Recently while I was looking for something online, I came across the sequel to the Mr. Pointy Nose story, written by homeschool mom Tammy Drennan. Now, if you are a homeschooler and you have not read Mr. Pointy Nose, you simply must. It will encourage you and make you laugh. I think I posted it once before... oh yes,
here it is. And now here's part two, a bit more serious, but still very entertaining, and educational for us parents, too:
Sister heard the knock on the door first, but Brother beat her to it. It
was Mr. Pointy Nose, the truant officer who had visited many months
earlier with dire warnings about homeschooling and had left a friend,
with a bread recipe.
“It’s the man from the state!” Brother yelled. Mother rushed from the
kitchen with Baby on her hip and sighed in relief when she saw their
guest. “Please, come in,” she said.
Mr. Pointy Nose took a chair in the living room and Sister went for refreshments.
“What brings you all the way out here again?” Mother asked.
“Well,” said Mr. Pointy Nose, “two things, actually. First, I wanted to
let you know that I’ve quit my job and I’m moving to Montana.”
Mother was surprised. Brother was ecstatic. “Oh, wow! Montana! That’s a
big state! They have a lot of steer and horses and even buffalo. Can we
come visit you?”
Mother signaled Brother to calm down. “What will you do in Montana?” she asked Mr. Pointy Nose.
“I have a brother who owns a ranch out there. I thought I’d try my hand
at cattle herding.” He smiled sheepishly, as if he knew how unsuited for
such work he seemed. “It’s always good to learn new things,” he added.
“I think it’s a wonderful idea,” Mother said.
“Can we visit?” Brother asked again, ignoring Mother’s warning glare.
“I’d be happy to have you,” Mr. Pointy Nose said, “but you know it’s
hundreds of miles from here.” Brother nodded and ran for an
encyclopedia.
“On a more serious note,” Mr. Pointy Nose continued, “A new truant
officer has been assigned, and I’m afraid she won’t be so easily won
over. She’s on a low-carb diet.”
Mother burst into laughter. Mr. Pointy Nose was starting his new life with a new sense of humor.
“Really,” Mr. Pointy Nose said, “she’s a tough one. Takes her job and
herself very seriously. I didn’t want you to be surprised.”
Mother thanked Mr. Pointy Nose for the heads-up and wrapped some
homemade strudel for his journey. He left amidst wishes of good luck and
even some hugs.
After the children were in bed, Mother and Father talked long into the
night. Sister and Brother tip-toed out of their room and sat in the
hallway for many moments watching the light under their parents’ door
and worrying in whispers about the new truant officer. They weren’t
doing anything wrong, of course. As a matter of fact, they were doing
many things quite right. But they worried nonetheless.
The family didn’t have to wait long to meet the new truant officer. She
showed up at their door two days after Mr. Pointy Nose. “Ms. No-Bread”
the children decided to call her in private, even after Mother gave them
a disapproving look. “Well,” Sister said, “it’s not mean. She doesn’t
like to eat bread, does she?”
Ms. No-Bread was tall and even sterner than Mr. Pointy Nose had let on.
After a brief and official introduction, she announced, “Your children
belong in school.”
“My children are in school,” Mother said calmly. “We homeschool.”
“We live at school,” Brother added, even as Sister tugged at the back of
his shirt. Brother was only seven and still not very good at knowing
when he should keep quiet.
Ms. No-Bread’s eyebrows drew together until they touched. “That’s not school and it’s not legal.”
Mother turned and handed Baby to Sister. “I think there must be a
misunderstanding,” she said when she turned back to Ms. No-Bread.
“Homeschooling is perfectly legal and has been very good for my
children.”
Ms. No-Bread harrumphed and stomped back to her car, warning, “We’ll see about that!”
The next day, the family was served with papers to appear in court. That
night, Mother and Father stayed up late talking again. Sister and
Brother sat in the hall again. Brother fumed, “I should have set a trap
for that lady.”
“What would you do with her if you caught her?” Sister asked.
Brother thought this over for a long time. “I would get Daddy to drive her far away and leave her there. In Montana.”
Sister laughed. “That wouldn’t be a very nice thing to do to Mr. Pointy Nose.”
The day of their hearing arrived and the whole family went together.
Brother was under orders to be on his best behavior. Father and Mother
had decided they would represent themselves and that Mother would speak
for the family.
Ms. No-Bread presented her case before the judge, then shocked the
family by asking that the children be removed to foster care while the
case was under investigation. It was with great effort that Mother
gathered her wits to speak.
“Your honor,” she said, when it was her turn. “I’m sure this lady has
the best of intentions, and I’m glad she cares so much about children.”
Mother held her breath for a second.
“Our family has been homeschooling for nine years,” Mother continued. “I
have to be honest and tell you that we would do it with or without the
blessing of the state, but it does happen that homeschooling is legal in
our state and that we are not in violation of the law.”
The judge leaned forward. Mother hoped she hadn’t shocked him, or
offended his sense of authority. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw
Brother lean forward, too. He and Sister were sitting on the front row,
because they had begged to be close to Mother — just in case. Father sat
near the back with Baby, because Baby wasn’t always very quiet. Only a
handful of others sat scattered about the courtroom — two other
homeschool families who had come to support Mother and Father, and some
people there for their own hearings.
“You’re telling me,” the judge said, more surprised than angry, “that you would knowingly break the law if it didn’t suit you?”
Mother cleared her throat. “Yes, your honor, I would. You see, a law
that forcibly takes children from their parents to be educated by the
state is both unconstitutional and unconscionable. For the good of my
children and for the sake of liberty, I would be forced to choose what
is right over what politicians had concluded should be the fate of my
children.”
