What happens when government policy determines education policy for your children? Special interest groups start proposing compulsory sex ed for 4-year-olds.

Does anyone, anywhere in the education establishment acknowledge that parents should keep any responsibility for anything? Or are we just to turn our children over the the great nanny that is the government? Don’t answer that if you are a bureaucrat. I already know your opinion.

Ask me again why I homeschool and I’ll tell you. It isn’t about sex ed. Live on a farm and you can’t avoid that. It isn’t about religion, though I do appreciate my freedom in this area. The simplified version includes the fact that I enjoy spending time with my children, I love watching them learn, I think individual instruction is good for them, and I am responsible enough to guide my children’s educational paths.

I think our society spends too much time abdicating any shred of personal responsibility. On the individual level, it is the voice that says “I shouldn’t have to pay a parking ticket, I was only in the handicapped spot for 5 minutes.” On the governmental level, it includes telling parents that the government will handle the important stuff.  They will feed the children (even over summer break), clothe them, and fill their heads with all the innacurate information a little mind could possibly need (no need for decent behavior or accountability).

The cycle continues, ever more frenzied. The government tells folks they will take care of the children (free lunch at school, no worries),  then weeps bitterly that nobody sends lunch with their children any more. Then they add free breakfast since parents probably can’t be trusted to cover that basic necessity so savvy parents stop taking the time to fix breakfast for kids who are in a hurry.

I’m not proposing that we starve the children whose parents are truly negligent, but what about holding those parents accountable for taking care of their children? You never know, they might just step up to the plate and surprise you.

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