One Sixteenth

What I learned on Law and Order tonight

I never watch this show. I don't think I ever have. I don't know why I had it on tonight, but it was very educational. I learned:

• That all you have to do to homeschool is file a couple of papers, and you can yank your kid out of public school. And that this is a shame, and it's too bad that nothing can be done about it.
• That homeschooling moms are rigid, paranoid, religious, emotionally unbalanced, and have no friends.
• That some states employ people whose job it is to be a liaison between the state and homeschoolers, and that those people do their job grudgingly and wish nothing more than to get all those poor kids back in school.
• That mothers who homeschool do so in order to hide their children away from all the terrors and harms of the world, and tell their kids that public schools are full of drugs, shootings, and rapes.
• That homeschooling is automatically suspicious to law enforcement officials.
• That offbeat diets are equally suspicious to law enforcement officials.
• That having strict rules for your kids is suspicious to law enforcement agents, as is having polite, studious kids and a very clean house (ooh, guess I'm safe on that front :)
• That facts mean nothing if a law enforcement official feels like things should be different.
• That abuse should be considered on the very flimsiest of bases. In fact, if a child says anything that strikes you as odd, you'd better send someone down to check out the parents.
• That lawyers discuss who they feel is guilty, and spin the evidence to support their opinion.
• That if you own a gun, you obviously, automatically have something to hide.
• That all homeschoolers know each other, and said law enforcement officials can track us down by talking to the people who use the same curricula as we do.

I think that's all. I'll be sure to let you know if I remember any more of the lessons I learned from this fine show. Right after I burn the TV.