The judge was rapt now. He gathered his robes and descended from his bench. Ms. No-Bread gasped.
The judge motioned for Mother to sit in a nearby chair and he took one
opposite her. “Please, continue,” he said. Ms. No-Bread tried to
protest, but the judge motioned her to sit also. “Doesn’t this fascinate
you?” he asked her.
Brother could contain himself no longer and ran to his mother and sat on her lap. She wrapped her arms around him and spoke.
“I know that many parents feel intimidated by the state system of
education, but they do have the right to choose freedom. It’s wrong for
the state to take children by force. It’s wrong for it to force its own
curriculum and ideology on children, its own vision of the future, its
own agenda for society. It’s the role of citizens to create their own
future, based on their own individual visions. That’s how we came to be
the United States of America and the freest nation on earth. The people,
not the state, created America. Now the government has decided the
people can no longer be trusted — not even to raise their own children.”
Ms. No-Bread rose to protest again, but the judge interrupted her. “What do you think of this, ma’am?”
Ms. No-Bread stuttered a few incoherent words and sat down.
“Go on,” the judge said to Mother. “You have my interest.”
“Your honor,” Mother went on, “the state is our servant, not our master.
Since when does the servant order the master to turn over his children
and threaten to lock him up if he won’t?”
The judge looked thoughtful. “But some parents, all too many, maybe,
won’t see to their children’s education as they should. In the long run,
that costs the state money — welfare, prisons, tax revenues.”
Mother looked doubtful. “Maybe,” she said. “On the other hand, it’s hard
to imagine it getting much worse than it is now — with most children in
state schools. Could it be that the state has taken on a job never
intended to fall to it and is paying the consequences? The family is not
some program instituted by politicians. It’s the natural way of life, a
law of nature, so to speak. Laws of nature are usually violated at
considerable risk to the offender.”
The judge leaned back in his chair. “Whoa. You’ve given this some thought. Go on.”
“Maybe,” Mother said, “much of the dysfunction we see in society today
is because the state has taken over the role of parents. Maybe state
schooling is actually a major cause of our problems, for the very reason
that it defies the laws of nature.”
“But,” the judge began.
Mother held up her hand. “Please, if you don’t mind, I’d like to make one more point.”
The judge nodded and Ms. No-Bread looked as if she might cry, or maybe explode.
“A few people argue that because some parents will fail to see to their
children’s education all children should be forced into state schools.
This seems an odd line of reasoning to me. What else do we apply it to?
Do we require children to be nourished by the state because some parents
will feed them poorly? Poor nutrition costs the state — in healthcare,
lost taxes from lost earnings, and welfare. Do we force all adults to
exercise daily? Adult lethargy costs the state plenty. Do we monitor the
daily activities of all citizens because some will commit crimes? Crime
costs the state a tremendous amount of money. Why the preemptive action
against potential imperfections in parent-controlled education but
nowhere else?”
The judge rubbed his chin. “That’s a good question. Why, indeed?” He turned to Ms. No-Bread. “What do you think?”
“I don’t think,” she snapped. “I just do my job. Smarter people than me came up with this system.”
The judge turned to Mother and raised his eyebrows.
“The history of our system is another story,” she said, “and there’s not
time to get into it now. But common sense serves just as well to
determine what’s right. We may deem other people’s imperfections worse
than our own, but that does not give us the right to take away their
children and indoctrinate them according to our own perceived perfection
—“
At this, Ms. No-Bread stood and blurted out, “What about people who
abuse their children? How will we ever know if they aren’t in school?”
Mother nodded. “Child abuse is a horrible thing, but most abused
children already attend state schools where the abuse goes unnoticed or
even ignored. Some are even abused in schools without any repercussions.
But again, are we prepared to monitor all families because a few do
wrong? Is that what you would want if you had children?”
Ms. No-Bread didn’t respond. She sat down and glared out a window.
“People are not perfect,” Mother said. “There is plenty that needs to be
done to help parents do their job better. But that is not the role of
the state. The perfecting of imperfect human beings by their fellow
imperfect human beings should be done by persuasion, not coercion.”
Brother had drifted off to sleep and Mother shifted him on her lap so
his head rested more comfortably against her shoulder. A heavy silence
hung in the atmosphere, one of thoughtfulness.
“I won’t take much more of your time,” Mother said. “But I would like to
emphasize that I did not bring children into the world to fulfill
someone else’s vision for the future. As you well know, there are
dozens, maybe hundreds, of competing visions within education circles.
And, as I’m also sure you know, the winning theories are those of people
with the most will and money to influence politicians and others in
authority. The law then attempts to take my children by force and make
them submit to the winner’s ideology. The only thing that stands between
this grasp for my children and their freedom is their father and me. If
I won’t protect them, who will? So, yes, even if it meant breaking the
law, I would protect my children from becoming pawns in this deadly game
of who is most perfect and therefore justified in taking away the
children to prepare them for the correct future.”
Brother stirred and looked around. “Are we done yet?” he asked. The
judge stood and ruffled Brother’s hair. “Yes, son, we’re done. Go home
and learn all you can so you can make as convincing a case for freedom
as your mother has done.”
Brother leapt from Mother’s lap, ran over to Ms. No-Bread and threw his
arms around her. “You can come visit us sometime,” he said. “We can give
you roast beef instead of bread.”
Ms. No-Bread looked bewildered and embarrassed, but also a little less
stern. A tear slipped down her cheek and she nodded as Brother ran back
to his mother.
Tammy Drennan homeschooled her own sons from 1985 to 2003. She has
worked as a homeschool leader, tutor, workshop leader and writer since
1986. Visit her blog and her web site.
Source: http://www.homeschool-articles.com/mr-pointy-nose-returns
