In July 2024 I was invited to give two ten minute talks at the Global Home Education Conference in Manchester, England.
Those talks were not recorded at the time, so I recorded them a few weeks later when I presented them to another group of people.
On this occasion I reversed the order of the talks , and took a little longer than the original time allotted!
This is the second of the recordings, and lasts for 18 minutes.
In this presentation I consider a juxtaposition buried in the foundations of the Human Rights movement. Here we frequently discover that the natural role of parents in educating their children is subordinated to international organisations as they prescribe the values future generations should be taught.
I then ask whether it is possible for any state to teach or to assess young people's skills without imposing its collective values upon them.
When seeking to decide who should define exactly what comprises a suitable education, it should be recognised that states overstep any responsibility they claim to have when they seek to impose their values on the children of their citizens.
It is for governments to demonstrate that they can do the one without the other.
Those talks were not recorded at the time, so I recorded them a few weeks later when I presented them to another group of people.
On this occasion I reversed the order of the talks , and took a little longer than the original time allotted!
This is the second of the recordings, and lasts for 18 minutes.
In this presentation I consider a juxtaposition buried in the foundations of the Human Rights movement. Here we frequently discover that the natural role of parents in educating their children is subordinated to international organisations as they prescribe the values future generations should be taught.
I then ask whether it is possible for any state to teach or to assess young people's skills without imposing its collective values upon them.
When seeking to decide who should define exactly what comprises a suitable education, it should be recognised that states overstep any responsibility they claim to have when they seek to impose their values on the children of their citizens.
It is for governments to demonstrate that they can do the one without the other.
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LearningTranscript
00:00you
00:30what is a suitable education this was a question I was set to talk about for 10
00:38minutes it took me a little bit longer before the question is who decides what
00:46is a suitable education this is where governments are up there wanting to say
00:51to parents whether your education is suitable according to their standards we
00:56must before we can answer that question must first consider what criteria should
01:01or can be employed in deciding what is suitable inputs or outputs knowledge or
01:10well-being skills or values we don't often put things like that but this is
01:18the area oh by the way I've put a picture of a Shakespeare play up there
01:23that's a teaser I'm not going to tell you about it that I'm going to come back
01:26to it but there is a lesson in that play that I think should be applied to this
01:32question of suitable education right we will I want to take you first into this
01:42area of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights article 26 I'm not reading
01:50it all but at the bottom of number two no sorry number three right at the
01:57bottom it says parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education
02:03that shall be given to their children is that good news yeah ah but look at
02:11number two education shall be directed to the full development blah blah
02:18it shall promote understanding tolerance and friendship amongst all nations racial
02:25religious groups and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the
02:34maintenance of peace now if you only read number three you will be encouraged tell me
02:42if somebody wants to give you a list and they give it to you in the order of
02:45importance where's the more important things at the top or the bottom they're
02:51at the top so here number two is more important than number three so as a
02:59parent you can teach to the type of education it's the kind of education
03:04it's not the content of the education but you have to make sure it does the
03:11previous thing and a government has under the the Declaration of Human
03:19Rights has the right to come along and say to you you are not teaching the
03:26values and advancing the United Nations very subtle convention on the rights of
03:35the child right now see see the development of respect for children
03:42parents is their own culture identity language and values for the national
03:48values of the country or this is state parties shall agree that education
03:54shall be directed to and this about respect for parents values national
04:00values etc and like that but notice B the development of respect for human
04:07rights and fundamental freedoms and for the principles enshrined in the Charter
04:13of the United Nations which is most important which comes first right it's
04:23there in black and white but do people spot it do people engage with it United
04:32Nations Charter right we the people of the United Nations and to save
04:43succeeding generations from the scourge of war which twice in our lifetime this
04:49was written in 1940s has brought untold sorrow to mankind to reaffirm faith of
04:58the underlining mind in fundamental human rights in the dignity and worth of
05:03the human person and so on to establish under which justice and respect can you
05:11tell me are words like saving faith and justice factual words or are they
05:20religious words this is a religious statement it isn't a statement of fact
05:32and notice at the bottom to promote social progress and better standards of
05:39life in larger freedoms question what is social progress who decides some
05:49people's progress is another person's degeneration who decides the writers of
05:58the Charter decide this is the constitution of the UN educational
06:05scientific and cultural organization better known as UNESCO and I was told
06:13some people before I did this we mentioned this that since wars begin in
06:18the minds of men it is in the minds of men that the defenses of peace must be
06:25constructed and then it goes on about the ignorance of others ways this is a
06:31fundamental thing of UNESCO it continues ah we're not going there you may not
06:41recognize the gentleman up there in the top right his name is Julian Uxley he
06:46had a brother who wrote a book anybody know what the book was called brave new
06:52world it is rumored that Aldous Oakley saw his brother's objective and argued
07:00against it in his book I haven't found proof that's what he was saying but was
07:07he describing his brother's brave new world and its follies but notice that
07:13Julian Uxley in 1946 was the first secretary-general director-general of
07:23UNESCO and he wrote this pamphlet still available on UNESCO's website UNESCO
