The disposal of the truth, with the connivance and even by the hands of our leaders about family, the life and dignity of the human person that we have watched being promoted and even molded by law, is not feasible. Sooner or later, it will only lead to the crashing of society.
We live in a society where the majority of families are politically unconcerned, by political forces, from its fundamental right and duty of educating children for the values that should orientate any citizen to the legitimate exercise of one’s personal rights and human duties, choosing freely in accordance to their consciousness without discriminating the type of education they desire, as guaranteed by the Universal Declaration of the Human Rights (UDHR), in its article number 26: « Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children».
This right-duty of Parents to educating their children is irreplaceable by the Government, as it is expressly stated in The Portuguese Constitution, art 68th: «Fathers and Mothers have the right to society’s protection in the accomplishment of their irreplaceable action regarding their children, in particular their education[…]» Adding:«Parenthood constitutes eminent social values.»
The Government has the obligation of protecting life, which means hosting/appreciating each human life, in any of its stages, under any physical or psychological, in order to prevent any person, for any reason, to feel rejected and/or remains hostage of other people’s decisions about their existence or their life. Althought not possessing all faculties, mostly mental, the principles of mankind, and human dignity must orientate their destiny and society cannot neglect these assumptions. The immeasurable value of human life must be the reason for the precedence and where it leads, the order of society; and only a true charity plan will be acceptable to resign the noble attitude of resigning one’s life in defense of another’s– “a life for a life”. Therefore, the Portuguese Constitution states in its art. 24th n.1 “Human life is sacrosanct”.
It is therefore the Government’s duty, which represents all of us to serve all of us, to promote and protect the family, to protect the life and acknowledge a person in its dignity, for natural and universal rights,—and consequently for constitutional right reasons, because our Constitution tells us in its two first articles that it underlies on the dignity of the human person and in its rights and freedoms. Promoting and protecting the family in its true definition, which corresponds to the set of Parents with their children, primary human heritage, which precedes any government or universal organization, and therefore—as a native entity— demands the recognition and service of the public authorities.
The family, the base cell of society, is the privileged community to guarantee freedom, safety, and fraternity, where every child must find the suitable environment of love to grow and shape their personality. It is within the family and not the government that life in society starts! Our Constitution states in its 67th article: «Family as an essential element of society, has the right to Society and Government’s protection and to establishment of all conditions that allow the personal accomplishment of all conditions to allow the personal accomplishment of its members.» This is very clear: Family has the right to the Government’s protection. But the Government operates— mostly by its domain on schooling education— and if it mistrusted families, commanded them and their family education over children, instead of respecting, protecting, and promoting them.
The education system must not, therefore, hold the function of supplanting or replacing the family, sustained on ideological principles registered on mainly parliamentary laws which are changeable, instead of respecting the natural autonomy of all and each family, as a «natural and fundamental element of society» (words from the Universal Declaration art. 16th).
The «right to education», thus referred in the Universal Statement of Human Rights , is, most of all, a personal and family right. And only in order to implement this right for by its owners is also recognized to the human beings and families a social right corresponding to the instrumental provision by the Government. And the reason primacy as a «right to personal freedom» is what the «right to education» defines as the right to personality development. This is literally defined by art. 26.th of the UDHR: «Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality».
Therefore, as a right to developing personality, the right for education is a personality right. And as a personality right, it is untouchable by the Government, according to the international consensus for legal theory. It is a unnegotiable right, according to the insisting teaching of Popes John Paul II and Bento XVI. Only the Parents can and must educate their children, exercising the right and of the natural order that to them is recognized, obviously respecting their children human rights. That is the reason why their right and duty to guide the education of their children constitutionally established, irreplaceable, untouchable, and non-negotiable. And must be supported by society and the government.
The Government has a major role in this matter, as a subsidiary, always cooperating with the parents, never against, as it is stated on the Constitution article 67th: «It is the Government’s duty to protect the family […] cooperating with the parents on their children’s education».
The relations of education between Parents and their children refer to free people, with a critical sense, capable of assuming the responsibilities for their actions, which is why it is unacceptable that the Government intrudes or even cancels people’s personality, as it has been seen in the mandatory Portuguese teaching system. It is not tolerable that the mandatory teaching system comes to a stage where the teaching of children by the government, goes against or even disputes the family educational rights. Neither is it tolerable that in our schools, there are parents, harassed and chased by nonintegrated by law, as it is the example of CPCJ (Children and Youth Protecting Commission), who harass parents who do not accept the ideology schooling dictates, namely the ones provided on the Citizenship and Development subject, as if the parents did not have the right to what is recognized to them by the Constitution: the right and the duty of raising and educating their children, according to their legitimate choices, either moral and religiously.
It makes no sense for the parents to raise a child without educating that child; and therefore, it makes no sense that the government may want to educate the children going against these who are raising. Because the human being cannot be healthily educated by two people if these go against each other: one, their progenitors, and the other the political power from the Government, that holds no educational function. It is essential to clearly state that: there is no international or constitutional rule that assigns the Government as educating function in the «compulsory teaching system». Educating and teaching are different things, although connected between them. The school teaching cannot be contradictory to the family education.
It already prevails a lack of confidence climate, in Portuguese schools! Unfortunately, for the past years we have attended an exploitation of the Government’s resources, by the hands of the parties who lead us (with more or less responsibility), to different directions of the legitimate functions of the government: Common interest of society. Instead, choosing, to initiate concept and ideological which disrespect the personal fundamental rights and freedoms (based on the culture that brought us identity, the development and peace of the Portuguese people), in an imposing attitude with totalitarian outlines. «Freedom is the most valuable asset man possesses and therefore it is up to us to care for that asset, we cannot leave it on the hands of others» (Raquel Abecassis). Therefore, it is the time to say enough!