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The Challenges Ahead for Home Schooling
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Volume 39, Program 15
8/9/2002
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Do you think that home schoolers are in the clear when it comes to their right to home educate? Today on Home School Heartbeat, Michael Smith, talks with Tom Washburne, about the challenges ahead for home schooling families.
Michael Smith:
Tom, this week we've been talking about a paper by Dr. Rob Reich that challenges parents' rights and home schooling. Do you think home school families can expect some real challenges to their freedom in the coming days?
Tom Washburne:
Mike, the challenge is certainly coming. We have spoken this week of the threat to the constitutional rights of parents to direct the education of their children. The legal question is really interesting, but when we ask the question "why", we should really be concerned. For what is happening is this: The children of home schoolers are largely beyond the reach of the government, and most certainly beyond the reach of academics who believe they know better than parents. This simply drives the education establishment crazy. And it drives them into a frenzy when they learn that children are being educated by Christians in Christian homes. That children are being taught truth as truth. You see, relativism—that there is no truth—dominates the popular culture. And while popular culture can tolerate many things, the teaching of truth is not one of them. I don't want to be a fear-monger, but we've got to be diligent in preserving our rights as parents, or we will lose them. We are on strong constitutional grounds, but we cannot take it for granted that the victory is over once and for all.
Michael Smith:
Tom, thank you for presenting the challenges to the basic concepts of parental freedom in home education.
Rob Reich's assertions really do attack the core of home schooling. Tom Washburne has written an excellent response piece, and you can get your copy absolutely free, just by requesting The Boundaries of Parental Authority. Call us toll free at 866-338-8614. That's 866-338-8614.
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Washburn refutes the idea that children should be burdened with adult “rights of choice.” He points to the real issue motivating home schooling critic Robert Reich to argue that children have an interest in education separate from the state’s and separate from their parents—namely that home school children are beyond the influence of the educational elite’s relativistic worldview.
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