We
conservatives are quite the enigma. On the one hand, we shake our fists
at the Beelzebubs of Antifa and denounce their lawless barbarism. On the
other, we demand that government schools stay open so that we can send our children
to the leftist factories that produce the very Marxists we loathe. We
make our young people the targets of the Socialists' weapons of mass
instruction and then bemoan the loss of patriotism among our youth. Are
we self-destructive? Or simply daft?
Maybe neither. Perhaps we are fearful. As products of
the School System ourselves, we have been conditioned to believe that the only
people qualified to teach our children are those who hold government
credentials. Yes, we have a vested interest in our children and love them
in a way that a government employee cannot. And yes, we see them for the
individuals they are rather than as one of the dozens of kids in Mrs. Peabody’s
class. But teach them? Is that even possible? To answer that question, we could look to
statistics showing that homeschooled students outperform their public-schooled
peers on standardized tests and the SAT; that they fare better in college and
graduate at a higher rate. But doing so merely perpetuates the
moderns’ myth that the chief end of education is cramming for tests and
regurgitating information that is forgotten five minutes later. We set our sights too low. If we
are to preserve Western Civilization, we must aim higher. Instead of
fashioning competent test-takers, we ought to be in the business of grooming
minds for greatness -- minds like those of the home-educated Wolfgang Amadeus
Mozart, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Thomas Edison, and C.S. Lewis (to name
a few). It isn’t a classroom our kids need, but a proper education.
As Abraham Lincoln exemplifies, even the backwoods of Illinois can be mightier
than the most distinguished of schools.
Perhaps it isn’t academics we fret about, but socialization.
We worry that our children won’t make it in the real world if they spend more
time with Mommy and Daddy than with their peers in the non-binary, Marxist
world of wokeness. Never mind that the autodidact Benjamin Franklin was
the toast of the town or that the self-taught Alexander Hamilton was as dashing
as he was valiant. We grew up learning in artificially age-segregated
classrooms; our offspring should, too. Or should they?
Instead of sending our children to government institutions where they spend their
days dodging bullies and revisionist drivel, why not avail ourselves of
homeschool communities where field trips, co-ops, park dates, and
extracurricular activities abound? Let the statists rely on Uncle Sam to
supply friends for Johnny and Jane. And let patriots look to like-minded
families and neighbors for the same.
If not socialization, might it
be finances that keep us slavishly chained to government schools? If so,
it may come as a surprise that a good education is far more affordable than the
teachers unions would have us believe. We don’t need to pay for buildings
and a school nurse. We
just need a Bible, a library card, a math curriculum, and a Latin curriculum
(and in high school a formal science curriculum). I can personally vouch
for the efficacy of this multum non multa (much not many)
approach to schooling. Yes, my children do exceedingly well on
standardized tests -- and on the National Latin Exam. But it’s more than
that. Much more. My kids spend their school days in the corner of
the world where Jerusalem, Athens, and Rome intersect. From reading
Esther’s Mordecai, they have learned that they are to prostrate themselves
before Almighty God, not Haman’s henchmen. From Homer, they have learned
that the unbridled anger and seething resentment of an Achilles can bring down
a nation. In translating the Vulgate, they have gained
gratitude for the monks who helped to civilize Western Europe. And in
studying German (one of their electives), they have gained an understanding of
the language and culture that launched the Reformation. Western
Civilization, with all its virtues and vices, forms the warp and woof of their
scholastic endeavors. My children could no more smash a statue of George
Washington than they could take a hammer to their right thumbs. For them,
it’s personal. Western
Civ isn’t a classroom subject but a heritage bequeathed to them. Their
forbears aren’t their enemies, but their benefactors.
Still, I won’t
deny that there are those among us who face economic hardships. Some
folks genuinely need government schools to help provide daycare and
meals. For now, at least, it seems they are destined to languish in
public schools. But maybe we’ll help to free them one day. Maybe
we’ll raise money to provide scholarships for private schools. Or maybe
we’ll start schools of our own. We put a man on the moon. We can figure
this out.
And figure it out,
we must. The time for a mass exodus from government schools is long
overdue. We can defund the liberty-loathing teachers unions.
All we have to do is walk away. It’s that simple; we have that kind of
power. The lefties can’t indoctrinate our children if they aren’t there
to be indoctrinated. Nor can they undermine the family unit if families
are far from their crosshairs. We don’t need legislation or a
government plan. We just need to stop feeding our children to the
Minotaur.
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2020/08/starving_the_minotaur.html
