Thinking for ourselves
I know she's only 10 years old and all the complications that come with a mature judgment about a matter like this.
But, given the circumstances - a mother who wants to home school, a father who wants her to attend public school, and a family court that must resolve their difference - would it kill folks to ask this girl what she might want for her education?
Under God: Judging Amanda
"If you've ever wondered why conservative evangelical Christians seem so concerned about the dangers of government intervention in our lives, read a recent New Hampshire family court ruling that 10-year-old Amanda -- who has been home-schooled by her religiously conservative mother since first grade -- must now attend public school.
The plaintiff (Amanda's father -- the couple divorced shortly after Amanda was born) 'believes that exposure to other points of view will decrease Amanda's rigid adherence to her mother's religious beliefs, and increase her ability to get along with others and to function in a world which requires some element of independent thinking and tolerance for different points of view,' family court Justice Lucinda Sadler explained.
The court agreed that Amanda 'appeared to reflect her mother's rigidity on questions of faith . . . Amanda's relationship with her father suffers to some degree by her belief that his refusal to adopt her religious beliefs and his choice instead to spend eternity away from her proves that he does not love her as much as he says he does.'
Millions of conservative evangelical Christians adhere to the same rigid and exclusive belief system about eternal salvation. Should we require them to attend tolerance classes? Should we court-order all of them to send their kids to public schools?
The Alliance Defense Fund, established to defend conservative Christians in such cases, has filed motions asking the New Hampshire court to reconsider its decision. 'A mother has a constitutionally protected right under the First and Fourteenth Amendments to make decisions regarding Amanda's schooling, religious training and other parenting issues without interference by the Court,' the motions state.
No doubt the court would not have interfered with the rights of these parents if they had been able to agree on Amanda's schooling. And fathers have constitutional rights, too. Family court-level justice is never easy and rarely clear-cut, especially when divorced parents are squabbling about how to raise the kid. When that happens, it becomes a judge's job to determine the best interests of the child.
But should any court determine which religious beliefs are emotionally, psychologically or socially healthy for a child? Would the court have ruled for Amanda's father if Amanda's mother was an open-minded, tolerant believer that God loves everyone and everyone goes to heaven?
And does the court have no confidence in the time-honored, sacrosanct tradition of teenage rebellion?"
I am consistently amazed at how progressives and others who claim to care about the independent thought of children in such situations seem to give scant concern, at all, for what they might think.
Seems to me that if you want people to exercise independent thought, as I do, you would want to give them the opportunity to exercise that thought rather than make decisions for them.
Or perhaps what many people mean when they say independent thought is that they want you to think independently, as long as you agree with them.
And that really is the crux of what is wrong with America today.
And this 10-year-old girl just learned a sad lesson about America.
When we say we want you to think independently, what we mean is that you are going to do what we say or else.
A little backwards, by any honest standard. And certainly not evidence of progress.
Progress is when, among other things, people are able to think and make choices for themselves and when their conscience and their choices are taken seriously as a matter of independent judgment.
And if what we are really interested in is Amanda's independent thought, perhaps we might start by respecting it.
