“I could never home-school.  I would probably kill my kid by Wednesday, if I had to spend the entire day with him, every day!”

Typical fare for the teenager-parent relationship?  Unfortunately, yes.  But ironically, the individuals making these pronouncements are often the ideal candidates for home schooling.  Possibly the worst thing frustrated parents can do is send their aloof, argumentative children away (to school.) In any other setting, dropping them off somewhere, for someone else to deal with, would be deemed giving up on the relationship.  (This is the way children likely perceive the slight as well – they aren’t stupid, you know.)

If the parents cannot stand to spend time with their own child, how will he ever feel loved?  But parents are so blinded by school’s beacon; they shield their eyes and shove the child into the wolves’ den.  (It is no wonder he returns home behaving like a wild animal.)

What children learn in school

Parents wonder where their relationship with their teen went wrong.  Answer: Their influence was all but eclipsed the moment the child crossed the school threshold.  It’s that simple.

Each day a young child goes to school, he learns (way too early,) that his parents don’t know everything.  School reinforces this point by teaching the little ones to instruct their parents. “Tell Mommy not to pack plastic sandwich bags in your lunch – that kills the dolphins!”  Mommy kills dolphins!

He makes friends with other kids whose parents also slaughter innocent animals. He joins his peers, learns to challenge authority, then comes home and asserts himself.  The parent thinks, “Well, that’s probably a good thing, because he is learning to be self-confident and capable.”

But a good parent has a sneaking suspicion that it isn’t quite right.

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This country was founded on the principle that God endowed human beings with equal rights (under the law), which is different and distinct from equality.  We all experience a wonderful opportunity and great blessing to live in a country designed to reward more on merit than any other in history, but we denigrate that incredible distinction by promising our youngsters equivalence.

Most of us understand why communism doesn’t work: because very few people will ever willingly agree to be (or admit to being) average.  Strangely, we are unwittingly suckered into a similar lie, as advanced by our schools: the worship of a new god, Demos, i.e. democracy, or equality.  Consequently, God and prayer have been forced out of schools, (so as not to confuse students.)

Our naive public school system promotes the lie of equality indiscriminately (pardon the pun,) although even a toddler knows how dishonest it is.  In fact, young children thrive on discovering how people are different from each other, so this parity untruth simply brings them frustration. “If we are all alike, why does he have a Nintendo and I don’t, and why does she get candy in her lunch?”  As parents, we are suckered into it, too.  “Please refrain from putting candy in your child’s lunch.”  “Everyone gets a trophy!”  “No child left behind” translates to teaching to the lowest common denominator.

Do we really desire the bland landscape of equality and parity for our children, or do we want them to thrive, above and beyond other children, soar to heights only dreamt of, and excel far beyond the mean?  Only political correctness, so entirely incorrect, dictates an answer in the negative there.  Let’s face facts: we all want our own kids to sign lucrative contracts like Alex Rodriguez (with the ultimate pay-off: six-hundred homers, faster than anyone else, and a secured place in history,) or its “equal.”  There, I said it, “equal.”  We want equality, but we are not all A-Rod, and hoping for something doesn’t make it reality.

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Last year, my first-born was in enrolled in our local public school in second grade, and although he spent 6 or 7 hours there each day, he came home with tons of homework and a good deal more learning remaining.  I started to think, “Why am I sending my kids to school, when the school sends them back to me to educate?”  A friend later complained to me that when they gave her son a book report, it meant at least 5 hours of her own time working on it with him.  Another parent told me how great the tutoring was at the chain store down the street from her.  All this got me to thinking: if I’m ultimately in charge of my kids’ education, why do I feel so powerless?

SOME FUNDAMENTALS

I assumed that the government knows best what, and how, to teach my kids.  It’s an assumption I was raised with, one I never challenged, until now.  Well, you know what they say about you when you assume…

This recent economic collapse has dragged me, kicking and screaming, to question the efficacy and intelligence of the body comprised of our representatives in Washington.  I mean, since the housing calamity, we now have the lowest percentage of home ownership since the 1960’s.  This, after all the manipulations Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Barney Frank, and Fannie Mae implemented to make housing more “affordable”.  (It’s very affordable now!)  Thanks to their good intentions, and the rest of the spenders in Washington, the economy is in the tank, we don’t have a balanced budget, and don’t even get me started on the deficit.  Most of us agree that something is seriously wrong in government.  It cannot balance its own checkbook, so it prints more money.  Call me old-fashioned, but that’s a problem for me.

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