Whose Children Are They?

In an MSNBC promo, Melissa Harris-Perry, MSNBC host and Tulane University professor, promotes the radical and controversial idea that “we have to break through our kind of private idea that kids belong to their parents or kids belong to their families and recognize that kids belong to whole communities.”

This isn’t a new idea—Hillary Clinton made waves with her book, It Takes a Village, in 1996. Right around that time the Clinton Administration introduced the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child for ratification by the U.S. Senate.

HSLDA steadfastly opposed this treaty then—and still does today—recognizing that it threatens to impose the state between parents and children.

In a 2010 article analyzing the dangers to homeschooling freedom, Mike Farris warned, “ there is a third wave coming. And I doubt that many of you have any idea of the intensity and breadth of the elitist movement that is taking dead aim at [the homeschooling] movement.”

He continued, “The CRC is the first international human rights document dealing with parents and children that fails to embrace the prior right of parents to direct the education and upbringing of their children [recognized in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1948].”

“The ‘It takes a village to raise a child’ crowd believes that all children are children of the village. Any parental decision-making authority regarding education is a mere delegation of a core power from the government, and all prior claims over the development of the hearts and minds of children reside with the village and not with the family.

“Have I gotten your attention?...

“If we do not take these threats seriously, it means we have neither common sense nor spiritual perception.”

Today the Romeike family is facing deportation from the U.S. because Attorney General Eric Holder doesn’t believe that the right of parents to direct the upbringing and education of their children is a fundamental right worthy of protection.

This is why HSLDA exists—to stand in the gap. To defend the right of all parents to exercise their conscience in the education of their children. To provide a way for homeschoolers to come together to protect homeschooling freedom for today and tomorrow.

Will you stand with us?

Courtesy HSLDA. Used with permission.

Home School Legal Defense Association is a nonprofit advocacy organization established to defend and advance the constitutional right of parents to direct the education of their children and to protect family freedoms. Through annual memberships, HSLDA is tens of thousands of families united in service together, providing a strong voice when and where needed.

Publication date: April 10, 2013