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The epoch of Enlightenment has spread the idea that universal education is a necessity. The mass drive for education and the ideology advocated by the Prussian state which demanded obedient citizens brought compulsory universal education. Education shall be compulsory for persons under the age of 16, the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania says. Yet, you are wrong if you think that this is the end of the glorious path. The question how to achieve compulsory universal education is relevant and open today.

 

The European fashion in this area is still being dictated by... Adolf Hitler. This is easy to check:  all you need to do is to judge whether a child’s education is a monopoly of the state or the right of the parents. This will show whether there are many Mark Twains among us who would be able to say „I've never let my school interfere with my education.” Unfortunately, a ban on home-schooling, which Germany imposed in 1938, remains in effect, and Baptists, who were persecuted in the Soviet Union and moved to Germany, are even sent to prison for being discontent with German state-run schools.

 

Little by little the whole Europe is turning in this direction. An obvious example of this occurred even in Belgium which is known for being much more liberal on this issue. An exemplary family, whose four home-schooled children successfully entered leading universities, and earlier than their contemporaries to boot, was threatened with criminal penalties for educating their fifth offspring at home. It appears that the home-school father did not sign a document that the upbringing of the children would be in accordance with the Convention on the Rights of the Child. So, in the name of the Convention and for the children’s good, the parents, who are far from being asocial, may come to be taken to court on criminal charges.

 

The massively ratified Convention (and again only the United States, where about one million children receive home-schooling, has withstood this drive) stipulates the rights of the child to freedom of association and religion. This already raises a question whether parents’ decision not to send their children, say, to a course on sex education without having consulted their youngsters first is not a violation of the Convention. Of course, a question whether the state-defined obligatory contents of teaching is not a violation of children’s rights is not raised. All this shows who is the real guardian of children – their parents or the state. If you send off your child to a public school, the school assumes an obligation to educate him or her in a certain manner, but if you decide not to send your child to school, you have to make an obligation towards the state...

 

Lithuanians have a rather painful experience of public education. The Lithuanian script has been preserved only thanks to illegal home-schooling in the 19th century. If the totalitarian practice were restored, the tradition of home-schooling, which can resist it, would be seriously damaged already. The Law on Education explicitly says that parents must send their six- or seven-year-old children to school and ensure their punctual and regular attendance. So even if you happen to be a very devoted mum or dad capable of giving your child all necessary knowledge, the authorities do not give a damn about it. It is no secret that at school your child might hear a horrible accent of the English language teacher or might have no proper facilities to wash up after exercises or might be exposed to socialist propaganda during economics classes. You cannot even dream of training your child yourself or hiring a teacher to do the job. Or you can do it quietly at home until your child has to take exams. The right to take equivalency exams has been left so far.   

 

Given today’s dimension of educational progress, it is a question of time when children will be coercively sent to school at the age of five or even four. After all, universal pre-school education, albeit optional as yet, is de facto becoming an obligatory condition of primary education. And if a certain condition is required to achieve something compulsory, pre-school education will also become compulsory. Some European countries have already turned in this direction towards younger and younger children. One day the parents may come to be required, upon the birth of a child, to sign a contract for use with the state under which they will raise the child until he or she turns four and then return him or her to the society.

 

Of course, both the Convention on the Rights of the Child and universal compulsory education and mandatory school attendance are for the child’s sake. Yet, the road to hell is paved with good intentions too. And these good intentions leave us no right to choose. It is not us but the state that is made responsible for our children. And the state, as we all know, is more interested in „good citizens” than independent individuals.