One Drop of Injustice: Homeschool Prejudice

A drop of water is only one drop. Easy enough to dismiss as harmless, insignificant. But put enough drops together, one after the other, and they can be devastating. The same is true of injustice.

In his final Temporary Order, Judge Mangum allowed Venessa Mills to continue homeschooling her children until the end of this school year. After that, at the beginning of the 2009-2010 school year, they will start public school.

Of course, in public school, no-one would expect the teacher to come and pick up the kids in the morning.

However, while homeschooling continues, Judge Mangum ordered that Venessa Mills should pick up her children every morning at 8am during their 50/50 week with their father. Common sense would dictate that the father drop off the kids in the morning - just as he would do if they were going to public school. He's probably on his way to work anyway. But there doesn't seem to be much room for common sense in Judge Mangum's courtroom.

Venessa Mills is expected to do all the work of a teacher, maintain an education appropriate to her children (who are above grade-level), be fully prepared for her students in the morning, go through all the tests and evaluations that the Court has ordered and, on top of all that, she has to go pick up her own children at the beginning of each school day.

Like any good homeschool mother, Venessa Mills does, and will do, all this for the sake of her children. But it is very obvious that Judge Mangum, along with Mr. Mills and his attorney, are deliberately making the situation as difficult as possible for her - and lying in wait to blame her for any lack of success.

To add insult to injury, Judge Mangum included a Wednesday night dinner visitation for Mr. Mills while the children are homeschooled - but no equal Wednesday night dinner for Venessa Mills. Why? According to Judge Mangum, it's because she gets "extra" time with her children while homeschooling. So, Mr. Mills does nothing, but gets a nice Wednesday night to hang out with his kids, while Venessa Mills does the job of a full-time teacher and so is denied an equal dinner visitation.

Apparently, Judge Mangum thinks that homeschooling isn't really "work" - it's just an excuse for Venessa Mills to sit around with her children and do (to directly quote Judge Mangum) "neat stuff" together. Apparently, he doesn't think that Venessa Mills deserves an extra Wednesday night dinner to enjoy with her children - until they go to public school. Then, as soon as homeschooling is out of the picture, it suddenly becomes "fair."

Divorce or no divorce, this is a blatant case of a Christian homeschooling mother being directly penalized for staying at home and taking on the work and responsibility of educating her children. It treats homeschooling as a joke, a cover for getting extra time to do "neat stuff," a liability that disqualifies the mother from equal visitation.

Judge Mangum may not be "anti-homeschool" but his ideas of it are obviously from the Dark Ages and the evidence of his prejudice is clear.

Make no mistake, this injustice is one more drop in the steady erosion of homeschool rights. Don't ignore it just because it's "only one drop."