Indoctrinate or else?

We're only beginning our second year of homeschooling, but since leaving "the system" it's become more and more apparent how heavy handed the powers that be can act when attempting to maintain their monopoly over the minds of children. In some countries -- like Germany -- homeschooling is illegal. Closer to home, it appears Quebec isn't the model of tolerance it might claim to be, either:

Members of Quebec's only Mennonite community say they may move to Ontario or New Brunswick so they can keep their children in a private school that suits their religious beliefs.

Fifteen English-speaking Mennonite families in this small community in the Monteregie region say they won't send their children to government-approved schools, balking at the teaching of evolution, the acceptance of gays and lesbians and low "morality standards."

They say they are considering relocation out of fear that child-protection officials will seize their children.

The Mennonites established their own school in the late 1990s, initially in a community member's home.

Since 2002, it has been housed in the Church of God in Christ, a spartan, vinyl-sided church down the road from Roxton Falls' steepled Catholic church. Last year, eight children were enrolled in Grades 1 to 7; this fall, 11 students were expected.

Children are taught reading, writing, math, science, geography, social sciences and music. The education is mostly in English, but French is also taught.

For the school to be legal, the teacher would have to be certified and Quebec's official curriculum would have be taught.

"To do that, we would have to send teachers to schools we don't want to send our children to," Mr. Goossen said.

Quebec's Ministry of Education says the Mennonite school is illegal because it doesn't follow the official curriculum. "We are not trying to prevent them from living their life the way they want, but they have to obey the law when it comes to educating their kids," said department spokesman Francois Lefebvre.

The State can make a case for having an interest in making sure SOMEBODY teaches the kids basic life skills--reading, writing, and math. The idea of "official curricula," however, inevitably bumps into freedom of conscience issues, as it does here. Children do NOT belong to the State, and no official can soothingly claim to be letting people "live life the way they want" when they are simultaneously cramming alien ideas into the minds of their children.

For all the worship of "tolerance," the dominant worldview of the West (no longer Christianity) brooks very little resistance to its statist agendas. Something to think about.