Vlad and I

"Give me four years to teach the children and the seed I have sown will never be uprooted."
-- Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

This isn't the first time I've mentioned this quote from Lenin.  I just have a few thoughts to share about it today.

I know when most read that quote from Lenin about planting the seed that will not be uprooted, they think of early childhood or at least before the high school years.  Some think that 8 years (twice what Lenin requested) of "official" education at home should be more than enough to ground their children.  Sometimes there is the fear of teaching high school.  Teens might miss out on football games, proms, etc.  Whatever the reason, teens are sometimes sent to public school for the high school years. 

We don't stop to realize that in this day and age, those last four years are just as important in seed sowing as any other.

Just something to think about.

"Is it not ironical that in a planned society of controlled workers given compulsory assignments, where religious expression is suppressed, the press controlled, and all media of communication censored, where a puppet government is encouraged but denied any real authority, where great attention is given to efficiency and character reports, and attendance at cultural assemblies is mandatory, where it is avowed that all will be administered to each according to his needs and performance required from each according to his abilities, and where those who flee are tracked down, returned, and punished for trying to escape - in short in the milieu of the typical large American secondary school - we attempt to teach 'the democratic system'?"
-- Royce Van Norman
Source: "School Administration: Thoughts on Organization and Purpose," Phi Delta Kappan 47(1966):315-16

The Parent's Responsibility

It has been rare lately for me to take the time to put my own thoughts into words. There are so many other bright, intelligent people putting into words similar thoughts as mine that frequently I hear myself saying, “Let’s not reinvent the wheel.” This time however, I don’t seem to find many people, if any, communicating these thoughts, so I felt led to make this point myself.


During one of our recent Summits [www.AIPNews.com], I heard some interesting discussion about how to impart the importance and worth of restoring our republic. As a former classroom teacher, I understand the desire to impart the Truth to my students and plant seeds that would hopefully grow with more cultivating.


I realized the problem with this belief after God gave us a child to parent. After studying the Word, I realized that the responsibility of educating our daughter was laid directly on the shoulders of my husband and me. And regardless of how much I search, no where do I see that mantle of responsibility removed in Scripture. Even if I didn’t believe “Sola Scriptura,” the fact that the socialist agenda has been encroaching on this right and responsibility for years should prove the point. Years? Actually more like over a century.


“The education of all children, from the moment that they can get along without a mother's care, shall be in state institutions at state expense.” Didn’t we hear Obama say this? Probably. But this quote is actually from Karl Marx himself. And slowly (or not so slowly) the Christians in the United States have been poisoned with this belief. So, off the women go into the workforce and men resign their responsibility of father to a “step” or to no one at all; both treating the “blessings” of God as curses. They turn their children over to government storage facilities. Parents are told that they are not capable of training their children. After all, “The teacher is engaged not simply in the training of individuals, but in the formation of the proper social life.... In this way, the teacher always is the prophet of the true God and the usherer-in of the true Kingdom of God” or so says a famous father of modern education, John Dewey.


“But wait,” say many unsuspecting parents, “we send them to school for an education.” That may be your goal but don’t assume it’s the educational system’s goal. The public education system’s goal is not individual education but communal indoctrination. As John Dewey stated, “Children who know how to think for themselves spoil the harmony of the collective society which is coming where everyone is interdependent.”


While I know that many individual teachers have a wonderful heart for children, what teachers are being taught and given to teach does not provide the worldview some of us hold. Even as I sat in my Science Methods class at a Catholic college, I was instructed to teach evolution. But while there are some teachers who attempt to swim against the tide, most do not or have been too corrupted by the system already themselves to realize they are part of the tide. For instance, as I sat in my Philosophy and History of Education class at the same college, I was the only person in the room who believed in absolutes. Not even our instructor believed in absolutes. If this is the mindset of the majority of those teaching, how can much good come out of it?


