Parents have every right to educate their children at home, based upon knowledge gathered throughout their lives. They should and can do so, with a fair dose of responsibility. I admire who is capable of achieving such a deed, because the amount of stress involved in the task is only comprehended by those who actually do it. However, the results are unmatched by the ones obtained by the public school system. We have the example of the Villena Family, in Brazil. This case serves to show how a country’s educational system takes a long time to be updated in comparison to the advances achieved in the world as to child education and about the citizens´ right to seek the very best way to educate their children.

In 2004, I was asked to give some theoretical support to the Villena Family, defending the choice that they made to teach their 6 kids at home. In the occasion they had just entered with a judicial order, (in Portuguese, “Mandato de Seguranca” (MS 7407/DF) seeking the Superior Justice Tribunal of Brazil to evaluate the demands that the educational system had required from them. In fact, what the government was asking for went against the family’s goals, since they wanted to keep home schooling their kids. The educational system intended to obligate them to enroll their children in the Brazilian formal educational system. At the time, the Minister Dr. Franciulli Netto, asked for evidence in the legal procedure, and I sent (under their family name and at their request) a theoretical justification on the importance of educating children at home. My intent was to aid in the Minister’s decision, thus helping the resolution of the case.