07:33its purpose and its philosophy and he did it at the start of UNESCO what did
07:43he say in it page 13 I do have this document in a word format if people want
07:49to read it more readable than the PDF specifically in its educational program
07:56it can stress the ultimate need for world political unity and familiarize
08:03all people with the implications of the transfer of foot's full sovereignty from
08:09separate nations to a world organization page 61 in the conclusion I
08:19recommend you read the conclusion if nothing else the opening two paragraphs
08:24state not much remains to be said in conclusion but what remains is important
08:30it is that the task before UNESCO is necessary is opportune and in spite of
08:39all its multiplicity of details is single that task is to help the emergence
08:46of a single world culture with its own philosophy and background ideas with its
08:52own broad purpose Hoaxley and the people here are saying we don't want to just
09:01teach future generation facts we want to teach them a philosophy and that is
09:11not the same as teaching facts I'm back to the merchants of Venice why have I
09:18thrown this in here if you know the plot right it's all about a man who has to
09:24borrow money and then he gets bad luck and he's doing but he's one who lent
09:29him the money had said I want to deposit of a pound of flesh and that
09:36means he's going to either be severely disabled or he's going to die right but
09:43Portia is a lady who disguises herself as a lawyer and addresses Shylock's
09:51demand for a pound of flesh and a key point is this this bond the agreement
09:59gives thee here not a jot of blood the words expressly say a pound of flesh
10:06take then your bond take your pound of flesh but in cutting it if thou dost shed one drop
10:16and there's a bit of emphasis here Christian blood thy lands and goods are by the Lords of
10:24Venice confiscate unto the state of Venice and so she says you can't have the flesh
10:33unless you can have it without the blood right why have I said that here well flesh is the soft
10:43tissue of body especially the muscle and flat we know that blood is different it's the vital
10:50liquid that circulates in education it's not as simple to identify what are the equivalent to
10:59Antonio's flesh and blood right I've sought to illustrate in the short talk that human right
11:07treaties are not based on ensuring that young people learn skills they need to live well as
11:14adults but that they are taught the philosophy the worldview and the values of those within
11:21the international movements who wish to inculcate them if any state seeks to claim it has proactive
11:32responsibility proactive responsibility to supervise the education children are receiving
11:39then they must justify which aspect of the education it is seeking to oversee my personal
11:49conviction is they cannot justify any such oversight unless they have been requested by
11:55parents to provide an education to their children on their behalf I think I have shown that the
12:06UNCRC for example talks about the development of respect for the child's parents culture and so on
12:14here in Britain we know the state is doing the very opposite and I'm sure we're not the only
12:22country where that's happening and this is because education now is internationally focused on the
12:29imposing of values of the few on the children of the many right so I think this graphic aptly
12:45sums it up I got it off a South African homeschoolers website right the credits are there
12:53I won't get into the political situation there but what's it doing the teacher is cutting the
13:04children's thought processes into the shape of her own which is the shape the state wants
13:12parents and those who support them I believe must resist every state attempt by any state
13:21to impose its values on other people's children the protection of different cultures and the
13:28values they embed in them I suggest will prove as impossible to isolate from skills and knowledge
13:36it will prove as impossible as trying to take a pound of flesh from a living person without
13:44shedding at least one drop of blood you can teach my child how to whittle wood you can teach my
13:52child how to do this but the moment you start teaching them values you're stepping into my
13:59area this is what I'm saying and this is what I think we have got to do what can justify the
14:10state's demand this challenge needs to be posed without offering a solution so often people if
14:19you challenge them they will say well what's your answer say no that's my question I'm asking you
14:27for the answer let's just go back anybody heard of George Brock Chisell well if you look there
14:37you see he was the first executive director secretary of the interim commission of the
14:43World Health Organization how many have heard of the World Health Organization through Covid and
14:50things right he was the director general of who what did he what did he think children must be
15:02free to think in all directions irrespective of the peculiar ideas of parents who often seal their
15:10child's mind with preconceived prejudices and false concepts of past generations unless we are
15:19very careful very careful indeed very content conscientious there is still great danger that
15:26our children may turn out to be the same kind of people we are in contrast to that in the Scottish
15:39named person scheme judging in judgment in 2016 in the Supreme Court Lady Hale stated the first
15:50thing a totalitarian regime tries to do is get at the children to distance them from the subversive
15:58varied influence of their families and indoctrinate them in the rulers view of the world within
16:06limits families must be left to bring up their children in their own way which is it which of
16:18those two do you agree with I don't need to ask you all right I'm fairly sure you're on the side
16:23of Lady Hale's so my final point here is it possible to constructively cooperate with regimes
16:33which are totalitarian at heart good question I meant I'll mention this man Leo Tolstoy in a
16:44author's preface to what is art all compromise with institutions of which your conscience
16:53disapproves compromises which are usually made for the sake of general good of the general good
17:00instead of producing the good you expected inevitably lead you to not only acknowledging
17:08the institution you disapprove of but also to participate in the evil the institution provides
17:16now I know we still got a in name democratic system in this country right but we are seeing
17:26more and more that what's happening is that's being taken away and there is no difference between
17:36politicians I think we're very close to not just a national totalitarian government I think for 70
17:52years we've been working towards it and that's the question can we work with it to improve it
17:58or do we have to stand up to it and challenge it peacefully