The end of homework

The Socialist president of France François Hollande has announced his intention of banning homework for all French school children, because pupils who have orderly and stable home environments can complete their homework assignments better than pupils who don’t, and this is unequal. All assignments must be done in school, which assures equality.

This is not a Kurt Vonnegut satire; it is real.

I have no doubt (and this is not a satire either, I mean it) that within a few years, following Hollande’s example and reasoning, and also following the reasoning of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in overthrowing the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative, the federal courts in the U.S. will find that homework violates the Equal Protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Under the reign of liberalism/leftism all discrimination and inequality must be eliminated, which means, in principle, that the universe must be eliminated. The leftists will seek to come as close to that ideal as they can.

* * *

The story I saw was in print, and I don’t have a link to it. Here’s something from france24.com:

“Education is priority,” Hollande said at Paris’s Sorbonne University on Wednesday. “An education programme is, by definition, a societal programme. Work should be done at school, rather than at home,” in order to foster educational equality for those students who do not have support at home, he added.

- end of initial entry -

November 18

Terry Morris continues:

Homeschooling is the ultimate in home-work. Though initially the federal courts would probably not take up the issue of homeschooling-as-homework as part of a campaign to eliminate homework assignments, its rulings would open the door to declaring as unconstitutional the ultimate in homework—homeschooling.

After all, it is already a foregone conclusion within the American educational establishment that every child is entitled to a “free” public education. Homeschooling, by definition, denies children this “fundamental human right,” of equal access to the public schools.

LA replies:

I agree that there will be a move to declare homeschooling unconstitutional. But the argument would be (just as I suggested with homework) that it denies the equal protection of the law. Of course that’s bizarre, since the Fourteenth Amendment is directed at state (and local) government, not at private individuals. But as we know, there is now NO LIMIT to what liberals will do and what arguments they will use to support it. So for example they could argue this:

Homeschooling, though it is done by parents, is recognized and licenced by the state. Therefore it is a state activity. Pupils who are homeschooled by their parents have an unfair advantage over pupils who do not have parents capable of homeschooling their children. Therefore homeschooling violates the Fourteenth Amendment’s command that no state shall “deny to any person the equal protection of the laws.”

I absolutely predict that at some point there will be a move of this nature.

Mark Eugenikos writes:

If the federal government were to use this reasoning to try to outlaw homeschooling, I don’t see how private schools would be able to survive either. Just as some parents aren’t able to homeschool their children, some parents aren’t able to afford private school tuition, therefore their children are denied equal protection under the laws according to this reasoning. But we all know that rich liberals like to isolate their children from public school dysfunction by putting them in private schools, so it will be interesting to see how they try to explain away this one.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at November 17, 2012 09:16 AM | Send