"The respect of parent's
freedom to educate their children according to their
vision of what education should be has been part of international
human rights standards since their very emergence."
(The
Special Rapporteur to the United Nations Commission on
Human Rights 8th April 1999)
Parents are responsible for the education
of their offspring regardless of whether they are in school
or out of it. In law the right to an education is an obligatory
right, it may neither be denied to, nor refused by, a child.
Thus since children may not refuse education
and there is no academic consensus on what constitutes an effective
education, we believe that the state must be flexible in defining
what a 'suitable' education is.
Even though the law expresses the right
to home educate as a parental right, it is my belief that,
in the same way that young people have the right to decide
upon medical procedures, a specific education should not be
imposed upon them. This is not only right in principle but
in practice, since intrinsically motivated learning will most
readily "achieve that which it sets out to achieve".
Learning cannot happen against a person's wishes. |
