Parental Rights Amendment

As a homeschooler, I am a big proponent of parental rights, believing they are among those implied by "among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." Proverbs about mother bears come into my mind when I consider the infringements of governments and courts into family affairs and the increasingly institutionalized way in which children are being raised. So why won't I be signing a petition to amend the Constitution to delineate rights of parents?

First of all, the Constitution already retains for the people rights it has not spelled out: "The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people." -Amendment 9. I'm not a Constitutional lawyer, thankfully, but it seems to me that the spirit of this amendment would be weakened if further amendments were to follow it, enumerating various rights of the people. And where would it end? The right to choose one's own spouse, work, health care, dress? How many amendments would we end up needing? The principle is already there, and frankly, the political climate in our nation today does not seem conducive to making changes to a document that has already stood the test of time.

A second but a more fundamental reason I won't be signing such a petition is that I don't look to the Constitution as the ultimate source of parental rights or securer of them. A parent's rights are of a higher, more basic nature, such that politically meddling with them can only weaken them. A funny thing can happen in the minds of free people when they place the confidence for their freedom in a person or a document; they can lay down their "eternal vigilance", which Thomas Jefferson said is the price of freedom, and become apathetic in their trust. Moreover, those entrusted with rights are just one election away from being replaced by those who would oppress. To my mind, a more potent course of action is for parents to assertively and gratefully embrace the rights that are theirs by divine right.

And so, instead of signing a petition for a Constitutional amendment, you will see me advocating homeschooling and other involved parenting. It's interesting to note that all of the terrifying anecdotes used to demonstrate the need for a Parental Rights Amendment that I have seen involve public school counselors or day care. One has to wonder, are parental rights being taken away so much as being given up?