The Choice Channel

“The thrust of this paper concerns the blatantly undemocratic American practice of forcing young people into governmentally controlled institutions of learning, colloquially known as schools. What is at stake in the debate over compulsory schooling is nothing less than access to the same defining democratic right that the authors of The Constitution clearly recognized as the foundation from which a truly free society is spawned: the individual right to the pursuit of Happiness. Intrinsically imbedded within the pursuit of Happiness is the right to freely pursue knowledge. Mandatory schooling violates, to the highest degree, the autonomy of the individual to seek and define knowledge for him/herself. Parents are stripped of the basic right to decide the fashion and context their children are to learn about the world.” (12/00)