4. Child's Right, or State's Right?



by C.C.M.Warren M.A.(Oxon), Retired Professional Educator


Today, 23 March 2010, the Swedish Government places a bill before Parliament to decide whether to continue as a truly pluralist democratic state or to take a major leap down the dangerous road of conformism, totalitarianism and fascism. Before our politicians cast their vote in June, I wanted a final word in what may possibly be my last few weeks as a free man.


Those of you who have been following the developments of the last few months in this website, Rohus and other pro-homeschooling websites in Sweden, and have heard the debates between homeschoolers and politicians, will have discovered that state representatives constantly repeat the same old mindless mantra:


  • 1. It is the children's RIGHT to be state schooled;
  • 2. It is the children's RIGHT to have the social interaction that only state school can provide; and
  • 3. What we are doing is SCIENTIFIC.


Let's take these statements in turn.


1. It is the children's RIGHT to be schooled. What does that even mean? One thing that it does not mean is that a child can choose the kind of education it wants - whether to be in a state school, a private school, a free school or to be educated at home. In the language of Rights, when someone has a right, it means that they can make a choice for something. Are our children been given a choice here? Can they decide for themselves what they want? No. Well, that is what a RIGHT is. If I have the "right" to free speech, it means that I can do the free speaking, not that someone else can do the free speaking for me! When politicians say that a child has the RIGHT to be schooled (in a state school) they do not mean that a child can choose - what they mean is that THE STATE CAN CHOOSE FOR THEM - IT'S THE STATE'S RIGHT! When Domenic Johannsson was kidnapped by armed Gotland police and placed into state care because he was being homeschooled, they bleated the nonsense that he had a RIGHT to be schooled. Right? What utter nonsense! He had no rights at all. He wants to go home!! So let us be plain and honest here: when totalitarian-minded politicians say that a child has the "RIGHT" to be state schooled, they are not talking about the rights of any child but the RIGHT OF THE STATE to COMPELL A CHILD TO BE STATE SCHOOLED ACCORDING TO THEIR WILL AND FASCIST MINDSET. That is the plain and ugly truth;


2. It is the children's RIGHT to have the social interaction that only school can provide. This is total nonsense again. The school environment is a totally UNNATURAL environment and won't be repeated in the child's life as an adult unless he joins the military. They say that only in a school environment will the children develop the skills to deal with people from different backgrounds and that homeschooling denies them this "right". Again nonsense. As numerous studies show, not only do homeschooled pupils meet people from all sorts of backgrounds they meet them both as children and adults in the real world. The homeschooled child meets people as they are in real life, not in the artificial cloistered, bully-infested and conformist environment of a school. For this and other reasons numerous studies have shown that homeschoolers are socially adept and competent, as you would expect in a more natural environment? Why? Because we allow them to think for themselves and not be bullied by just one mindset...and that is why they respect us as parent-teachers; and


3. What we are doing is SCIENTIFIC. It seems that just as patriotism is abused by the unscrupulous and is the the last resort of a scoundrel, so science is abused to justify totalitariasm just as it was in communist Russia and nazi Germany. I am a scientist and the arguments I have heard from the totalitarians are not scientific! Theirs is just one particular form of political philosophy that tries to hide under the mantle of science to make it seem respectable, just as communists and fascists have always done. True science is apolitical and non-religious;


It is not my purpose today to write another book, though I could, and if Sweden becomes fascist after June then I probably will be forced to because suddenly from being a respectable law-abiding citizen I will become a criminal, which I am not, and no clique of crypto-fascists is ever going to call me one and get away with it. They can call me a counter-revolutionary, which would be the truth, but criminal, no. I think the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal established who the real criminals are.


I really hope that politicians today will do the right thing and not be fooled by all the propaganda. As homeschoolers we have already won the moral debate. British politicians rightly rejected the desire by the totalitarian mindset to regulate homeschooling in April 2010 and so should the Swedish parliament. It is now up to our elected representitives to see us right. I want the best for Sweden and I would like it to actually live up to its claim to be a Social Utopia. It isn't that yet - far from it - but if it makes homeschooling illegal it will becomes something else which Swedes can have no basis for pride in - a GULAG.


In June I may be a "criminal" and not long afterwards I may be a political refugee from tyranny. If I am I will making a lot more noise than I already am. If I am not, I will applaud Swedish democracy and say, very well done.


A final note for the record: I will not resist as the Johannssons did - I will either send my children to state school (highly unlikely) or leave Sweden (more than likely) just so there is no pretext for any nazi-minded state official to fine me, imprison me, or kidnap my children. So if either of these things happen it will not be because I have broken any new "law". And if homeschooling becomes illegal, I will not sink into a deep depression and commit suicide - I am not that kind of person. So should I 'accidentally' die, it will not be an 'accident' or 'suicide'. Just so you know.



Postscript (December 2010)


The Swedish Parliament, to their great shame and disgrace, passed the Education Bill, banned a fundamental human right, outlawed Homeschooling and made its practice a criminal offense. As of today, homeschooling families are fleeing the country, and of those who remain, many are being heavily fined by fascist municipalities (e.g. Gothenburg and Uppsala) without the right of appeal, and one family has been completely destroyed by the Gotland Municipality, having lost their child to state custody, the mother had a complete breakdown, and the father is languishing in prison. Now all education in Sweden is state-controlled and even the so-called "alternative free schools" are forced to follow an identical curriculum to the state schools.


Welcome to the Swedish Gulag.


"Having complete control over the


education of the youngest members


of the State is always an integral part


of controlling a population"


(Jason Clark)





Copyright © 2009-2010 C.C.M.Warren, M.A.(Oxon) - All Rights Reserved

Last updated on 5 December 2010