Readers Anonymous

When I was homeschooling my kids people referred to my method as “unschooling.”  I thought the term was inaccurate.  Since my kids hadn’t been schooled how could they be unschooled?  Now I need to start unschooling.  I have to unschool myself and I’ve been way overschooled.

I understand that most blogs are not highly polished, many are in draft form.  I’ve just had the hardest time trying to get myself to post drafts.  I want to write about freedom of conscience, freedom of thought, and compulsory attendance.  It’s just such an enormous, interconnected subject and waiting until I can put it together in a presentable paper means nothing gets done.

So, with apologies for my inadequacies, here goes.

In 1642, the Colony of Massachusetts Bay enacted the first compulsory education law.  Compulsory education is distinctly different from compulsory attendance.  The compulsory education law required all parents to provide education in a trade and reading the principles of religion and the laws of the country.  Parents, or their substitutes (children were often apprenticed to a Master who became responsible for their education), were required to provide the education, there was no legislation establishing schools.  The law was amended in 1648 to provide payment from the town treasury to local masters.

These laws appear to be the first incursion of the state into a parents’ right to direct the education and upbringing of their children.