I recently found a January 2008 article by Jane Gross in the New York Times that called for more regulation of home schoolers, another knee-jerk reaction from the crowd that really wants to deny Americans the freedom to teach their own children.  The article was a result of the Bonita Jacks case.  Ms. Jacks killed her four children last year after removing them from their public schools and claiming to be home schooling them.  I’d bet good money she’s never heard of A Beka, Bob Jones, Charlotte Mason, or Love and Logic.  The children’s bodies were discovered by US Marshals serving an eviction notice.  The bodies had been decomposing for two weeks prior to their discovery, and Ms. Jacks was still living there!  Apparently, she didn’t entertain very often. 

I find it difficult to understand the reaction to this case.  Bonita had been under the eagle eyes of the Department of Child Welfare Services, of Washington, D.C. District Public Schools, and of the city police department prior to this event taking place.  None of those agencies were able to prevent this heinous crime.  That didn’t stop the ever vigilant anti-home schooling writer from noting that, “The lack of supervision of the home-schooling process, some experts say, may have made it easier last year for Ms. Jacks to withdraw her children from school and the prying eyes of teachers, social workers and other professionals who otherwise might have detected signs of abuse and neglect of the girls.”  Do I really need to elaborate on the obvious here? 

Oh, let’s do it anyway. 

If the “prying eyes of teachers, social workers and other professionals” are so good, why did these children die?  If the “prying eyes of teachers, social workers and other professionals” are so good, why do thousands of public school children get abused every year?  What is it about forcing a child to plant his or her rear end on a public school chair that makes people think that the child will be safe or saved?  Are children only abused, tortured, and murdered while school is in session?   Don’t evil doers, perverts, and ne’er-do-wells ever practice their endeavors on a sunny July morning, or on Spring break?  And which kid is going to answer his “What did you do over summer vacation?” essay with, “Daddy tried to burn the lyrics to ‘Highway to Hell’ on my bum with cigarettes?” 

In 1991, the District of Columbia attempted to regulate home schoolers with rules that included unannounced home visits.  I’d like to know why no one is suggesting the same type of treatment for lesbians.  Just this month in Los Angeles, Starkeisha Brown and her partner Krystal Matthews were accused of torturing Ms. Brown’s 5-year-old son, including burning him all over his body with cigarettes (including his genitals), food depravation, and placing his flat open hands on a hot stove.  Currently, the boy is unable to open his hands.  Not once since this story broke in the news have I seen a New York Times article calling for the regulation of lesbians.  I haven’t heard one cry of the need for unannounced home visits of lesbian parents.  At age five, the young man might not have started kindergarten.  Maybe we need unannounced home visits of lesbian parents with children who are not yet in attendance at a public school, where “prying eyes of...social workers and other professionals” might prevent horrible acts of this nature from occurring.   In the words of Nebraska State Senator Schimek, who recently attempted to increase state regulation of home schoolers, we need these unannounced visits of lesbian parents because “we don’t know what is going on” and we need to “catch kids who fall through the cracks.”

You may be wondering if I’m hitting the ol’ coffee pot a bit too hard lately.  I’m not.  I just crave continuity of thought from our politicians and the people who report on them.  Instead, I find insanity.  And I’m not certain whose is worse, theirs or mine.