My Daily Domestic Diigolet 06/30/2008

Home schooling parents are usually better educated than the norm, and are more likely to attend worship services. Their motives are many and varied. Some fear contagion from the anti-clericalism, coarse speech, suggestive behavior and hedonistic values that characterize secular schools. Others are concerned for their children’s safety. Some want their children to be challenged beyond the minimal competencies of the public schools. Concern for a theistic world view largely permeates the movement.

Indications are that home schooling is working well for the kids, and the parents are pleased with their choice, but the practice is coming under increasing suspicion, and even official attack, as in California.

Why do we hate (or at least distrust) these people so much?

Methinks American middle-class people are uncomfortable around the home schooled for the same reason the alcoholic is uneasy around the teetotaler.

Their very existence represents a rejection of our values, and an indictment of our lifestyles. Those families are willing to render unto Caesar the things that Caesar’s be, but they draw the line at their children. Those of us who have put our trust in the secular state (and effectively surrendered our children to it) recognize this act of defiance as a rejection of our values, and we reject them in return

To love your spouse is to act according to the will of God. When you realize this, you will understand that you can fulfill your vocation in the most ordinary circumstances of your life by perceiving God’s call even in the most trifling sanctify. This is a revelation that will revolutionize your whole life.

The love between husband and wife is an image of the love of Christ for the Church (cf. Eph 5:31-32). In this mystery you will discover dignity, strength, and unity. The love that exists between a husband and wife is an extension of God’s love. How uplifting and supportive is this love of the partners!

God has given you a loving spouse and beautiful children to help each other to become holy. What have you done with this gift?

One Police Officer and Four Daycare Workers Deemed Unqualified Because of Homeschool Diplomas

Officer graduated from police academy with a perfect 4.0 average

By Tim Waggoner

NASHVILLE, TN, May 30, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Five people in Tennessee, who hold homeschool diplomas, have recently been deemed unqualified for certain positions of employment because of their homeschooling.  Since last year, the Tennessee Department of Education has begun withholding approval of such diplomas, but Representative Mile Bell has been fighting to gain back the recognition these diplomas previously enjoyed. 

Bell told LifeSiteNews.com that until last year, no person in Tennessee had ever had an issue with an employer for holding a category IV diploma – the official title of diplomas issued to private church-related students, including homeschooled students. 

Recently, however, employers that are required by statute to hire only those persons with a high school diploma, including the police department, day-care workers and education workers, have either suspended or denied employment to five category IV diploma holders. 

After graduating with a 4.0 average from a police academy, one Rockwood police officer lost his certification, possibly deeming all of his arrests invalid, “because the DOE refused to recognize his category IV diploma.”  Bell also mentioned that this occurred seven years after the officer received his category IV high school diploma.

My dear friend Jen often tells of hearing Elizabeth Elliot on the radio when she was home with her firstborn, having left a nursing career to be a homemaker. Surrounded by those who would have her believe she was wasting her potential she clung to Elizabeth Elliot’s assertion that if God has blessed you with children and a husband you need not fret over your ‘calling’ any longer. You can stop of musing over what your contribution to the world ought to be. It is right there before your eyes. All that is not to say that everyone can readily accept that what is before their eyes is as potentially as monumental as the ‘vocation over the hill’.

Mrs. Elliot feels this is be