Freedom of Thought: A Human Right

I got this partial quote from an email sent to me from my Homefires email list. It is a quote from John Holt, who is screwed up in some areas, but has some things so right. I like his thoughts below:



"No human right, except the right to life itself, is more fundamental than
this. A person's freedom of learning is part of his freedom of thought, even
more basic than his freedom of speech. If we take form someone his right to
decide what he will be curious about, we destroy his freedom of thought. We
say, in effect, you must think not about what interests and concerns you,
but about what interests and concerns us.

We might call this the right of curiosity, the right to ask whatever
questions are most important to us. As adults, we assume that we have the
right to decide what does or does not interest us, what we will look into
and what we will leave alone. We take this right largely for granted, cannot
imagine that it might be taken away from us. Indeed, as far as I know, it
has never been written into any body of law. even the writers of our
Constitution did not mention it. They thought it was enough to guarantee
citizens the freedom of speech and the freedom to spread their ideas as
widely as they wished and could. it did not occur to them that even the most
tyrannical government would try to control people's minds, what they thought
and knew. That idea would come later, under the benevolent guise of
compulsory universal education."