What if school authorities took an interest in children ...

by Suzette Sandoz,* Lausanne

(30 August 2024) According to today’s “24 heures” newspaper of 20 August, almost 1000 children in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland do not go to public schools but are taught by their parents. This number has more than doubled in the last seven years.

The reaction of the authorities was to tighten the reins and make the cases subject to authorisation, although the results of the official inspections are satisfactory according to the same source.

Responsible authorities would have been expected to look for the causes of this “departure” from public schooling. But nothing has happened. As in dictatorial republics: there is a “crackdown”. The state cannot fail!

Basically, one should ask oneself whether the school still cares about children at all. The introduction of whole-day schools is supposed to make life easier for working parents, but it is never explained how this improves children’s lives – their enjoying school, their desire to be there, their hunger to learn and their ability to absorb.

Inclusive education, which is presented as a panacea for social harmony, sacrifices the different needs of children to an egalitarian ideology with no pedagogical basis and, incidentally, also harms the teachers, from which the children will also suffer.

Schools are being misused to teach demoralising political ideologies: Threats of all kinds to humanity through climate change, intensive agriculture, destruction of biodiversity, abuses of colonialism, gender issues, etc.

Quasi-ban on passing on local culture and traditions: No more learning of traditional songs or poems at Christmas and Easter. Even Mother’s Day is frowned upon.

There are still wonderful teachers, but there are not enough to “save” the school. They exhaust themselves in their work and feel the discontent of parents when they try to point out that a child may not be suited to this or that type of education, but rather to another.

With so many children no longer being sent to school but being looked after by their parents, while the Pisa tests highlight the weaknesses of public education, perhaps it is time to ask ourselves what children need in order for schools to fulfil their role, rather than punishing parents who are trying to give their children the best possible education.

* Suzette Sandoz was born in 1942. She is an honorary professor of family and inheritance law, a former member of the Grand Council of the canton of Vaud and a former member of the Swiss National Council.

Source: https://suzettesandoz.ch/et-si-les-responsables-de-lecole-sinteressaient-aux-enfants/, 20 August 2024

(Translation “Swiss Standpoint”)