Righteous Indignation

by Tammy Drennan

A little righteous indignation, please

One of the things that fueled the American Revolution was old-fashioned righteous indignation – who did King George think he was to muscle us around as if we had no rights, as if we were his naughty little children?

We seem to have lost the capacity for this healthy emotion that keeps tyrants at bay and feeds our passion to live free and completely.

Now we ask, “Who are we to imply that we know better than the state?”

Before you think that many of us are exempt from this shift in attitude, consider that a significant number of homeschoolers seeks state recognition of their children’s diplomas. Think about it – one of the most independent groups in America today still vacillates in self-doubt.

Why do we yearn for affirmation from the state — as if we are inadequate until our government tells us otherwise? Where is our sense of pride and self-reliance, of confidence and independence? Where is our outrage that a government that is supposed to be under our critical eye is instead the critic and we the critiqued?

This is one of the many gifts we’ve been granted by a system of schooling controlled by the state. We started as a country of fiercely independent innovators and leaders and by way of government schooling ended up a little pile of sniveling submission and insecurity. Our small acts of independence are tepid. We constantly look over our shoulders at Pa Pa state, hoping for a nod of approval. The ultimate jewel in our cardboard crowns is Acknowledgement by the State.

Yes, I’m being hard on us – that is, those of us who have chosen freedom. We’re still wading in its shallow end. And while we wade and worry that the water is too cold and keep taking little steps back toward the shore and keep eyeing the “life preservers” state schools throw out to erode our confidence and tempt us back, the state tightens its noose.

But the state is encroaching where it has no authority. Government has no more right to define us intellectually, socially and morally (and schools do all of that) than it does to define us religiously. It does not have the right to tell us what we should think, learn, believe, or do in preparation for our lives or vocations. And we should be furious that it imposes on us, by force of law, in every one of these areas.

When we do step into independence, it should be with confidence – so much confidence that we not only don’t care if the state approves, we would reject any offer of its approval as an insult. It is the state that should be seeking our approval and not the other way around.

Some “How dare you? Step aside at once!” is in order. A good dose of righteous indignation will immunize us against the advances of the state on our children and families and fire our drive to live free and excel.

Before It’s Too Late

by Tammy Drennan

Is there a window of opportunity for choosing freedom? A window that, ignored, will close and open again only by force?

 

Andre Trocme was a courageous man who rallied his village and risked his life to save the lives of thousands of Jews during Hitler’s Holocaust. He was also a life-long pacifist.

 

When Andre was a young man, he served in the French army during World War I. One day he was sent on a mapping mission with 24 other men. He was issued a gun for the mission but left it behind because of his pacifist convictions.

 

When the mapping crew arrived at its location, Andre’s commander discovered that Andre was without a weapon. He reprimanded the young soldier for endangering the entire crew with his belated commitment to his conscience.

 

“The lieutenant told Trocme that his refusal to bear arms had come too late. He already embarked on a military campaign; he was already committed. He should have refused at the very beginning, when he could have avoided making the march into the desert. With his whole mind and his body he should have made his choice sooner, in time.”

 

Trocme did not forget this lesson of his youth. Timing matters. The sooner you stand on your convictions the better the outcome. The longer you wait, the harder you make it on yourself – and often on others. Sometimes the hardships are disastrous.

 

When Hitler took over France, Trocme’s home village of Le Chambon fell under the Vichy leaders who worked at the behest of Germany. Citizens were commanded to take an oath of absolute allegiance to this new government. Trocme refused from the outset. He did not give the government time to feel its strength. He did not give it a chance to become accustomed to bullying him.

 

Not only did Andre Trocme position himself with an advantage over the people who wished to crush all he stood for, he strengthened his own resolve with every act of independence – and there were many to come. Further, his early and uncompromising actions set the tone for the entire village – it showed them it could be done and it infused them with courage.

 

The greatest illegitimate authority in America today is our public school system. It robs us of our independence, of our children and our future.

 

Those who say no to this system from the outset, who never entangle themselves with its demands and controls, are the ones who suffer the least from its aggressions. These are the people who set an example for others, who show that freedom is doable and that any sacrifices involved are well worth it.

 

But most people find themselves compromised and entangled early on, and they come to embrace convictions late in the game, when acting on those convictions is hard – hard because they have little practice, hard because they are already ensnared by a system that doesn’t want to let them go and that assumes its authority over them because they have conceded it for so long.

 

It is certainly best to know your convictions early and to stand on them from the start. But we all make mistakes. The best time to remedy our mistakes is now, before the situation gets any worse.

 

And the situation is getting worse. Every year, government at all levels assumes more authority over the lives of our children and thus over the future that will be America. We are no longer a land “of the people, by the people and for the people.” We are a land “of the government, by the government and for the government.”

