August 12, 2006
Homeschooling as a criminal offense
Did you ever wonder what would happen if the whole world got to decide how you were allowed to raise your children? What would happen if laws based on politically correct diplomatic doublespeak became the law of the land?
Yesterday my husband Paul Belien, the editor of this website, was summoned to the police station and interrogated. He was told that the Belgian authorities are of the opinion that, as a homeschooler, he has not adequately educated his children and, hence, is neglecting his duty as a parent, which is a criminal offence. The Ministry of Education has asked the judiciary to press charges and the judiciary told the police to investigate and take down his statement.
Three years ago a new school bill was introduced. The new bill refers to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and it obliges homeschooling parents to fill out a questionaire and sign an official “declaration of homeschooling” in which they agree to school their children “respecting the respect [sic] for the fundamental human rights and the cultural values of the child itself and of others.”Things like this should chill freedom minded people to the bone. Imagine having some faceless, nameless, self important bureaucrats walk into your home and tell you that your obviously well educated children are not being acceptably schooled because they were not indoctrinated with the government approved political and cultural beliefs.The declaration does not specify what “respecting the respect for the fundamental human rights and the cultural values of the child itself and of others” means. It states, however, that government inspectors decide about this and adds – and here is the crux of the matter – that if the parents receive two negative reports from the inspectors they will have to send their child to an official government recognized school.
Posted by Sid at August 12, 2006 12:48 PM | Other
