|
March-April 2010 Selected Content
Editorial - Mark and Helen Hegener
 Dividing Homeschoolers
By assuming sole responsibility for the education of their children, homeschooling families have, by their individual actions, reaffirmed their rights and freedoms. When this same sense of responsibility has brought homeschoolers together in a spirit of unity, working toward a common goal - freedom to homeschool - we have been very successful. Assuming individual responsibility and acting together are the very foundations of the freedom our form of self-government assures.
Over the past few years a small but increasingly vocal special interest group has been working to assure a division within the homeschooling movement. The actions of this group are jeopardizing the freedoms of all homeschooling families.
Using one Biblical interpretation of 'unequal yoking,' these people have drawn a tightly defined circle around themselves, and yet they seem to take every opportunity to represent all homechoolers from within that circle. At the same time they have endeavored to summarily discredit people and organizations alike who have spoken out.
The underlying issue is freedom, and the bottom line is control. Christians are being played against non-Christians in this divisive game, which misleads homeschoolers and derails unity. This does a great injustice to all homeschooling families, who do hold a common goal: freedom to homeschool, each in their own way.
Homeschooling has become one of today's most influential movements, not only in the area of education, but in related spheres of family and personal rights, right to privacy, freedom of belief, and other basic liberties. By their decisive actions, homeschooling families are making a strong political statement.
There are many people scrambling to claim and control this powerful force, and there is a dangerous game afoot to assure that its voice is amplified and this influence is greatly exaggerated.
Unity on state and regional levels all across the nation has been undermined by these divisive actions. When the bonds of unity are broken, power is centralized into the hands of a few, making homeschoolers a much more exploitable commodity. These few, who hold power, are separated from and place themselves above homeschoolers as a whole.
Let's call the bluff of those who are trying to use the homeschoolers of this nation for their own political leverage. The name of this game is manipulation and control. What is at stake are the freedoms of all homeschooling families.
© 1990, Mark and Helen Hegener
| 
