[The daughter] appeared to reflect her mother’s rigidity on questions of faith. [The daughter] challenged the counselor to say what the counselor believed, and she prepared some highlighted biblical text for the counselor to read over and discuss, and she was visibly upset when the counselor (purposely) did not complete the assignment. . . .
The Guardian ad Litem . . . concluded that the daughter would be best served by exposure to different points of view at a time in her life when she must begin to critically evaluate multiple systems of belief and behavior and cooperation in order to select, as a young adult, which of those systems will best suit her own needs. . . .
[T]he Guardian ad Litem [also] echoed her previous concerns that 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. . . .
[T]he Court is guided by the premise that education is by its nature an exploration and examination of new things, and by the premise that a child requires academic, social, cultural, and physical interaction with a variety of experiences, people, concepts, and surroundings in order to grow to an adult who can make intelligent decisions about how to achieve a productive and satisfying life.
The parties do not debate the relative academic merits of home schooling and public school: it is clear that the home schooling Ms. Voydatch has provided has more than kept up with the academic requirements of the [local] public school system. Instead, the debate centers on whether enrollment in public school will provide [the daughter] with an increased opportunity for group learning, group interaction, social problem solving, and exposure to a variety of points of view. . . . [T]he Court concludes that it would be in [the daughter’s] best interests to attend public school. . . .
So, setting aside for the moment all of the other issues raised by this ruling, education is not about academics but about experiencing many different points of view. Actually, I question whether the typical public school education will offer that many different points of view, since the postmodernist relativism that the judge assumes is the only possible philosophy reigns pretty much unchallenged. Notice that this notion of education would rule out not only home schooling but private schooling that is shaped by a particular religious tradition, as in parochial schools.
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