• Update: Sweden wants to outlaw homeschooling done for religious and philosophical reasons

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• This is an update to my post titled Sweden wants to outlaw homeschooling done for religious and philosophical reasons. This is an important issue, so please have a look at that post.

When I wrote the earlier post I wanted to read the text of the proposed law but was unable to find a way to translate the PDFs. Now HEF has an email from Rohus, the Swedish homeschooling organisation, which says in part

The actual proposed law reads like this:

Chapter 22 (my translation):

§18
A school-aged child can be allowed to fulfill the school obligation in other ways than what is stated in this law. Permission shall be given if…
1) the operation appears to be a fully satisfactory alternative to the education otherwise available to the child according to what is prescribed in this law.
2) insight into the operation [by the authorities] is provided, and
3) there are extraordinary circumstances

§19
Permission according to §18 can be given for up to one year at a time. During this time it shall be tried how the operation turns out. Permission shall immediately be withdrawn if it can be assumed that the prerequisites according to §18 no longer exits. A decision about withdrawal of permission takes effect immediately unless other decisions are made.

[...]
In the preparatory text, the possible acceptable “extraordinary circumstances” are: geographical difficulties, special medical care or a short term stay for foreign families in Sweden.

That’s crystal clear: the Swedish government wants to make homeschooling illegal for Swedish families unless there are geographical difficulties or special medical reasons. Even this will only be allowed if the state authorities believe that the education given is “fully satisfactory” (by their definition, presumably), and if it’s not permission will be withdrawn immediately. It sounds like there’s no appeal and the state thugs will immediately force the children into state schools. Note the use of the word “permission”, which clearly shows that the state considers children to be its dominion or property*. Parents should not need the permission of the state if they wish to homeschool, because their children are their dominion.

As I said in my earlier post, this is Socialism/Marxism with the gloves off, showing it’s true totalitarian arrogance.

Will we see a lot of Swedish homeschool families moving to remote areas?

What do you think about this proposed law?

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Related posts:

Paula Bennett claims ownership of all New Zealand children

A biblical perspective on home schooling and state schooling

The problem with democracy – Part One (Democracy brings in immoral rulers who make this type of law)

*New Zealand is just as evil, requiring parents to get permission for homeschooling and sending state assessors enforcers into homes to check that the standard of education meets the standards required by the state. This is the same state that runs an education system that produces functionally illiterate teenagers who (I presume) stop counting at 20 because they run out of fingers and toes (males have an advantage and can go all the way to 21).

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• Sweden wants to outlaw homeschooling done for religious and philosophical reasons

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This is from Rohus, a Swedish homeschooling organisation. My comments are in blue:

The 16th of June, 2009, the Swedish Government presented its proposal for a new Swedish School Law, that has been in the works for many years.

The position on homeschooling in the suggested law is a return to darkness. It is unbelievable. Homeschooling will NOT be permitted for those referring to philosophical or religious reasons according to the European convention on Human Rights!

The added words used to make home education virtually impossible, are FOUR:

“Education otherwise is allowed if… there exist extraordinary circumstanses.”

“Education otherwise” means education outside the state system. What is the definition of “extraordinary reasons”?

The reason given is:

“…that the education in school should be comprehensive and objective and thereby designed so that all pupils can participate, regardless of what religious or philosophical reasons the pupil or his or her care-takers may have.” (our emphasis)

This is essentially dishonest. State education always has and always will teach the state ideology; after all, the state does write the curriculum. Remember that one of the ten steps for the transition to communism proposed by Marx is free state education. In the Communist Manifesto he also says:

“Do you charge us with wanting to stop the exploitation of children by their parents? To this crime we plead guilty.

But, you say, we destroy the most hallowed of relations, when we replace home education by social.

And your education! Is not that also social, and determined by the social conditions under which you educate, by the intervention direct or indirect, of society, by means of schools, &c.? The Communists have not invented the intervention of society in education; they do but seek to alter the character of that intervention, and to rescue education from the influence of the ruling class”.

Thus, the proposed law argues:

“…there is no need for the law to offer the possibility of homeschooling because of religious or philosophical reasons in the family. All together, this means that this proposed change cannot be said to contradict Sweden’s international obligations [i. e. Human Rights Conventions].”

This is Socialism/Marxism with the gloves off, showing it’s true totalitarian arrogance. Personally I don’t give a damn about Sweden’s international obligations, I just want to see Swedish parents free to choose how they educate their children.

A few families homeschool due to distance or medical problems, but I believe that the vast majority do so for religious or philosophical reasons, so this effectively outlawing the vast majority of homeschooling. This also amounts to discriminaton against religions and philosophies. To put it another way, this is persecution of religions and philosophies by the state. Oh, I forgot: the Church of the State is supreme over all, so that makes persecution of the others ok.

The quotes above are my translations from the proposed law on page 584. The proposed law can be downloaded in Swedish from the Swedish Government homepage – here.

The proposal is now out for review and Rohus will submit a very stern review to the government’s proposal. The review closes on October 1st 2009. The re-working of the proposal will be finished by the spring of 2010. The final proposal will then be voted on by Parliament during the spring/summer of 2010 and will take effect in July of 2011. Due to the many changes in the proposal, it will take about a year for all schools to adapt to it. And for home educators… many may emigrate, if the law ends up the way the proposal reads today.

The Swedish Government is making homeschooling illegal, for religious or philosophical reasons, thus showing off its worst totalitarian socialist roots. We need international support to show that Sweden, as a member of the international democratic community, cannot take such a position. As Sweden is often seen as the great social utopia of the world, it is important for Swedish homeschoolers to win this battle. Any and all help is appreciated immeasurably.

