"I encourage you to read and discuss Kelly Green’s important contribution to homeschooling. It is a timely overview about the problems homeschooling is currently facing worldwide. Just because things are okay for homeschoolers in North American now, doesn’t mean our situations will remain that way. All it took in Germany was one family’s court case to make homeschooling illegal for all German citizens. In Sweden, politicians and educators fueled fears about people who are different and coupled it with a belief that professional education made other forms of learning unnecessary; that’s all it took to make homeschooling illegal there in less than a year. In the UK, a report by a consultant to the government nearly made independent homeschooling extinct in a few months. We delude ourselves if we think such things can’t happen to us; laws and attitudes can change quickly, particularly when institutional hubris, social conformity, and money collide. Green’s A Matter of Conscience: Education as a Fundamental Freedom provides us with much food for thought and action in this matter."--Pat Farenga, President, Holt Associates

"A thoughtful and provocative book; it’s relevant for any thinking parent working their way through educational issues. Written in an easy to read and approachable style, this book brings forward fundamental ideas about society, yet is bang up to date in context and references.

That’s my first reaction. And a big thank you for making this book available to all educational and parent readerships."--Grit, of Grit's Day

"I felt like cheering for the logical and clear arguments Green presents in the collection in the defense of home education against any government who would tamper with this fundamental right....Green's arguments against regulation of home-based education are compelling and useful for all of us should we ever need to stand up for what we are doing." Radio Free School

Availabe now from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk in the U.K., and Amazon.ca in Canada. Since the book is print on demand, don't worry if it is listed as "out of stock"; it will be printed and shipped by Ingram Books as soon as the order is placed.

Read a Sample Chapter here.

See Table of Contents below.

Table of Contents

Part One – Education is a Fundamental Freedom

 

 Freedom of Conscience, Education, and the “Good Life”                                   

 Indoctrination, Resistance, and Personal Sovereignty, or We are the Bosses of                                                Ourselves                                                                                    

 Compelling Interest                               

 Home Educator As Legal Beagle                                     

 

Part Two – Arguments Against the Regulation of Home-based Education

 

 Regulation of Home-based Education is Counter-Productive                          

 What If My Family Had Been Monitored?

 the difference Between Autonomy and Powerlessness                                     

 The North American Experience: A Submission to the Scrutiny Committee for the Children,                         Schools and Families Bill, U.K. Parliament, January 21, 2010                   

 

Part Three – Challenges to Freedom of Education

 

Is Home-Based Education a Threat? Should Some People Not Be Allowed to Do It?

Media Bias                                                    

Combating Uneducated, Unsubstantiated Opinions and Hate Speech About Home-based Education

Home Education: The Image

Fundamentalism and Home-Based Education

Research on Home Education: A Good Thing?

Challenges to Educational Freedoms – Could They Be Coming to a Government Near You?

                                                                             

Part Four – How Home Education is Changing Society for the Better

 

  More on Research: We Home Educators are Just People. May We Request that Other                                     People Stop Treating Us and our Kids Like Lab Rats? Perhaps No Group Should Be Treated                 Like Lab Rats.

  Social Engineering

  So What’s Wrong with a Parallel Society Anyway?

  Resisting “It”

  The Real (Secret) Reason People Choose to Educate Their Own Kids

  There Is No Scarcity – Let the Bells Ring

Appendix A: Background on the Home- Education Crisis in England

Appendix B: What Happened in Ontario

Appendix C: One of the Last Acceptable Prejudices