Of course they should have an education if they are living here Foxy. Those kids need a good education even more than those born here, given the poor start in life most of them have had.

Yuyutsu, I suppose you learnt to read and write at home then? I always feel sorry for home-schooled children because they don't have the same social opportunities as other children. And if they are taught by their parents then they are prisoner to an even narrower point of view.

//r u suggesting Toni that we bring Jesus to the kids.//

Not so much, runner. Teach them the three basic R's - reading, reasoning and 'rithmetic [sic], and I reckon you're doing OK.

A bit of science never hurt anybody but it's not as important as the basics. History and geography fall into the same boat: it's nice to know where you are and where you came from, but it's not as important as reading because you can learn the former with the latter but not vice-versa. Some higher mathematics than arithmetic is also good: geometry and algebra at least. Oh, and music and languages. Which doesn't leave time for art. How do primary school teachers manage?

Religion is hard bugger to teach because even the teachers don't really know the answers. Only Gods knows the answers in Religion classes but they're ineffable (no, runner, I'm not having a go. And no, 'ineffable' isn't a rude word even if it sounds like one. Look it up.)

Dear Suse,

<<Yuyutsu, I suppose you learnt to read and write at home then?>>

Right so. I was sick that day with a fever so I stayed in bed and didn't go to kindi. I had a book with songs that I knew, so I matched the lyrics with the print and when my father arrived home I told him: "Dad, I can read". He didn't believe me, so I said "try me". He gave me a book and to his astonishment I just read fluently through it.

<<I always feel sorry for home-schooled children because they don't have the same social opportunities as other children.>>

But I did go to school. I was beaten and stoned there daily by the other kids (oh, how thankful must I be for this social opportunity) and was bored to death during the lessons, but I kept gallantly going there as required by law in order to save my parents from jail. True, after school I would read all the encyclopaedias, constantly asked my parents for more books and had my father explain to me all about powers (exponents), non-decimal arithmetic and such, while my mother would explain about chemistry. How narrow indeed...

Foxy, without preaching the virtues of religion, there are a plethora of social contexts in all religious manifests that would find humanity living in peace justice and harmony, but we discount many of them. Regarding your question, this one sums it up for me:

(Deuteronomy 24:16)--"Fathers shall not be put to death for their sons, nor shall sons be put to death for their fathers; everyone shall be put to death for his own sin."

Children dragged along with illegal aliens should receive all the rights that any child born here has. In a perfect world children should not be separated from their mothers and fathers, but children should not be in the detention centres that their illegal entrant parents are put in while awaiting adjudication on their status. During WWII a large proportion of the children of England’s major cities were billeted in the country side to keep them safe from the bombing. I would employ the same tactic for children of illegal aliens.

When we visit the sins of the father on the children we end up with same doctrine employed by the NAZI’s. When Germany invaded Poland and then Russia there was no initial directive to annihilate the Jewish citizens of those nations. But within a year the first directives came from Himmler to murder Jewish civilians under the guise of anti partisan actions. Within months of this directive Himmler decreed that all Jews, including children and infants should be murdered so as not to burden future Germanic generations with a generation of avengers.........Children are innocents.

Suseonline>> And if they are taught by their parents then they are prisoner to an even narrower point of view.<<

Suse, in this statement you have encapsulated the primary flaw in home schooling, the lack of socialisation and the more than possible entrenchment of a myopic view of life.

No, they should not, seeing they shouldn't be here in the first place; and, thanks to Tony Abbott, there will not be any more of the brats and their bludging parents to get their noses in the welfare trough they never contributed to. Even the ALP has at last got the message on that one, so the darling of the Left, Turnbull would look pretty damn silly if he went back to the Rudd/Gillard days that the pathetic bleeding-heart do-gooders actually believe he will.