Sensible international comments about the new Swedish school law can be sent to: registrator@education.ministry.se

Please, also sign our petition HERE if you want to support us in our work to ensure that home education stays a legal alternative to school. They’re collecting signatures internationally, so go for it.

To add insult to injury, when Swedish homeschoolers go to the government website they read this:

The new Education Act – for knowledge, freedom and security
[...]
The new Education Act includes education from the kindergarten up to adult education. The law is a coherent laws which will form the base of knowledge, choice and security in all kinds of schools and other activities covered by the Education Act.

If that’s not hypocrisy, what is? What about the “freedom” and “choice” of those who wish to homeschool for religious and philosophical reasons?

I wouldn’t be surprised if Sweden becomes like Germany, where homeschooling is illegal and the state persecutes homeschoolers by taking their children into state custody and fining or imprisoning the parents.

Two words describe the situation in Sweden and Germany: evil and totalitarian.

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I believe that the state should not be involved in education in any way whatsoever.

What do you think about the Swedish government’s plan to outlaw homeschooling for religious and philosophical reasons?

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Hat tip: HEF

Related posts:

Who is responsible for uneducated children? (Part 1)

Paula Bennett claims ownership of all New Zealand children

Does homeschooling impair social skills?

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• Government dropping DPB work rule

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The National government had planned to get beneficiaries (welfare recipients) on the Domestic Purposes Benefit to work part time when their youngest child turned six. In earlier posts I said that this idea would backfire and it placed homeschooling beneficiaries in grave danger of having to send their children to the state brainwashing camps called state schools.

Now the government has dropped the plan, for a daft reason:

…yesterday Social Development Minister Paula Bennett confirmed it was on the backburner because people were being made redundant and jobs were in short supply.

I believe that this is a good move, for two reasons:

• as I said in my earlier post, beneficiaries would have just had more children to to avoid the work rule, resulting in more fatherless children, more life-long problems for those children, more crime, more costs for taxpayers, and more multigenerational welfare dependency
• those beneficiaries who wish to homeschool will be free to do so. Not only will those children be free of state indoctrination, but it is reasonable to assume that the sort of parents willing to do the hard yards of homeschooling are less likely to raise future beneficiaries

Why do I agree with this move when I believe that the state should not provide welfare? Because the DPB work rule would have simply increased the number of people dependent on welfare: dropping the rule is the lesser of the evils.

Related posts:

• Paula Bennett claims ownership of all New Zealand children

• A biblical perspective on home schooling and state schooling

What do you think about the dropping of the work rule?

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The 157th carnival of homeschooling

Click here to view a potpourri of posts on homeschooling.

Basically this gives very brief summaries of each post and a link, so it’s a quick and easy way to read more about homeschooling. Yours truly is featured .

• Does homeschooling impair social skills?

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Updated 28-3-09.

In a comment on an earlier post Ozymandias’ Warning said

I don’t agree that home schooled children are more likely to benefit society because of their academic results, maturity level and independent thought. Yes, generally they are more academic but I would argue they struggle more than state school children to adjust and mix socially.

Whilst I could say much about the first sentence, today I will concentrate on the second sentence*. It is reasonable to assume that the belief behind this sentence is as follows: “Children need to go school to learn the social skills that they are born without. Moreover, homeschooled children will struggle to adjust and mix socially because they did not go to school and learn those vital social skills”. I have three responses to this:

1) whilst children do need contact with other children in order to learn social skills, parents need to control who their children are learning their social skills from. When a child is sent to school parents cannot control who their child meets, and disciplinary standards in schools are so lax that children learn their social skills from undisciplined and rebellious children. A child who learns social skills from undisciplined and rebellious children will almost always be undisciplined and rebellious.

I used to catch a train to work every day and alight at a station full of high school pupils. The train staff regularly lamented the need to carry them and security staff were placed on the train runs that carried those children. Almost without exception those pupils were rude, obstructive, obnoxious, foul-mouthed, slovenly individuals bereft of basic good manners. I wouldn’t want my children learning social skills from them.

2) homeschooled children only struggle to adjust and mix socially if their parents have not given them an opportunity to learn social skills. Some homeschool parents fail to do this, but that is a matter of personal responsibility and no business of the state’s, i.e. it does not justify any state interference in family matters.

3) Whilst it is possible to homeschool children in an unhealthy environment reminiscent of a closed monastic order, homeschooling does allow children to see their parents interacting with other adults and to practise interacting with those adults. Sending your children to school reduces these opportunities by 30 hours per week, more if both parents are working.

My personal observation of homeschooled children is that they have excellent social skills, far ahead of their peers who are schooled in the conventional manner. In part this is because they have, under parental supervision, practised interacting with adults from a wide range of backgrounds and observed their parents interacting with those adults.

Conclusion

Athough children do learn valuable social lessons by interacting with other children, they do not need to go to school to do that. Also, the nature of schools is that children are dragged down towards the lowest common social behavioural denominator, rather than being raised towards the highest one.

I believe that if homeschooled children do have poor social skills it is not caused by homeschooling per se, rather it is usually because the parents have poor social skills. Moreover, my personal observation is that children who have learnt poor social skills from their parents do not learn good social skills by going to school.

What do you think about the effects of homeschooling and conventional schooling on social skills? Please share examples if possible.

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Click here for a biblical perspective on home schooling and state schooling.

* Ozymandias’ Warning: an additional response to your comment can be found on the original post.

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