Children lose in California ruling
Joy Pavelski
Issue date: 3/27/08 Section: Opinion
More importantly, states should not control education - and regulation does equal control - because children are, fundamentally, a parental responsibility. Parents have been happy to drop their kids with a government nanny seven hours a day for 13 years so they are free to earn more money, pursue 'other hobbies,' or simply enjoy the quiet, and the state has been happy to become the primary source of its children's intellect, habit and morality. If you rule the children, you soon rule the world.
Good thing government is inefficient.
Public education is rarely, however, the venue for social reformers bent on engineering a brave new world. More often, it teems with well-meaning people who want Johnny to read, write and be polite. Little do they know their well-meant sacrifices mostly enable societal laziness, immaturity and neglect. The way to get someone to stop bad behavior is not by making it comfortable. The way to get parents active in their child's education is not by making it easy to let others do it. (Oh, paradox!) Kids aren't easy. Maybe someone should have mentioned this before talking about free love and distributing condoms. Where do they do that again? Right: public school. Hmmm...
In a recently published study of 5,402 children, Dr. Brian Ray of the National Home Education Research Institute found that home-schooled children outperform national averages by at least 30 percentile points in every subject tested. This number does not change statistically when adjusted for parental teaching certification.
Parents can educate their children better than public schools without teaching certification because parents were meant to train their children. This we understand from the very concept of parenting. You are not a parent if you can merely spawn progeny, but if you can inculcate attitudes, habits, and a quality of thought that propels your child to independence. Fetching a babysitter doesn't cut it, especially not a malignant government babysitter hired by everyone else's tax dollars.
And now that babysitter brandishes an axe called the California 2nd Appellate Court. When she comes to my state, tell her I'm in New Zealand.
Good thing government is inefficient.
Public education is rarely, however, the venue for social reformers bent on engineering a brave new world. More often, it teems with well-meaning people who want Johnny to read, write and be polite. Little do they know their well-meant sacrifices mostly enable societal laziness, immaturity and neglect. The way to get someone to stop bad behavior is not by making it comfortable. The way to get parents active in their child's education is not by making it easy to let others do it. (Oh, paradox!) Kids aren't easy. Maybe someone should have mentioned this before talking about free love and distributing condoms. Where do they do that again? Right: public school. Hmmm...
In a recently published study of 5,402 children, Dr. Brian Ray of the National Home Education Research Institute found that home-schooled children outperform national averages by at least 30 percentile points in every subject tested. This number does not change statistically when adjusted for parental teaching certification.
Parents can educate their children better than public schools without teaching certification because parents were meant to train their children. This we understand from the very concept of parenting. You are not a parent if you can merely spawn progeny, but if you can inculcate attitudes, habits, and a quality of thought that propels your child to independence. Fetching a babysitter doesn't cut it, especially not a malignant government babysitter hired by everyone else's tax dollars.
And now that babysitter brandishes an axe called the California 2nd Appellate Court. When she comes to my state, tell her I'm in New Zealand.
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