Tim Grant, Caldron Pool, 3/24
“Should these policy changes be ratified, there will be nowhere for non-conformist families to flee. You will be required to teach your child according to the requirements of the secular state.”
One of the conversations that my wife and I had once we began having children was about the type of schooling we would provide for them. At the time, conversations around the topic of same-sex marriage and gender fluidity were ramping up, and we believed that these pagan perspectives would soon be introduced into the school curriculum.
Although we knew our consciences would eventually require us to homeschool as these ideologies became embedded in the curriculum, what was unexpected was the primary reason we withdrew our Children and began homeschooling.
As a Baptist, one of our primary distinctions is ‘liberty of conscience’ on matters of Christian liberty. During the COVID years, we refused to allow our children to have a state-sanctioned lesson in coercion of conscience, particularly directed toward non-conformist teachers.
As it turns out, our experience was not unique. We are one of 6,637 families that shifted to homeschooling in Queensland during the COVID years. This marks a massive 260% increase in Queensland Homeschooling, with thousands more believed to be unregistered.
This has naturally caught the attention of the Queensland State Labour government. Labour is not a party known to promote small government and self-governance, rather its socialist-leaning policies tend towards collectivism. Therefore, independent and home education stands in direct contrast to Labours modus operandi. Labour, through the Facebook page of Di Farmer, Minister for Education, has therefore introduced policy changes to bring homeschool education in Queensland in line with the Australian Curriculum.
One would think that the reason for this proposal by the Labour Government is a result of statistical evidence that homeschooled children are falling behind their state and private school peers. This is however not the case. The reason has been explicitly stated as the result of a young person who was homeschooled and committed suicide. The report outlining this case states: “The young person’s experiences led the Board to consider the regulatory oversight of, and support for, children registered for home education in Queensland.”
Tragic? Absolutely. However, if the child was abused by the parents, the correct response for the state is not to intervene in the life of every homeschooling family, but rather to prosecute the parents.
Di Famers March 6th post that announced these proposed policy changes is heavily ratioed. It has nearly 1000 dislikes, which are reflected in the comments. Queensland Labour has stirred the hornet’s nest of homeschoolers, and unsurprisingly so! Consider the diverse reasons why a family chooses to homeschool:
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QLD State Government Targets Homeschoolers
This is very well done, well thought out, in black in white.
The solution is to replace Di Farmer and any others who think that way at the next election, assuming Queensland’s government works that way. I’m not familiar with that myself.
Government should be by the people and for the people, not exclusively for its own alien totalitarian entity with an alien identity.
That “Not Acceptable!” page appeared here to block my comment. I took corrective action.