 

But the window of opportunity is still open a crack. We still live under the protection of our Constitution. It’s not as strong as it once was, but it’s still just strong enough to shield us so we can take that first step into freedom.

 

As more of us choose freedom, our community and solidarity will protect us from usurpers of legitimate authority, and it will strengthen our Constitution and the laws of our land that guard against tyranny of both body and conscience.

 

Many have stepped into the war innocently, not thinking ahead about the repercussions of government schooling. Others have lunged head-long into the war, thinking they can shape into their own image a system that shares none of their values or convictions. And a significant number are simply trapped by default – they have no choice at the moment.

 

We need more Harriet Tubmans in the world – those who see the wrong for what it is and take daring risks to right it. We need more Andre Trocmes – those who say no to illegitimate authority from the outset, then stand by their convictions come what may. This is how freedom is won and kept.

 

We can be thankful for those who ease the suffering of the enslaved, we can even try to ease that suffering ourselves, but ultimately, bondage only turns into freedom when it ends.

Lazy Algebra Students

by Tammy Drennan

 

A recent post has generated some heated discussion both here and on the Free Republic blog site on the topic of what students should have to learn, like it or not.

 

The winner is algebra. In all fairness, though, we really didn’t test any other subjects, but my suspicion is that if I had excused students from mastering the intricacies of poetry or British literature or even physics, I would not have met with such vehemence.

 

I was discussing this with my oldest (grown) son yesterday and he suggested that since so many people struggle with algebra they like the idea of using it to “stick it to” the younger generation. A sort of “I suffered so you will, too” thing.

 

Maybe. But let’s play common sense rather than psychology here.

 

The original context for my suggestion that a student should be allowed to pursue a passion, even to the exclusion of certain subjects that public schools consider essential to the education experience, was the idea that we need to redefine education.

 

For instance, instead of a couple of years of algebra, students might be exposed to a survey course of only a few weeks or even one semester. This would give them a taste for the subject and would focus on the more useful and fascinating aspects of it and help them see if they want to pursue it. It would also familiarize them with all the basic concepts and put them in a good position to pick it up later should it prove necessary to some other pursuit.

 

Obviously this approach is not very suited to a government institution setting, but it could work out great in a private or home setting, which is what we’re talking about and advocating anyway.

 

You see, in a private or home situation a teacher or mentor or parent would be encouraging and enabling students to throw themselves into excelling at the things they love, be that music, sports, writing, history, technology, mathematics, science, whatever. If a student studying history stumbled upon a need to understand algebra, the resources and help to do it would be available, and more important, the motivation would be present.

 

By way of example, my son is in the process of writing a creative history of the world. History is a specialty of his. But science is not and the theory of relativity especially is not. Yet he needed to understand Einstein’s famous hypothesis enough to be able to express it in terms suitable to his project. He spent two intense days studying and getting his brain around the topic and came up with a delightful summary for his book. Motivation is a real brain booster (science and research have proved it, but the schools still aren’t buying it).

 

In my original post that set off the furor over student discipline, I commented that what education looks like now is an artificial construct – something made up by activists, bureaucrats, textbook companies, and a bunch of control-freaks, some well-intentioned, some not.

Real education, to paraphrase John Gatto, looks like billions of different things because there are billions of people.

 

But we’ve been shot through and through with the fear of Horace Mann, et al. Everyone must look alike. All brains must scan the same. What on earth will happen without common knowledge and culture?

 

It’s a ridiculous concern, of course. For thousands of years before state institutional schooling, human beings have come together with common — and complementary — interests, goals and skills. There was never the need for certain more enlightened individuals to come up with a plan for human knowledge and force it down everyone else’s throats.

 

As a matter of fact, there’s ample evidence that modern mass schooling has done considerable harm to children, families, society, cultural literacy, academic literacy, morality and ethics, and the cause of freedom (and that’s the short list).

 

Human beings naturally seek out knowledge and improvement. To be sure, we’re not perfect. There are plenty who would happily live off the labor of others (more now than ever, since we’ve had 160 years of mass state schooling). But as a whole, given the right conditions (liberty), society works to improve without the interference of the state.

 

1700s America (over 100 years before the advent of mass state schooling) is a prime example. The books, newspapers and pamphlets that common men read, discussed and debated would be considered very challenging reading for the average person today. Ben Franklin’s Poor Richard’s Almanac sold 10,000 copies its first year – and 10,000 copies a year for 25 years after that. Franklin’s subscription library was deemed such a good idea that soon the book collections were common throughout the colonies. (And, of course, Franklin attended school for only two years after he was already a prolific reader, yet became a world-renowned statesman, writer and scientist.)

