The Feds Don’t Like Home Schoolers (because they think for themselves)
By Al Benson Jr.
Author Joel Turtel was once interviewed on http://www.thehomeschoolmagazine.com and in that interview he talked about “educator” John Dewey. Of Dewey he said: “He was a socialist and sought to use the public school system to mold our children’s minds, for generations to come, into becoming obedient little socialist citizens. Dewey was quoted as saying, ‘You can’t make socialists out of individualists. Children who know how to think for themselves spoil the harmony of the collective society which is coming, where everyone is interdependent’.”
Those who have done some research realize that Dewey was carrying on in the tradition of Unitarian Horace Mann and others of like mind who founded the public school system as a reaction against Christian education.
But Dewey’s comment is so fitting today in regard to the home school movement. That movement is made up mostly of parents who have begun to think for themselves and are in the process of teaching their children to do the same. Hence, the government school establishment doesn’t like them. They don’t just blindly buy everything the feds and their “educational” running dogs say. They question things. They want to know the whys and wherefores of certain issues and they are not about to buy a pig in a poke just because some government bureaucrat tells them it’s good for them and tells them “I’m from the government and I’m here to help you so just trust me.”
The proof of this is “in the pudding” as they say. A recent article on http://www.eagleforum.org bore this out. It seems there is a group of home school students in Minnesota that gathers at a church there, in the town of Roseville, each week. In their sessions they research, discuss, and then draft mock legislative resolutions on four different public policy issues. According to the article, one of their topics last month (April) was health care. That issue generated quite a bit of discussion among the students.
According to the Eagle Forum article: “After the health care bill passed, we were all sort of outraged, not only at the content of the bill, but the way it was passed, and just the machinations and the back room deals and all that” explained Student Senator Fletcher Warren, age 18, in a radio interview with Sue Jeffers. “So we decided we should do what we could…We wrote out this resolution…detailing our concerns, such as the unconstitutionality of it, violating the commerce clause, etc.” You have to wonder how many public school students today would even be aware of any of this.
Anyway, the resolution the kids drafted called upon Minnesota’s governor, the states attorney general, and the state legislature “to seek an injunction that would relieve the state of having to comply with newly enacted national healthcare legislation.” And on April 6th the thirty two students in this group got together at the statehouse in St. Paul to hand deliver letters and copies of their signed resolution to Minnesota’s legislators. The students met with four representatives and two senators while they were there.
Of course, at this point, we have no way to know how any of this will turn out, but I’m sure some of the legislators were more than a bit surprised to have this home schooling group visit them and pass out letters and resolutions on this rather touchy subject.
Events like this are what really drive the federal education bureaucrats up the wall. These kids have not bought the standard party line regarding health care that has been peddled to the country. They’ve looked at it, thought about it, deliberated, and decided it was passed in a very sneaky manner and that it’s unconstitutional. How many public school kids have even thought about it, or know what the word “unconstitutional” means?
Years ago I wrote a little booklet entitled “The Unitarian/Socialist Foundations of Public Education” It has been out of print for a couple years now. Looks like maybe I should get a few more copies printed.
Educationally speaking, Christian education, both at home and in private Christian schools is the only hope for this country. The public school system has foundations built on Unitarian and socialist sand and will not be reformed from its original intent, the neutralizing of Christian education. People who go in and try to work at “taking our public schools back” are probably well-intentioned, but they do not grasp the fundamental truth that the public schools were never “ours” to begin with. They have always belonged to our adversary and we’d better get used to that fact.
Content ©2010 Al Benson Jr.
On The Web: http://www.cakewalkblogs.com/antiestablishmenthistory/feds-dont-like-home-schoolers-because-they-think.aspx
