We tried and we lost.

Before I say anything else: thank you, everyone who has been spreading the word about the American secular homeschooling geography survey. I'm still figuring out how to analyze the information I'm continuing to receive; but I'm dutifully logging it all. So far I've heard from secular homeschoolers from 44 states, the District of Columbia, the military, and one permanently traveling homeschooling family (rock on!). Without any big site or publicity budget, I've received information from about 300 secular homeschoolers all over America. And I'm starting to get questions from total strangers like I'm some kind of expert, which really scares me. So please keep spreading the word and send your info if you haven't already, so I can try to sound a little more secure and authoritative when I attempt to answer questions on the subject. Thank you!

Now for the bad news that I've been putting off writing about because I keep wanting to pretend it didn't happen. You probably already heard. Sweden's parliament voted to ban homeschooling in all but the most extreme cases.

It wasn't even a close call. The decision had already been made, and that was that. If you've read anything about what it was like to homeschool in Sweden before this new legislation was passed, you'll understand just how harsh a measure this is. Homeschooling in Sweden was incredibly supervised, and it was very difficult for families to get permission (boy, do I hate that word) from the government already. Now it will be basically impossible.

Jonas Himmelstrand, the president of the Swedish Association for Home Education, sent me word of the news and a link to an English-language article:
 
http://rohus.nu/en/?English_information
 
I'm ashamed to even say how disheartening this news is, because who am I to speak of being saddened? My family can continue to homeschool legally. We don't have to relocate, or figure out how to manage to homeschool under the radar of our own country. We're fine.

And that infuriates me. I'm not some superior being who ought to have "special" rights, like the one to educate my child as I see fit. I didn't earn the right to homeschool. All it took was being born in a particular place and time, and I had all the choice I could ask for.

Absurd. Outrageous.

Thanks to Google's translation site, I was able to read the comments that were left for the open letter to Sweden. Homeschooling is horrible. It's religious extremism. What about learning to socialize with other children?

Yes, we see those comments on American sites, too. But there are also plenty of counter comments -- and not all of them are from homeschoolers. Plenty of Americans don't homeschool and don't plan to, but think it's fine. Because they've had the chance to see that it's a valid choice.

We tried to give Swedes that kind of chance. It didn't work.

We'll keep trying.