Forwarded by Jackie:

I've been in touch with a friend who homeschools in Sweden. She's also a
homeschooling activist -- well, you *have* to be an activist to homeschool
there. You have to fill out all this paperwork and apply for permission from
the government. Every year! No matter how long you've been at it, every year
it's "Oh, please, pretty please, may I?"

Well, that's about to change. This June, there's a bill that will be voted
on by the Swedish parliament that homeschooling activists see every reason
to believe will pass. This bill will make homeschooling illegal under all
but the most extreme circumstances -- severe health problems, near-constant
traveling on the part of the family as related to work, and that's about it.

Because after all, no one else really *needs* to homeschool. The schools
supply everything for children, including two free meals a day, from a very
early age (like, two). And only a couple of hundred families out of a
population of nine million homeschool anyway. So what's the big deal?

This bill will be passed by politicians who don't homeschool, don't know
anything about homeschooling, and think homeschoolers are just a bunch of
scary extremists.

My friend Jenny Lantz is already making plans to leave the country if this
legislation goes through. She and her fellow activists have been doing
everything they can, but it just doesn't seem like it's going to be enough.

I hate feeling helpless, and asked her if she thought American homeschoolers
writing letters (via email) would be of any help. She and her group love the
idea. Some friends have already sent some, and I'm going to ask my parents
and my son's music teachers if they'll send an email about the homeschooler
in their life. My son is also going to write a letter about how he's glad he
gets to homeschool.

This being Sweden, where it's more uncommon *not* to be multilingual,
letters in English are fine. If you'd like to get the email addresses of the
Swedish politicians in question (and, in the comments section, see a great
example of a letter), please see my blog:

http://www.madeditor.com/2010/03/lets-help-homeschoolers-in-sweden.html

Many thanks,
Deborah Markus