Quality Willed Learning and the Nation State

Abstract

The chapters in this third section offers examples of what quality willed learning looks like in practice. In this instance we will be looking specifically at young people who are homeschooling, but the spirit of the experience is easily transferable to all young people, including those who are schooled. One question that often gets asked of homeschoolers is, Should we regulate homeschooling? Whatever the answer to this question turns out to be, we believe that ultimately homeschoolers need to be protected and rights need to be granted to homeschooling children, and not to protect the rights of the nation state nor necessarily of parents, which is what many who ask for regulation argue. If homeschooling is to be regulated, we need to regulate homeschooling just enough so that those who home school can do so without fear of being bullied, harassed, or intimidated and, most importantly, to ensure that children will be empowered. In part, we need to ensure that whatever is in place advances democracy and that it protects people from regulation that does not. We need to ensure that what is in place for homeschooling and schooling protects people from those who do not understand the need for children to be free, and so that those who have a bias against children cannot impose their will on them. In what follows, we will argue that we need this to happen to protect the rights of young people. Traditionally, the arguments for regulating homeschooling focus on regulations that either favors the nation state or parents. Those that favor the nation state tend to focus on the belief that we need to regulate homeschooling to protect the democratic nation state and/or that we need to regulate homeschooling to protect certain academic standards—we will argue against these reasons and in favor of what empowers children. As well, just as flawed is a type of regulation that grants parents ultimate power and is silent on the rights of children. So a quality willed learning experience would empower learners.