Dear Christian Parents
An Appeal for Homeschooling
Comprehensive and Objective Education
Dear Christian Parents,
In Chapter 12 of Dear Christian Parents, I gave you a brief warning and description of the United Nations Convention of the Rights of a Child (CRC). This is a treaty that has been adopted by most of the UN members. The treaty essentially nullifies parental authority over children and replaces it with government authority. Thankfully, the United States has not ratified the CRC, but there is intense international pressure to do so. If ratified, the CRC can be used to usurp any constitutional protections that parents have. Technically, international treaties do not supersede the Constitution, but the general public has been taught to believe that treaties have greater authority, and the government will likely take advantage.
The usurpation of parental rights by the CRC is now on full display in Sweden, where homeschooling has been declared illegal. In a letter to U.S. Senator Roy Blunt, Swedish Ambassador to the United States Jonas Hafström cited the CRC as justification for his country’s unjustifiable violations of parental rights. Notice his own words:
“Sweden believes in defending the rights of the child, and as a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, Sweden offers strong legal protection to the rights of children,” said Hafström.  “All children in Sweden have the right to education on the same terms and high quality instruction, and we find that compulsory schooling is a way to guarantee that this right is fulfilled for all children.  Under Swedish law, school instruction must be comprehensive and objective.  The government does not find that homeschooling is necessary for religious or philosophical reasons.”
This is a chilling statement from a supposedly free country. The Swedish government’s concept of “comprehensive and objective” education is an exercise of complete totalitarianism. The government has decided what each and every child should be taught, and this is labeled as “objective.” Because the “government does not find that homeschooling is necessary for religious or philosophical reasons,” parents who wish to homeschool are treated as enemies of the state and fined or imprisoned. All of this is done under the guise of “legal protection to the rights of children” according to the CRC.
The situation in Sweden is exactly the reason the CRC must be resisted by all Christian parents in the United States. If the CRC is ratified here, then the government will have greater leverage than ever to mandate any form of education or specific instruction regardless of parental objections. We can see how the CRC is used in Sweden and other parts of Europe to justify the outlawing of homeschooling, and it would likely be used in the same way in the United States. Closer to home, we can see how the Canadian province of Alberta now seeks to impose “diversity training” on all children, including homeschooled students. This so-called diversity training will indoctrinate all children in matters of religion, sexuality, and sexual orientation. Under the CRC, such mandates are justified and encouraged, for governments are trusted with the final decisions for children’s education rather than parents.
This type of intrusion into families and violation of parental rights is the next step in the evolutionary process of ever-expanding government education. For generations, parents have been led like sheep down this path, ignorantly and voluntarily surrendering their rights and their children to empty promises of better education. It is time for this to stop. The Biblical pattern for educating children requires parents, not governments, to direct and conduct their children’s training. (For a full presentation of the Biblical pattern, see Chapter 4 of Dear Christian Parents.) Our liberty to follow this pattern is in great danger because we allowed ourselves to drift away from the pattern over the years.
Thus says the LORD, “Stand by the ways and see and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is, and walk in it; and you will find rest for your souls.  But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’” (Jeremiah 6:16)
What will you say?
For more information about these issues, please see this link from the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) website: Global Pressure on Parental Rights Mounting.
May God bless you and your family.
Regards in the Lord,
Stacey


© 2012 Dear Christian Parents



Comprehensive and Objective Education
HomeAbout the BookPurchase the BookMore Letters to YouVideosWho We AreContact Us