I am wearing an
orange shirt today to show my support for residential school
survivors, and my sympathy for all those whose families are affected
by the legacy of those schools.
The history of
residential schools is certainly a reminder of the dangers of
racism, and I don't want to minimize that. But to me it is also a
reminder of the importance of parental rights. I firmly believe that
parents should always have the right to choose whether their children
take part in any sort of education, and the right to have access to their children. If the parents of the children that were
taken to residential schools had not been denied these rights, a lot
of the harm that took place could have been avoided.
It is easy to
underestimate the importance of simply having the right to bring a
child home. A parent cannot always justify or show evidence for why a
child needs to be taken out of a situation. Often the child will
not talk about what is happening to them, and the parent simply has a
gut instinct that something is wrong. When it comes to protecting
children, there is no substitute for the judgement of the parents who
know and love them.
Over the years as a
homeschooling parent, I have met many families for whom the decision
to homeschool was a reaction to a situation in which the well-being of
their child was threatened. I know that there are people striving
to make our schools inclusive and positive for everybody, but the fact is that bullying and abuse will always thrive in
situations where the victim is not able to simply walk away.
The arguments that are made against choice in education today are sometimes reminiscent of the arguments used to justify residential schools. I have heard it argued that parents who don't speak English are not giving their children a proper education. I have heard it argued that parents who teach their children from a religious perspective outside the mainstream are not giving them a proper education.
It seems to me that there is plenty of time in life to learn about English grammar or evolution, but there is only one chance for a safe, loving, childhood. I hope that we will never again see children having that chance so brutally taken away as we did under the residential schools. I also hope that we will continue to progress toward a world where families are valued and given the freedom to seek out the way of life that is best for them.