 

In 1776, Thomas Paine’s Common Sense became an instant bestseller. The city in which it was printed – Philadelphia – had 27 printing presses, six newspapers and 30 bookshops serving a mere 30,000 residents. Common Sense went through multiple printings due to high demand (including quite a few illegal ones – it was that profitable). It was estimated that there was one copy for every inhabitant of America. Not even the Harry Potter books have managed that.

 

Obviously, literacy was on the move and cultural literacy was a human given (as it is where not suppressed or artificially manipulated).

 

So, speaking of common sense, we have a whole history that stands witness to the power of liberty to improve the human condition. We also have a partial history, from the mid 1800s to the present, that stands witness to the power of the state to destroy human improvement.

 

Fortunately, human beings are not so easily subdued. We’d be a lot worse off now if not for our early history of fighting for freedom and resisting state encroachment. Remnants of that history play in our minds and tug at our hearts. We hear it among ourselves, even as schools twist it or ignore it altogether. It calls to us – and many have answered. Many more will, because we know it works.

 

Freedom works. We just have to relearn what it is. There are lots of people out there working to that end. This blog is one effort. Your efforts will make a difference. Spread freedom.

 

P.S. Because I know it will come up, let’s briefly address the issue of young children and their education. Should elementary aged children be required to learn certain things – reading, the basics of math, etc.? My personal opinion is that during this flexible and receptive stage of their lives, children should be taught to read and to master the basics of arithmetic. They should also be exposed to lots of other things through reading and being read to, hearing adults discuss serious things, etc. We cannot equate all phases of life – what applies to one does not apply to another (that’s why adults don’t go around saying “I read at a 35-year-old level”). That said, the worst possible teacher for our children is the state, which not only forces conformity and robs children of rich and varied experiences, but botches the job of teaching reading and math to a horrifying degree. So, it’s in the hands of parents, where it belongs. They may choose to do it themselves or they may choose proxies, but it should be their decision. Are some weakly qualified to make that choice – or even unable? Sure – just like many schools. That’s where the brilliance of a free society comes in. People want to help; they rise to the occasion. They did it in early America, providing for the education of poor children, and they’re doing it today. They’ll do it even more once we release ourselves from the bondage of the state.

 

Recommended Reading

 

The Real Benjamin Franklin by Andrew M. Allison, Cleon Skousen and M. Richard Maxfield

 

46 Pages: Thomas Paine, Common Sense, and the Turning Point to Independence by Scott Liell

 

Public School Citizens: Perish the Thought

http://educationconversation.wordpress.com/category/public-school-citizens/

 

 

 

 

Getting Out is Not Enough

by Tammy Drennan

 

I talked with a young lady the other day – 14-years-old – who loves horses and aims to own stables and teach riding, among other things. She’s been working with horses since she was five. She’s good enough now that she “breaks” new ones and retrains ones facing changes in the use they’re being put to. She knows her stuff.

 

Next year she’ll be taking a test to qualify her to run a stable. Among other things, she’ll have to be able to identify every plant native to her state that can harm a horse. She spends every spare minute on a horse farm near her home and has four horses of her own.

 

Then there’s her other life – public school. She failed her end-of-year math exam by three points, so she’s going to summer school. She’ll have to pass the test to move on to the next grade. I’ve talked with her. She’s smart and highly competent – just not especially interested in algebra. She’s more accomplished than many adults (even ones who did pass algebra). But she has four more years of school to go, during which time she’ll have to pass endless tests and divert her efforts from what she knows she’ll devote her life to.

 

I knew a young man some years ago who was earning $25,000 a year working part time at his own business. He was in 10^th grade. He felt silly, he said, sitting in a room full of kids who spent their lives studying for tests and playing video games. He succeeded in quitting in the 11^th grade and is now a highly successful businessman.

 

Two years ago, I got a call from a 16-year-old girl who was miserable in school. She had a family situation that evoked daily mockery from her classmates. On her own, she collected motivational quotations and had mapped out plans to become a hair stylist and open her own shop, but of course, the system wouldn’t let her go.

 

I get many calls a month from parents of teens who simply haven’t managed to fit into the school mold. They’re smart kids, often kids with serious interests they’re prevented from pursuing because so many adults in their lives are running them through the testing/counseling/therapy wringer.

 

These are just a few examples that demonstrate why it will not be enough for us to simply start our own schools and walk away from state schools. That won’t solve the problem.

 

We must be willing to redefine education. What education looks like now is an artificial construct. It was not created by people who knew or understood children or teens. It was created by bureaucrats and special interests who wanted to control children and teens.

 

In order to redefine education, we will have to engage in some self-liberation, for most of us have a very hard time letting go (I mean really letting go) of the idea that the state knows some secret about education that we don’t and that if we defy their model we just might be sorry.

 

If we don’t defy their model, we will definitely be sorry.

