"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. |
