The Government Does Not Own Our Children…Yet!
I actually stole that line. Steve Olson, a blogger, who lives in the upper mid-west, wrote that at the conclusion of an interesting and impassioned post he’s written about how we educate (or fail to educate) our children. Click over to his blog right now and read that post. When you’re done, read a previous post about his own problems in public school.
Steve’s blog was one of the first blogs I read when I started. I was very impressed with his first post about his own problems in public schools, and I’m equally impressed with this post.
You see, I’m a public school teacher. I’m also a parent.
Public school teacher is my second career. (Internet entrepreneur and writer will soon be my third.) I’ve been in the public school system almost ten years.
I remember distinctly my first week on the job. I called my wife about the third day and told her there was no way in you know where my daughter and son were going to go to a school like the one I was teaching in.
Apart from rampant and overstated sexuality, self-destructive anti-social behavour, and easy access to drugs (ecstasy, crack, heroin, you name it), I was actually more horrified by the incredible lack of passion for living and learning that I saw in my students.
No, I did not and I do not teach in a ghetto school. I teach in a suburban school system that is actually well thought of!
All of the curiosity that I see in my own, younger, children at home, had been systematically squeezed out of these kids.
This is not a recent occurrence, not a new failure of an already failing system. I’m nearly half a century old, and I remember my own near intellectual death and the self-destructive behavour it caused.
I work with a group of people who are probably the most well meaning, least self-centered people I’ve ever know. We’re altruistic to a fault. It’s not the individual teachers who are crushing our children, it’s this insane, 19th century, factory-based school model we’re following.
Why in the world would you think it is healthy to put one to two hundred fifteen year olds together for so many hours a day that their contact with adults and younger children is severly limited?
We’ve created this monster called adolescence! Teens nowadays are like worms in a bottle with nothing to feed on except their own shallow ignorance. No wonder teens are so at the mercy of marketeers!
Look! You want to know what a dinosaur I am? Check this out: Children need to be raised in a family with the biological mother and father ever present in their lives until they get to the age (much older than you think) when they can responsibly go out into society and interact in a positive way.
Realistically, I understand that this is not always possible and that children can be successfully raised in either single parent households or non-standard households. But having the biological Mommie and Daddy running a nuclear family is without a doubt the best solution. I don’t really care what some ivory-tower, irresponsible PhD researcher says!
In his post, Steve makes the case for homeschool. I know zillions of teachers who homeschool their kids! You know why? It works! My wife and I are strongly considering homeschooling our kids, especially once they get to middle school age. (Don’t get me started on middle school! I’ll leave that travesty for another post.)
How to solve this problem? That’s obvious! Let’s let the force that has doubled our lives, cured a host of diseases, and has enriched vast portions of the globe take a whack at the problem of educating our children. What am I talking about?
Private enterprise! Capitalism! Let’s turn education over to the true thinkers, creators, and dreamers of the world. Let’s turn it over to the entrepreneurs.
Better yet, let’s give children back to their parents!
I belong to a professional society for teachers in my state. Recently, an initiative was floated in our state legislature that would have made vouchers available for parents of special needs children who find that their public school is not serving the needs of their child. You should have heard the hew and cry! Let parents decide the fate of their own flesh and blood! Preposterous!
If you have children or are thinking about having them, you need to realize that government is encroaching on your rights as a parent! People in government see themselves as the protectors of the welfare of our future, not us. Bureaucrats think they are the ones who need to decide what our roll as parents is going to be.
Stop this trend! Stop it with your vote! Stop it by communicating with your representatives about it. Stop it by doing what you and I are doing right now, blogging, writing and reading!
My God! I could go on and on, but I think it’s best to stop here.
More later! Hopefully on a less strident note.
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March 26th, 2007 at 11:33 pm
I commented on your other post (about how to turn daughters into whores) before reading this one. Now I understand better what you were trying to say. This one sentence really hit me:
“Why in the world would you think it is healthy to put one to two hundred fifteen year olds together for so many hours a day that their contact with adults and younger children is severly limited?”
I had been of the thinking that to avoid that environment was the equivalent of isolation, but now I’m starting to think that the “norm” is actually an extreme and unhealthy type of social immersion.
Thanks for the post.
March 27th, 2007 at 1:23 am
Chris, I read your other comment, and assumed as much. That is I assumed that if we were to fully communicate on this topic you would come to the conclusion that you have come to. (Not that you had to!) Thanks for looking around. And especially, thanks for being open-minded enough to consider things from a different point of view and actually change your opinion. This is something which is fairly rare. I know it is with me. BTW, I looked around your blog. I, too, am a seemingly “normal” person who is on an anything but normal spiritual journey. I’m looking forward to reading more of what you have to say! Namaste!