Correction. How much good could come out of it for those of us who hold to our conservative, Christian beliefs? There is a lot of good to come out of it for those following and fostering a socialist agenda. If not, why else would Lenin boldly state, “Give me four years to teach the children and the seed I have sown will never be uprooted.” If he knew that could happen after only four years, what about our American posterity that has been abandoned to the enemy for twelve or more years? Is it any wonder then Saul Alinsky taught in his book Rules for Radicals the need for “community organizers” to reach out and train the youth? Is it surprising to find that the well-known “community organizer” not only was praised by Alinsky’s son after the Democratic National Convention for how well Obama had used his father’s model, but he also made sure to teach those principles to students and such groups as ACORN.


It should be no surprise, then, when we learn that Obama is planning to speak to the nation’s students this coming Tuesday. Not only is he speaking, but providing teachers with the correct propaganda material otherwise called “classroom activities.” After all, as Neal McCluskey of the Cato Institute noted, “In his letter, Duncan [Secretary of Education] asserts that the work of educators is ‘critical to…our social progress.’” Sound familiar?


And it is no coincidence that not only will Obama speak, but follow-up materials are provided because after all, “A lie told often enough becomes the truth,” or so believed Lenin.
Many may feel that my thoughts concerning the weight of education lying on the shoulders of the parents is outmoded or even wrong. That is fine. But if you are a Constitutional conservative, you may want to reconsider. After all, nowhere within the explicit powers given to the federal government is education mentioned. We cannot pick and choose which powers usurped by the federal government should be extinguished making sure to leave only the ones that are convenient for us to keep.


So in the end, it is the family who should reclaim our right and responsibility to teach our children in all things including the very important role as citizens of a republic. I agree with the “Prince of Preachers,” Charles Spurgeon, who stated, “The best education is education in the best things.”

The Yellow Prison Bus and the Future of American Healthcare

http://www.voddiebaucham.org/vbm/Blog/Entries/2009/8/26_The_Yellow_Prison_Bus_and_the_Future_of_American_Healthcare.html


Conservatives are up-in-arms over the Democratic healthcare scheme. From town hall meetings, to talk radio, to the internet, the voice of the people is being heard. However, I am not at all convinced that the voice of the people will ultimately make a difference in the long run. My pessimism has less to do with the sinister motives of those seeking to take over the healthcare system. On the contrary, my pessimism stems from the hypocrisy of those shouting down their representatives and claiming to be “fed up”.

While I’m sure these folks mean well, I wonder about the sincerity of their opposition in light of the fact that the overwhelming majority of them (between eighty and eighty-five percent) have already accepted everything they claim to abhor about the healthcare plan. Some have already exposed this irony as it relates to Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security (full disclosure: I’ve opted out of Social Security and am proud to say that I am not anticipating one thin dime from the American government in my old age). However, I’m not talking about these long existing socialist programs, I’m talking about the #1 socialist welfare program in America, the public school system!

There are striking similarities between government-run education and the government-run healthcare bill currently under consideration in Congress. And it is precisely these similarities that will eventually cause the American people to lay down and take whatever the government gives them, and eventually be willing to fight and die for them. Remember, there was public outrage over government education (and Social Security) as well when it was first proposed (see the quotes here). However, nearly one hundred and fifty years later the overwhelming majority of Americans gladly put their children on the yellow prison bus every day (yes, they are the same type of busses used to transport prisoners).

JUST SAY NO TO SOCIALISM

One of the mantras we hear repeatedly these days is, “we don’t want socialism.” While that sounds good (and conservative, and constitutional, and patriotic, etc.), it rings hollow when you consider the overwhelming majority of the people leading the charge have their children in what amounts to socialized education. What’s the difference? If you’re really against government-run, socialized programs, yank your kid off the yellow prison bus and just say no.

