Nebraska Family Forum

It is the Mission of the Nebraska Family Forum (NFF) to promote education policies in our state that preserve and protect parental authority and the integrity of the family. In so doing, we will preserve the cooperative and respectful relationship between school authorities and parents, preserve a family-centered community, and provide a well-rounded education for our kids.

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

The Smallwood Family

I got a "the letter" in the mail when my son had missed 5 days of school and another page saying what would happen if he missed more days. The days he missed were due to a bad cold and the stomach flu. Since then, he has missed even more days because of another bad cold and right now he is batteling bronchitis. My children attend a school that is under renovation right now, so they are bussed to a site clear on the other side of town to attend school.

There have been 1 or 2 days that all my kids were kept home because they missed the bus (the bus was earlier then expected and we were running late) and I did not have the gas to take them (our kids are in a temp. building clear on the south side of town this year while they repair the McPhee Elementary School building). I have the feeling that this law is going to hurt a lot of families who struggle financially. I can't afford to send my child to school this year while they may be sick, and turn around and have to drive clear to the South Site to pick them up and bring them back home.

I don't think I should be punished as a parent for making the right choice to keep my kids home while they are sick. I don't want them making other kids sick either. I'm sure I will receive another letter from the school about my son missing more school, but there is nothing I can do if he's sick.

My husband recently met with my son's teachers because we got another letter saying he had missed 12 days of school (almost all sick days) and had to meet with them to discuss why he was missing school. My husband simply told them that he was sick and we refused to send him to school while he was sick. We didn't want to make other people's kids ill. The school already knew this because we call them anytime our kids miss a day. So, we wasted 1/4 of a tank of gas and my husband's time to tell the school something that they already knew. It's very frustrating. I'm glad parents are speaking out

My son is in Kindergarten. He was 4 years old when the school year started and he's behind the other kids in his class due to his age and a speech problem. I thought the school could get him on track with learning, but now I'm not sure I made the right choice and I'm considering taking him out of school. I don't want to. I want him to get the help he needs, get used to going to school, and be around kids his own age, but I don't want to take the chance of losing him to the state either because he missed school from being sick.

My family is considering moving if this law is not changed and I've lived in Nebraska most of my life. I'm really worried about this law because my kids get sick a lot during the fall and winter months and some times they have to miss school because of it.

Kayla Smallwood
Lincoln Public Schools
Lincoln, NE

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The Personal Impact of Nebraska's School Attendance Law

We began collecting stories in April of 2011 and will continue to collect them as long as the law is abused. The stories we have collected demonstrate how our community has been impacted by Nebraska's school attendance law that counts all absences rather than "unexcused" absences for purposed of "truancy".

It may seem by the district by district breakdown that the law has impacted Millard Public Schools the most, but it is important to note that the Nebraska Family Forum grew out of the Millard Parent Society and therefore the awareness within Millard Public Schools is longstanding.

Out of the 3000+ cases referred to the Douglas County Attorney last year only 400 came from MPS. For every story collected here it is reasonable to assume that they represent dozens more who are affected who have not written their thoughts in a public way.

Nebraska Family Forum: What we Stand For

Mission:

NFF Guiding Principles:

Family is Key: We believe the family is the single most important element to a child’s ability to learn and be successful in school and life, and parents are the foundation upon which family success rests. For this reason, it’s imperative that the state honor the authority of parents as they exercise their natural rights, obligations, and responsibilities to raise, manage, direct, and educate their children.

Freedom in Education is essential: We believe that flexibility in education, school choice, stimulating curriculum, quality teachers, and innovative education reforms are essential to a family centered education. We support policies that will lead to greater parental influence in education innovation, curriculum, and choice.

Family struggles are a healthy part of life: We believe that the fundamental right of a parent does not cease to exist simply because a parent may fail to be a model parent. Parents often struggle to meet the needs of their children, but this is not in itself sufficient cause for unwanted and unwarranted government intrusion into family life. We join with Father Steven Boes of Boys Town in "proclaiming that not only are there no bad boys, as Father Flanagan taught, but there are no bad families.” There is always at least one person in a family that wants what is best for their children and is willing to ask for and receive the help they need.

Government Intrusion can be Harmful: We believe that the right of parents to raise their children without undue government interference is a fundamental liberty that has long been protected by the Constitution of the United States and is not void upon the enrollment of ones child in a public school. We warn that governments who seek to micro-manage the everyday choices of parents in pursuit prescribed outcomes, will do great harm to the integrity of the family and by extension, the well-being of children and society as a whole.

The Simple Truths

Children have to be educated, but they have also to be left to educate themselves. ~ Ernest Dimnet

Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught. ~ Oscar Wilde

Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire. ~ William Butler Yeats

Education is simply the soul of a society as it passes from one generation to another. ~ Gilbert K. Chesterton

Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten. ~ B. F. Skinner

Education... has produced a vast population able to read but unable to distinguish what is worth reading. ~ G. M. Trevelyan

Every educated person is a future enemy. ~ Martin Bormann

I prefer the company of peasants because they have not been educated sufficiently to reason incorrectly. ~ Michel de Montaigne

In the first place, God made idiots. That was for practice. Then he made school boards. ~ Mark Twain

It is a thousand times better to have common sense without education than to have education without common sense. ~ Robert Green Ingersoll

Much education today is monumentally ineffective. All too often we are giving young people cut flowers when we should be teaching them to grow their own plants. ~ John W. Gardner

No man who worships education has got the best out of education... Without a gentle contempt for education no man's education is complete. ~ Gilbert K. Chesterton

Real education must ultimately be limited to men who insist on knowing, the rest is mere sheep-herding. ~ Ezra Pound

The object of education is to prepare the young to educate themselves throughout their lives. ~ Robert M. Hutchins

The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education. ~ Albert Einstein

To the uneducated, an A is just three sticks. ~ A. A. Milne

Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school. ~ Albert Einstein

The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next. ~ Abraham Lincoln

My mother said I must always be intolerant of ignorance but understanding of illiteracy. That some people, unable to go to school, were more educated and more intelligent than college professors. ~aya Angelou

Dad kept us out of school, but school comes and goes. Family is forever.

I hated school. Even to this day, when I see a school bus it's just depressing to me. The poor little kids. ~ Dolly Parton

True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country. ~ Kurt Vonnegut

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Wednesday, November 30, 2011

The Smallwood Family

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