Do we, as human beings and parents, have the right to decide who and how we will educate our children?
Or does the state, as part of its efforts to the “greater good” (e.g. to ensure the child’s proper socialization) have the right to use force to compel our kids to be taught by the state’s teachers and/or using the state’s curriculum?
There are a number of philosophical, religious, or pragmatic reasons why a parent may wish to home school their child outside the public school system. A few examples
- Religious – Can a christian (or muslim, buddhist, jew…) parent decide to home school as part of their effort to teach more biblical history and other topics in accordance with their God’s will?
- Philosophical – Can a libertarian parent decide to home school in light of their moral and pragmatic objections to taxation, collectivism and government generally?
- Philosophical – On the opposite side of the continuum, can communist/socialist/egalitarian parents home school because they object to the teaching and/or glorification of the US Constitution and history and our culture’s general focus on individual rights?
- Pragmatic – Can an artist/musician parent home school their very gifted child which is already showing signs of being the next prodigy?
- Pragmatic – Can a parent whose child has a learning disability combined with passion only for topics X, Y and Z, home school that child in order to spend more time adapting to the specific needs and interests of their child?
The rights of parents and their children remains a controversial and complicated subject, but it boils down to a basic perspective on who has the right and best claim to ownership/guardianship of the child – – the child’s parents, or the government?
I would obviously advocate the parents as proper and just guardians. However, parents can lose their guardianship rights over the child only in those rare and extreme circumstances where they have basically abandoned their guardianship role (e.g. either by outright abandonment (leaving the child at the fire station doorstep) or physical abuse).
The Obama Administration appears to believe that children are primarily the property and/or responsibility of the government. Accordingly, they do not appear to believe home schooling is a right – – agreeing with the German government. In this story below, Obama and his ICE Department cronies are actively trying to deport a homeschooling family from the US back to Germany where the parents potentially risk losing custody of their children.
As reported by Todd Starnes of FoxNews
Obama Admin Wants to Deport Christian Home School Family
There certainly is an abundance of homeschooling information available and this is a good thing… for the most part… as long as you don’t get bogged down in overload and suffer paralysis by analysis. There are a lot of wonderful articles and tips to help you insure your homeschool success.”‘;..
http://www.healthwellnessbook.com
See you later