Safety For Our Children... Repugnant?

Bill O'Reilly, in his recent talking points memo, points out that a major news channel included this from the father of one of the victims of the Columbine killings of a few years ago about safety in government schools.

"BRIAN ROHRBOUGH, FATHER: I am saddened and shaken by the shooting at an Amish school today and last week's school murders. When my son Dan was murdered on the sidewalk at Columbine High School on April 20th, 1999, I hoped that would be the last school shooting.

Since that day, I tried to answer the question why did this happen? This country is in a moral free fall. For over two generations, the public school system has taught in a moral vacuum, expelling God from the school and from the government, replacing Him with evolution, where the strong kill the weak without moral consequences. And life has no inherent value.

We teach there are no absolutes, no right or wrong. And I assure you, the murder of innocent children is always wrong, including by abortion.

Abortion has diminished the value of children. Suicide has become an acceptable action and has further emboldened these criminals. And we are seeing an epidemic increase in murder/suicide attacks on our children.

Sadly, our schools are not safe. In fact, we now witness that within our schools, our children have become a target of terrorists from within the United States."

He points out that Ms. Couric, CBS's new news anchor, anticipated that many would find the comments of Mr Rohrbough "repugnant" and that her "elitist" attitude about the issue is all to common in our country today.

Agree or not with O'Reilly and his political bent or Rohrbough's comments, he brings up a motivating point for me. Helping one another succeed at home schooling blesses the lives of children in a countless ways. How many children go to school each day, frightened for their own safety and thus crippled in their opportunity to learn anything that day, because a parent has talked themselves out of the option of home schooling. I understand that each family is different. There is no "one size fits all" educational package. Home schooling is a commitment and a choice with it's own set of challenges. However, if we as home schooling families can boil the process down to a set of basics that more families could consider plausible... do-able if you will, more children will find safe haven, excellent education, and a stronger moral sense. All of us stand to benefit.

Safe haven, excellent education and a strong moral sense are becoming more an exception rather than the rule in government schooling. No one can realistically argue this point. Doing our very best in what we do as we educate at home, and working together more effectively as a home schooling community to help one another, acting as resources to one another, (independent though we all seem to be) brightens the beacon of hope that our children can find somewhere in the storms of our times, a safe pathway to the future. When we choose to educate at home, we choose at the same time to provide our children a safe haven, a more excellent way in education and actual instruction in moral values that stand the test of time. Aren't you pleased to be making a difference in the world AND protecting your children?