Religious Schools v. Children's Rights

Good arguments against any form of "private" education; however, Dwyer unfortunately has an unrealistic view about the value of state certification and regulation. As one who works in the public schools (he apparently has spent very little time in one) and as a homeschooling father, I might be in a better position to cast an opinion on our various education options. And I wish folks like Mr. Dwyer would look at the gross inequities and harmful practices that currently exist in our public school system, which he apparently thinks have been eradicated by the ton of regulations that our state imposes. I'm guessing Mr Dwyer is not a parent, and that his view will change if he does become a father.

Dwyer exposes in some detail the lack of government regulation in the States of private schools, and documents the harms that some religious schools do to children. He provides detailed arguments against the idea that parents or communities have extensive rights to have their children educated however they want to, and proposes that private schools be subject to reasonably stringent regulation. I wonder if some of the other reviewers allowed their horror at his conclusions to obscure the careful reaosning he gives for those conclusions. I would recommend that especially those people who disagree with Dwyer's secularism read this book, and try to come up with arguments against his concusions: this matter is too important for name-calling to be decisive.

Dwyer presents a trenchant criticism of the very conception of `parental rights.' He argues that public policy in such areas as e.g. education should be guided primarily by a focus on the rights of children. Dwyer argues persuasively that certain aspects of some forms of religious schooling may be in conflict with children's rights, and ought not be permissible within the context of a democratic nation like our own. Specifically, Dwyer argues that we have no obligation to permit parents to send their children to schools that will not prepare them to take part in the political arena of our nation; indeed, insofar as we have an obligation to insure that children get an education that will so prepare them, we must not permit schooling that hinders it. Whatever your views on the relationship between religion, education and democracy, you owe it to yourself to read to this book.