 

How Much Does Your State Regulate Private Schools: A Report

Article by Tammy Drennan

How severely does your state regulate private schools?  That’s what The Friedman Foundation set out to determine about all fifty states.

My state, Georgia, scored a very good A-. The state I can see from my back door, Tennessee, earned itself an F. Some of the scores are surprising (to me, at least).

Connecticut scored an A, Massachusetts a C-. California earned a B, New Jersey an A, and Mississippi and Alabama both F’s (though it’s better for private religious schools in Alabama). Twenty-two states scored a D or an F.

Overall, what The Friedman Foundation discovered and published in its April 2008 “Fifty Educational Markets” report is that the level of private school regulation in our country is discouraging for those who believe in freedom in education. What they concluded seems logical – we should work to reduce state control over private education if we’re to have any hope of a free market and thus significant improvement of education in the future.

What they didn’t conclude was that government funding of schools and regulation are not separable.

By way of example (and bear with me – I include interesting quotes from the report a little farther down, but I want to address this issue first), the report says, “The value of an educated public was even enshrined in early state constitutions… The Massachusetts Constitution, framed by John Adams, declares:

Wisdom, and knowledge, as well as virtue, diffused generally among the body of the people, being necessary for the preservation of their rights and liberties; and as these depend on spreading the opportunities and advantages of education in the various parts of the country, and among the different orders of the people, it shall be the duty of legislatures and magistrates, in all future periods of this commonwealth, to cherish … public schools and grammar schools in the towns; to encourage private societies and public institutions [of learning]. [Excerpt quoted by report from Chapter V, Section II of MA Constitution]

But the Massachusetts Constitution also has this to say:

Article XVIII, from original MA Constitution of 1821, amended in 1917 (amendment following):

Article XVIII. [All moneys raised by taxation in the towns and cities for the support of public schools, and all moneys which may be appropriated by the state for the support of common schools, shall be applied to, and expended in, no other schools than those which are conducted according to law, under the order and superintendence of the authorities of the town or city in which the money is to be expended; and such moneys shall never be appropriated to any religious sect for the maintenance exclusively of its own schools.]

Article XVIII, amended in 1917:

Article XLVI. (In place of article XVIII… ratified and adopted November 6, 1917.)

Article XVIII.

Section 2. All moneys raised by taxation in the towns and cities for the support of public schools, and all moneys which may be appropriated by the commonwealth for the support of common schools shall be applied to, and expended in, no other schools than those which are conducted according to law, under the order and superintendence of the authorities of the town or city in which the money is expended; and no grant, appropriation or use of public money or property or loan of public credit shall be made or authorized by the commonwealth or any political division thereof for the purpose of founding, maintaining or aiding any other school or institution of learning, whether under public control or otherwise, wherein any denominational doctrine is inculcated, or any other school, or any college, infirmary, hospital, institution, or educational, charitable or religious undertaking which is not publicly owned and under the exclusive control, order and superintendence of public officers or public agents authorized by the commonwealth or federal authority or both…

As you can see, the tradition of attaching government regulation to tax subsidies is pretty old.

Now, the situation with private schools in most states is that they’re regulated even when they don’t receive any government money. Not only does The Friedman Foundation want them largely unregulated, they want them to be able to accept tax revenues by way of vouchers.

In a dream world this might happen. But it has not been the tradition of our government, even from the earliest days.

We should, we must, work for the freedom of private education, but freedom demands personal responsibility and independence.

Children who leave home but want Mom and Dad to continue supporting them more often than not find a few strings attached. Those strings motivate them to stand on their own two feet so they can live on their own terms, or they find themselves compromising their potential for maturity and growth by “going along to get along.”

Government subsidy of private education simply will not work if the end goal is freedom, innovation and excellence. The sooner we get down to business about outgrowing our longing for the easy life, the sooner we’ll be able to start living on our own terms and creating better options for ever more children.

Now for some thought-provoking quotes from the report:

At no time in our nation’s history have we spent more on public education than we do now, even when costs are adjusted for inflation.

During the progressive movement of the early 20th century, emphasis on an “educated public” morphed into the call for “public education.” While the terms may seem synonymous, they are not. Modern debate about how best to educate the public incorrectly confuses a public education, meaning government-run schools, with the broader idea of an educated public. In short, the 20th century saw the rise of government-run schools as the central means of securing an educated populace. The result is that public school students outnumber private school students by a margin of 8 to 1.4.

…while the extent of private school regulation
varies tremendously from state to state, private schools
are not “unregulated,” in any sense of that word, in any state in the Union. …most states impose at least some unreasonable regulations on private schools.

…empirical research consistently shows that private school students are more socially tolerant than public schools students.

If we are serious about educating the public, doing so may require us to seek alternatives to government monopolies in the education marketplace.