Threat to Homeschooling
I think the biggest threat to homeschooling is when homeschooling gets confused with “religious” parenting practices, specifically beating children. That happened in the California case recently and seemingly in almost every case the HSLDA defends. It is also mentioned in this case in Sweden.
Christian movement’s home schooling ‘unacceptable’
http://www.thelocal.se/10982/20080408/
In Sweden, it does appear that the state expects to have complete control of religious indoctrination simply by having the children present in the government schools. This is a reminder to North American parents who send their children to public schools. The government knows that it only needs those few hours each school day to indoctrinate children into secular humanism.
If the authorities were really serious about the safety of children, then they wouldn’t focus on the homeschooling element, but rather the fact that the children are in the home at all. In cases where the children really are doing poorly as a result of homeschooling, I suspect that “homeschooling” is only a secondary issue to what is really going on, therefore, it is not the “right to homeschool” that should be threatened.
I find it disturbing to hear fundamentalists cry “persecution” because their “right” to beat their children is questioned.
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