READ THE TENTH AMENDMENT

Another catchphrase I’ve heard a lot lately is, “this is a violation of the Tenth Amendment.” Again, this is wonderful rhetoric. I love the Constitution of the United States; especially the Tenth Amendment which protects the rights of States and individuals from overreaches by the Federal Government. The amendment reads: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” Ironically, one of the “powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States” is education! That’s right, the Federal Government has absolutely no Constitutional right to involve itself in education. The Department of Education is as unconstitutional as government-run healthcare. However, few of the people shouting at these town hall meetings (or reporting on it on conservative talk radio and the internet) would stand up and call for the immediate abolishment of the D.O.E. (or any of the other federal departments that exist in clear violation of the tenth amendment).

I HAVE A RIGHT TO PICK MY OWN DOCTOR

Perhaps the most ironic aspect of the current uproar is the fact that people who put their children on the yellow prison bus and send them to the school designated by the State (at an age chosen by the State, on a date determined by the State, for a term mandated by the State) have the audacity to point their fingers and say, “I don’t want the government picking my doctor!” This is absolute folly. If we were serious about the moral and constitutional authority of this claim there would not be a single congressman or senator in Washington who opposed school choice as none of them would be able to win an election. However, Americans are glad to elect officials who continue to rob them of their freedom in this most basic, fundamental aspect of their lives; the education of their children.

DON’T TRUST THE PEOPLE WHO RUN THE POST OFFICE

How many times have we heard someone retort, “do you want the people who run the Post Office to run your healthcare?” The answer of course is a resounding no! Whether you call it “the public option,” or something else, conservatives do not want the government to run their healthcare (see here). However, how is it that we trust those same people to run our child’s education? How is this any different? And this is not just a liberal democrat thing; George Bush was the one who gave us “No Child Left Behind.” This was a monument to socialistic, government-run, unconstitutional mis-education. This was a massive overreach by the Federal Government that met little or no opposition (see one rare example here). Where were the town hall protests? Where were the flag-waving, gun-toting protestors? Where was the political right? Instead, all we heard was, “accountability is a good thing.” Never mind the Constitution.

NOT WITH MY TAX DOLLARS

Then there are the people who “don’t want their money to pay for abortions or sex change operations.” This one has president Obama on the defensive. Conservative Christians are especially animated over this aspect of the bill. Suddenly, the silent Christian majority is offended at the prospect of the federal government taking their money and using it for immoral purposes. This coming from people who send their children to government schools with Gay/Straight Alliance clubs, semi-pornographic sex-ed classes, and Gramscian, neo-Marxist, neo-Darwinian curriculum. How can we complain about our tax dollars going to fund abortions and sex change operations if we gladly offer up our children to taxpayer-funded dens of iniquity one hundred and eighty days a year? This is the height of hypocrisy.

THE PAST IS PROLOGUE

We will have taxpayer funded healthcare. The Democrats have offered the full monty, now the Republicans will “dial it back” a bit and claim victory (i.e., we can come up with something just for for those people who don’t have healthcare, make sure illegal immigrants don’t have access, and save Billions, if not Trillions of dollars). The result will be a slightly less socialistic system (for now) that the American people will accept gladly after seeing the beast in it’s full fury. And eventually, the furor will die down and the town hall meetings a generation from now will treat socialistic government healthcare the same way we treat socialistic programs like Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and government education today.

If you want to know what type of government-run healthcare system Americans will be willing to settle for in the next generation, just walk outside tomorrow morning and watch the yellow prison busses take the next generation of Americans to the taxpayer-funded, government-run, indoctrination center to which they are assigned and ask yourself this question: Are they learning anything today that will give them an aversion to a government takeover of healthcare? Then ask yourself another question: If their parents do teach them to oppose socialism, read and follow the Constitution, cherish freedom of choice, shun government intervention and hold government accountable for ethical use of their tax dollars, how long will it be before they’re standing at the corner waiting on the yellow prison bus and think to themselves, “Hey, if mom and dad really believe these things... why am I standing here?”
VB