Monday, April 08, 2013

The State wants your kids

"Virginia needs all of its sons, Mr. Anderson.
"That may be so, Johnson, but they're my sons!  They don't belong to the state."

- Jimmy Stewart, Shenandoah

Flash forward a century and a half...



Whew... where to begin?  How about at the beginning, with the assertion that somehow we've "never invested enough in public education?"  Really?  Mileage may vary in terms of public school funding, but in general, it's not the real issue.  All the money in the world does no good when the students are not held accountable or instilled with the desire to learn.  Guess who's most effective at that?  (hint: it isn't the school employees)  Parental involvement is the number one indicator of a student's likelihood at success.  Money simply isn't a substitute for that factor.  This alone largely may explain why shoestring-budget homeschooling often outperforms well-resourced public schools.  That, and the lack of unions, bureaucracy and corruption...

"We haven't had the sort of collective notion that these are our kids..."
There is a vast difference between the idea that adults ought to back one another up in raising the next generation, and declaring all offspring to be some sort of collective property.  The first is how a civil society works.  The second is, at best, a precursor to a totalitarian ideology. 

"We have to break through this kind of private idea that kids belong to their parents..."
Of course, it seems society is already (literally) hell-bent on doing just that.  All I'll say is that anyone planning to break through this idea in regards to my kids had best be well-armed.  As I've said before, everyone has to determine the limits of what they will tolerate.  Anyone seeking to supplant my role as parent is in for a fight.

The State is gaining power by default, as the influence of and allegiance to faith and family continues to diminish.  Leviathan is quickly becoming the central organizing force in society, and that has always resulted in disaster.  We do not belong to the government; it belongs to us.  We created it, not the other way around. 

If you won't fight for the freedom to raise your own kids, what WILL you fight for???

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