madtruckman, there’s physical custody and there’s legal custody. Just because the child is physically living with the mother most of the time doesn’t mean the father has no say in how the kid is raised.
The parents had a dispute about how the kid is educated. They both have an equal say in the matter, because they have joint legal custody. In situations like this, when the two can’t agree, the Guardian ad Litem comes in as an advocate for the child and makes the decision. It’s pretty standard in divorce situations.
two of my cousins were homeschooled through their entire youth and they are two of the most socially well adapted people I know because they interacted heavily with other kids at church. Homeschooled kids are usually in families that have heavily active church involvement. It’s the ones that don’t have that that I would worry about. And I don’t believe for a second that the government should be involved.
The only thing about this case that makes it questionable is the fact that there was a divorce involved, and both parents should have equal weight in this decision. But this sounds far from equal.
Parents that are highly involved with their children’s education usually means the child getting a good education — there’s a high correlation, at least.
Homeschool parents have a high involvement with their children’s education, and there are those who say that that’s what makes homeschooled kids successful, not the fact that they’re homeschooled. It’s the same with private schools — parents motivated enough to send their kid to private school usually have a high involvement with their kid’s education.
Public schools, on the other hand, have to take all kids, including those whose parents don’t give a rat’s ass about their kid’s education. Thus the low scores public schools produce — the unmotivated kids bring down the average.
If that mother stays highly involved with her kid’s education, that kid will get a good education whether she’s homeschooled or not.
Now, if she wanted to homeschool the kid because of religious not educational reasons… that’s a different matter. If the mother thinks secular school is evil but the father doesn’t, they have an irreconcilable difference, and that’s what the courts are for. Of course, that’s just speculation on my part.
I mean whether she thinks secular school is evil, is speculation on my part.
Wow. This hits home in so many ways.
Whatever you think of homeschooling vs. private vs. public this is not about that. It’s also not about the government stepping on parental rights.
This is about 2 divorced parents not agreeing about how to educate their child and forcing a judge to decide for them.
This kid has problems that are much bigger than whether they go to a school or not. One of the jobs parents perform is to work through their value differences to provide a consistent message to their kids.
When they get divorced more often than not they quit doing this job and the kids are left to resolve the conflicting messages on their own.
Couple of points.
1. The divorce court system in NH is horrible! “Marital Masters” regularly make appalling decisions. It costs a fortune, but their rulings are often overturned by real Judges. I know this first hand.
2. Laconia is a 5h!t hole of a place that no person in their right mind would send a child to school if they had a choice.
My heart breaks for that family.
Dr. Dodd — no comic hyperbole for you, I see.
I’ll try another tack:
It DUM to say divorce kids NO GOOD
Dr. Dodd — no comic hyperbole for you, I see.
I’ll try another tack:
It DUM to say divorce kids NO GOOD! Dum!
#34 Agreed, fundimental, but it’s not surprising the parents don’t have a consistent message to send their kids — they got divorced, after all. Judging from the article, I suspect different attitudes about religion may have been part of their problem.
#35 NH schools are underfunded, but NH has no income tax, so they get to keep more of their hard-earned dollars… giving their kids a crappy education is a small price to pay! (sarcasm)
How about a compromise. The father doesn’t like the fact that their daughter is being tought by their religious mother.
The mother doesn’t want the daughter to go to substandard government schools.
Well, since the father has the problem with the religious bent, how about the father pays for a private secular school. That way bother win.
This is madness, if the father has less custody of the child does than the mother does I think it should be the mother’s choice were the child goes to school. The only reason why the father is doing this is he probably jealous that the mother got to see the child more than he did. Now he wants to try to take the time away from her.
I can see the father being very controlling, I don’t blame her for getting a divorce.
Also to those people who say home schooling makes kids socially messed up.
I’m home schooled and I’ve got a ton of friends. Same with my cousins who are also home schooled.