Religion is not a valid reason for breaking the law
Posted by: Jenny Penny in Education, Religion, SwedenThe Christian fundamentalist* church Maranata has illegally been homeschooling children for years, reports Existens, a Swedish public service TV program. Homeschooling in Sweden is only allowed if the child is very ill, or lives in a remote location far from a school. Homeschooling for religious reasons is not allowed, and yet Maranata has been able to do this for years. Apparently they were given a permit in the 1970s and since then it has just continued, even though the law says that the permit needs to be renewed yearly. Evidently, neither the Stockholm municipality or the National Agency for Education (Skolverket) has been doing their job properly.
Many churches start their own schools, but Maranata doesn’t want to do that, since then they would have to follow the national law on education, which wouldn’t allow them to spank children and teach the Bible as the TruthTM. Home schooling should, as the name suggests, take place in the home, not in some defacto “school”, but this is what Maranata has been doing: the home schooled children has been educated together in something called “Pilgrimsskolan” (”the Pilgrim school”). A “school” which is under no control from the school authorities and does not follow the Swedish law. Fortunately Lotta Edholm, politician with responsibility for schools in Stockholm, has promised to make sure that the homeschooling is discontinued after this semester. The reply from Maranata is that if that is the case, they will break the law and continue to brainwash their kids**.
A while ago, the liberal party Folkpartiet proposed that the police should be allowed to pick up truant students. But I haven’t heard anybody propose that these children, whose parents/educators are breaking the law both when it comes to homeschooling, compulsory school attendance, and spanking, should be picked up by the police and the parents prosecuted. I’m not proposing that either, but it’s an interesting observation.
And what about when these children enter high school (or do they home school in those levels also?) - according to the law, you need grades to enter high school, but are the grades given in this “school” valid? What about university attendance? Are these children given education in all subjects needed to enter college? Do they have chemistry labs where they can do experiments? Certified language teachers? Well-rounded education about other religions? Certified biology teachers who teach sex ed the way it is outlined in the curriculum?
Seriously, I don’t understand why religious schools are allowed - religion is a private matter and if parents want to install a certain faith in their children, they can do so off school hours. And it is the responsibility of the state to make sure that all kids are in school - we have compulsory school attendance and being of a certain faith does not give you a free pass to break the law. Maranata and other such churches may want to shun society, but they are still members of this society and citizens of this country, and their responsibilities and duties does not end just because they believe in God (or Allah, the Earth Goddess or the Pink unicorn in the sky).
*Don’t jump on me for calling them fundamentalist, that’s what the leader of Maranata’s Stockholm parish, Tage Johansson, is calling himself.
**Again, not my wording: read the article in The Local where Tage Johansson says that the children are brainwashed in order to free them “from the degrading effects of society”.
(Read more: Svenska Dagbladet here and here, DN here, Dagen here, or the Local in English here)
Edit: As pointed out in comments, I had gotten the name of the leader of Maranata’s Stockholm parish wrong: it’s Tage, not Ture. Sorry for the mix-up.
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April 9th, 2008 at 2:41 pm
Hi! Intrestring blogg. Just some few things about Maranata and the homeschooling.
Homeschooling is not illegal. It is supported by the Swedish law, and by UN’s conventions. The UN convention says clearly that religion IS a valid ground for homeschooling. Sweden reserved against this part of the convention for a time - but finally accepted it, with the motivation: “Under hänvisning till att dagens skolundervisning skall vara objektiv och eleverna således inte tvingas bevistas en undervisning som strider mot föräldrarnas övertygelse samt till att gällande skollag ger möjlighet att fullgöra skolplikten genom fristående skolor eller genom hemundervisning, föreslår kommittén att den svenska reservationen återkallas” (Aprox. “Because the education of today should be objective and the pupil therefore not forced to visit an education that is in conflict with the conviction of the parents, ant that the school law give the possibility to fullfill the school duty by entering free schools ore homeschooling, the comitee proposes that the swedish reservation is withdrawn)
Excuse my bad english. I entered homeschool for nine years - and never had any problem entering high school. I got good grades, and have never been unemployed…
And it’s Tage - not Ture.
//Paulus Eliasson
April 9th, 2008 at 6:34 pm
Paulus, thanks for your comment (and your English is fine!). I agree that home schooled students can get a good education, but I am very critical of religious schools as I have heard countless stories about people who have grown up in very religious and strict homes and who says that going to a public school was their only chance of getting other points of view, hear other ideas, and to get away from a very suffocating and damaging atmosphere. I’m not saying that all religious homes are suffocating and damaging, but some are, and I think it is cruel to deprive these children of the chance to meet people with other ways of looking at the world and to develop their own way of thinking.
I am questioning how a “school” that admittedly does not follow the national curriculum (the reason Maranata doesn’t want to start their own school is that they don’t want to follow the curriculum) can produce students with the knowledge and skills needed for today’s job market or for higher education. And with today’s debate on how bad it is with unlicensed (obehöriga) teachers: why are we allowing some kids be educated by people without teaching credentials?
I am also wondering why religious beliefs should be grounds for home schooling. Where do we draw the line? Some religions (the big ones with lots of followers) are given a free pass, but what if someone said that they wanted to home school because they were satanists, should they be able to do so? And if we speak about ideology: what about Marxists? Nazis? Should they be allowed to home school because their belies are at odds with those of our state and society? Parents can have lots of different beliefs and ideologies, but we (rightly) don’t allow them to pull their kids out of school based on those. Why should (some) religions be treated differently?
April 9th, 2008 at 6:34 pm
Oh, and thanks for pointing out that I had gotten Tage Johansson’s name wrong. I have corrected it now.
April 10th, 2008 at 9:09 pm
Hi again.
Now we’re talking =) Let me try to answer your criticism and questioning of homeschooling.
I agree that a strictly religious home might be destructive for a child, if they don’t get the opportunity to question, reason and debate the beliefs of the family. On the other hand - a home full of drug abuse, alcoholism and other things more connected to “atheism” than religion tend to be way more destructive. Therefore I don’t belive we can say that a christian education is by default negative.
Well - to comfort us all, I can assure that ecery child in Maranata gets more than the needed portion of critical thinking, debates and reasoning. Many have left the movement already as early teenagers, because they didn’t find the conviction of the church to be their own. So I guess they’re not totally apathic or without possibility to reason with their own mind.
But - even though some have left; I have heard very little or no criticism from these persons concerning the home school.
Who can be a better educationalist than the parents? Today, the problem of unlicenced teachers is not based upon their lack of academic knowledge, but the pedagogic skills. And I belive that every sound parent know how to threat and teach their own child. And - what they lack in academic knowledge, they meet up with personal engagement and time.
The reason Maranata doesn’t want to start a school, is partly the curriculum, but also partly their negative attitude towards government subsidies. But, let it be clear, that to 99,9%, the education is based upon the national curriculum. The difference is merely that in the homeschooling adds some lessons in bible knowledge and discussions on christian themes.
Of course home schooling should be allowed for every parent - satanist, anarchist or vegetarian. UN says that a parent can choose to educate their child at home, based upon religious or philosophical view. What the government and the state needs to do, is control if the educanional level is in accordance with the plan. On what foundation the parents wants to keep their children at home, is their own business. As long as the kids do well, and are tought all the things they need to know to make sensible reasoning about the questions of this time - I as a christian don’t have a problem with this multi-cultural expression.
April 11th, 2008 at 8:53 am
Hi Paulus, thanks for coming back! I have a cold and on top of that a million things to do today, so I’ll get back and answer you after the weekend. You raise some really interesting points.
Have a good weekend, and my reply will be in on Sunday or Monday.