CURRENT EVENTS IN EDUCATION
This is the first in a series of articles that CHN and NHELD will be publishing in the coming weeks. We chose to do this because we cherish the right of parents to instruct their own children in freedom from government control, and from interference by any other entities that threaten that freedom.
We have always sustained liberty and freedom from the many threats to it that have come before, and we will continue to do so. We watch. We analyze. We take action whenever necessary. Most importantly, we inform the greater community of parents each step of the way.
CHN and NHELD will continue to work to sustain freedom, but we cannot do it alone. It takes each and every parent to join in this continuing effort to understand what is happening, what may be threatening to the parental right to educate your children in freedom. Together, we have been successful in the past in sustaining that freedom. Together, in the future, we hope to continue that success, for us, for our children, and for their children, for years to come.
With that, we begin this series informing you about some of the many changes in education that we have observed in the past few years.
The traditional method of public school education no longer works for hundreds, if not thousands, of children across the country, and in Connecticut. We have observed massive numbers of parents who have withdrawn their children from enrollment in the public school system, for a variety of reasons. It is well known that the public school model has failed in many respects, including, but not limited to: grade inflation: advancing students from grade to grade based on age rather than merit; dumbing down or elimination of academics in favor of social or ideological studies; graduation of students who have not mastered basic reading or writing skills; and, of course, bullying; fights in school; lockdowns; and other anxiety producing events that occur within the school system. Aside from that, other political issues affected a reduction in enrollment, such as mandatory vaccination, and elimination of religious exemptions. That particular political issue also affected the private school method of education because the private schools are subject already, and have been for some time, by regulation from the legislature in the form of laws regarding the reporting of attendance, truancy, physicals, mandatory vaccination, and elimination of religious exemptions.
Most are well aware of the state and local regulation of those two methods of education: public and private school, but many may not be aware of the newer methods of education that have developed because of parents searching for a better fit for their children and their families.
While we in the homeschool community have preserved our freedom and autonomy, despite periodic threats to it during the past thirty years, and we will continue to do so, the newer parents to homeschooling, and parents who newly have left the traditional school systems seeking alternative forms of education, may not be aware of potential threats to the state and local control of their freedom, or of the potential for private entities also to threaten their freedom.
Stay tuned, and stay informed.