Changing my religion

Recent coverage of unschooling in the mainstream media has me once again thinking about starting the church of radical unschooling. When one holds beliefs as deeply as I hold my beliefs in RU, it can be rather frightening that it is possible for a government agency to interfere with how one lives. For the most part, this fear doesn't, well, worry me much: there is no provision in Washington state law for anyone to interfere, and even if there were, we have all our legal ducks in a row and could head them off at the pass (if you'll pardon the mixed metaphors). As a worst case, both our girls are old enough and academically competent enough to be graduated tomorrow if needed.

But that's us. Across the country, we have hundreds of friends who may not be in this same cozy position. Some of them have younger kids or less academically inclined kids, and some live in states where there are huge machines for state interference in homeschooler lives. Others, for reasons of their own, choose to fly under the legal radar, removed from all state requirements. As the bureaucrats and well intentioned but sadly ignorant do-gooders learn more about unschooling, I fear attacks on the peace and joy of all their unschooling lives.

At the risk of sounding like a Libertarian, I think the government should Butt Out. I also believe, passionately, that the government has less right to—pardon me—fuck with my children's minds than I do. (And I have no right at all.)

You could say it's a religion I live by. The tenets of this religion are simple but profoundly, deeply held:

1. "The basic right of all human beings is the right to choose what to learn and think." John Holt

2. "Children do not need to be made to learn to be better, told what to do or shown how. If they are given access to enough of the world, they will see clearly enough what things are truly important to themselves and to others, and they will make for themselves a better path into that world then anyone else could make for them." John Holt

3. "[True meaning is found] in families, in friends, in the passage of seasons, in nature, in simple ceremonies and rituals; in curiosity, generosity, compassion, and service to others, in a decent independence and privacy, in all the free and inexpensive things out of which real families, real friends and real communities are built." John Taylor Gatto

4. "[Schooling is] simply dragging a child's soul through the dirt.” George Bernard Shaw

or (if you prefer):

"School is prison. School is prison. School is prison." Peter Gray

5. "...Science, art and history [are] all the same 'subject,' and [it includes] people and language and music. [Realizing this provides] a feeling of expansiveness, of blossoming." Sandra Dodd

6. "If one thing makes you think of another thing, you form a connection between them in your mind. The more connections you have, the better access you have to cross-connections. The more things something can remind you of, the more you know about it, or are learning about it." Sandra Dodd

7. "Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school." Albert Einstein

8. "It is a very grave mistake to think that the enjoyment of seeing and searching can be promoted by means of coercion and a sense of duty." Albert Einstein

9. "When freedom is outlawed, only outlaws will be free." Tom Robbins

10. "Autodidacts are the shiznit." Chloe Maier

By pulling these tenets into an organized, government-recognized religion, and thanks to the First Amendment separation of church and state, we might spare our "followers" from any and all interference with these tenets.

Now I just need a name for the church. I'm thinking about "Sundance Temple of Free Unschoolers." You supply the acronym. ;-)