You Can Make A Difference in Sweden’s Draconian Education Laws

Please join me in supporting parental and Children’s rights all over the world. Write similar letters in your own voice to the Swedish authorities. Their contact information is here: http://www.sweden.gov.se/sb/d/3469

Open Letter to the Swedish Ambassador to the United States and other Swedish Authorities and Representatives:

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Subject: Hoping Sweden Sets a Good Example for Parental & Children’s Rights in the case of Dominic Johansson...

To His Excellency, Jonas Hafström, Swedish Ambassador to the United States and other Swedish Authorities and Representatives:

My name is Pedro Gelabert, an ordinary citizen of the United States of America, avid proponent of our God-given freedom expressed in parental and children’s rights. Last year I wrote to German authorities concerning the preposterous way they handled a similar homeschooling issue in their country. Thanks to the efforts of many peace keeping citizens of the world, supporters of parental and children’s rights, the issue was recognized internationally and good actions have been taken. There is still more to be done internationally and we hope your country joins in this movement, expressing its wisdom in their love and protection for their citizens. Nothing prevents keeping the peace more than destroying a family by stripping them of their God-given rights.

In the case of Dominic Johansson, you currently have failed to protect his best interests. You are being a very poor parent and an even worse servant of your people if you continue to allow this violation of his rights.

I ask you to request that the Swedish government return Dominic to his family. The social welfare agency has taken custody of Dominic and they have the power to return him to his parents. I respectfully request that they do so immediately. Please! Don’t we all live in a civilized world? Why is this family being treated like common criminals? What is the Swedish government so afraid of?

Second, I believe you are reasonable people, well instructed and wise about how homeschooling allows children to thrive academically and socially. Valid research has demonstrated that homeschooling is a mainstream educational approach that works. This is how education began in the first place! The world doesn’t need any more countries like Germany that repress freedom in education. Any decent and peace keeping government should permit families to opt out of public education because of philosophical or religious convictions. Any repression in this regard is certainly draconian and a step backward from social progress. Repression is an attempt to control stemming from fear. It is political and social bullying.

Sweden is a state party to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. The starting point for children in Sweden is the “…best interests of the child and the child’s right to be heard….”. Social services have an obligation to “intervene and remove a child from the family if the child’s health and development are endangered.” A child should be returned home as soon as possible if it was “in the best interests of the child.”

“The legislative history of the current Education Act states that home schooling in isolated cases, mainly in the lower grades, might be an acceptable substitute for education if a particular external circumstance exists. Examples of such are: if the child lives in a sparsely populated area or needs special care. Legal practice shows that the situation also arises when parents for other reasons, such as philosophical or religious, want to educate their children at home. In connection with the new Education Act, these rules are now being reviewed.”

The proposed language for this new review would remove philosophical or religious convictions as valid reasons to home school. The new law would allow homeschooling only in “extraordinary circumstances” (essentially, never). If the proposed Swedish law passes it would become as bad as in Germany where homeschooling is effectively banned. So in effect, your new law is about to reflect the obsessive-compulsive nature and out-of-control behavior of social and political “bullying”, tantamount to dictatorship, which I believe is in direct opposition to your political ideology. Or maybe I’m wrong? maybe it is your intent to go in the direction of more and more state control? This kind of legislation is never in the best interest of anyone but the self-preservation of the few who think they are in control and smarter than anyone else. A society and its wisest ministers have to rise above the fear mongering generated by the ignorant to truly establish peace keeping laws that serve the people.

I quote Mike Farris who recently said in his address to the World Congress of Families, “Any nation that severely restricts the ability of parents to choose alternative forms of education, including home education, in the name of creating national unity, cannot call itself a free nation. Freedom necessarily requires the individual to have the liberty to think differently and believe differently than programs instituted by the current rulers of any nation. Educational freedom is the cornerstone for all freedom of thought and conscience.”

How could a “freethinking” society that values ideas, higher thinking and achievement, not to mention people who take ownership of their lives by educating their children beyond what any state can give, treat such families with the kind of insolence tantamount to persecution? I thought Swedes would be people who embraced such ideas to enrich your own culture, become more socially sophisticated and make the word a better place as opposed to dragging us all down again into dark ages where fear an persecution were dominant.

To provide only one avenue for “education”, and at that, “state-sanctioned” education, is the road to state control which leads right back to feudalism and dictatorship. Is this what your nation seeks to do? Can you not resist the urge to try to control those who think differently? Do you lack the sensitivity and emotional/social maturity to be able to rise above this social illness?

Please let those who can think intelligently in your government educate you on these issues. Listen to them for your sake and pray to God to be able to see the light in this matter. We are also praying for you for we want no better thing than to see people all over the world be able to teach their children freely. I am not saying your schools are bad or that you do not know anything about education, but as a former educator myself I know intimately the limitations and problems associated with public or private education of any kind. It just simply cannot replace what a rightly motivated parent can give to their own child. I am not advocating every parent to teach their child since this is a very private decision. The state, however, should support such parents who desire to teach their own children with supervision, not control, of their agendas.

Here in America we are finally learning to co-exist: those who want their children mass educated by the state and those who feel privileged and honored to educate their own children. New York City has come up with a compromise which I am proud to obey. The city of New York, once again rising above prejudice, fear and social immaturity has established a program for those who educate their children at home. The city has decided to play a supervisory role and to insure the standards are observed. They have recognized that rightly motivated parents will achieve success far beyond any prized school can offer. The children grow up to be better patriots, citizens and humans. They grow up fearing God, respecting government and honoring one another. How can anyone in their right mind fight this outcome?

Now do you understand why I say that your current policies will be to your detriment? Because God is our judge immediately release Dominic from your corruption! Apologize to him and his family and to the world for your selfishness and ignorance. Change for your own sake and we will see Sweden on the road to greatness again.

I hope you join me in making a difference!

May God bless Sweden and the United States of America.

Pedro Gelabert

Cc: Prime Minister, Fredrik Reinfeldt; Jan Björklund, Minister for Education; Carl Bildt, Minister for Foreign Affairs; Göran Hägglund, Minister for Health and Social Affairs; Beatrice Ask, Minister for Justice.