Reasons that some Home Educating Parents/Guardians have rejected local school board attempts to actively monitor their home instruction:
1. They believe that under the Ontario Education Act Section 21(2) that parents may choose to educate their children at home and provide them with satisfactory instruction.
2. If information comes to light that parents may not be providing satisfactory instruction, then an inquiry may be called under Section 24(2) of the Act to help determine the nature of the instruction.
3. References that some school boards make to other sections of the Act that give them the right to charge truancy, we believe point to students who are registered in school and not excused for any reason. These sections do not refer to home educated students who are excused by virtue of the fact that they are receiving satisfactory instruction at home. This, however, is an option according to a recent communication from the Provincial School Attendance Counsellor. See the very bottom of this page.
When an institution such as a school board moves to judge a family’s choice of education methods for its offspring, it is somewhat akin in our minds to having an orange grower from Florida tell an apple grower from Ontario how to grow fruit.
4. Parents, in our society, have the right to determine the nature of the education that their children will receive. This is supported in the United Nations Charter of Rights and Freedoms Section 26 (3). Home educated children are receiving an ALTERNATIVE form of education, one that is controlled and judged by the parent to be satisfactory. Parents are considered to be innocent of wrong doing unless evidence comes to light to the contrary. If this happens, Section 24(2) of the Act can be invoked and an inquiry sought.
5. Home education is one alternative form of education recognized under the Education Act. Another form is that of the private school (Section 21:2). Private schools come under the supervision of the Ministry of Education, as does Home Education, in our opinion. There are private schools that are uninspected by the Ministry. They are those that do not provide Ontario certification for their programs and have the option of hiring non-certified teaching staff. Just as school boards do not inspect private schools within their jurisdiction, neither [should] school boards inspect (actively monitor) home education.
When an institution such as a school board moves to judge a family’s choice of education methods for its offspring, it is somewhat akin in our minds to a formally trained musician telling an improvisational jazz musician how to play music.
6. Many home educating parents have pulled their children from public schools because they believed strongly that the children were not receiving satisfactory instruction. For school boards to turn around and begin to judge the instruction of the home school, is unacceptable.
7. Many parents who homeschool do not support institutional education for their children. In the same way that cultural genocide occurred in residential institutional settings in our society in years past, some parents believe that institutional schools and their methods are harmful to their children. To be judged by such institutions and by the methods that they use, is unacceptable.