What is a Suitable Education?

In July 2024 I was invited to give two ten minute talks at the Global Home Education Conference in Manchester, England.

Those talks were not recorded at the time, so I recorded them a few weeks later when I presented them to another group of people.

On this occasion I reversed the order of the talks , and took a little longer than the original time allotted!

This is the second of the recordings, and lasts for 18 minutes.

In this presentation I consider a juxtaposition buried in the foundations of the Human Rights movement. Here we frequently discover that the natural role of parents in educating their children is subordinated to international organisations as they prescribe the values future generations should be taught.

I then ask whether it is possible for any state to teach or to assess young people's skills without imposing its collective values upon them.

When seeking to decide who should define exactly what comprises a suitable education, it should be recognised that states overstep any responsibility they claim to have when they seek to impose their values on the children of their citizens.

It is for governments to demonstrate that they can do the one without the other.