Here is some musical accompaniment
to entertain you while reading this blog.
Recently, Paul Reville, the former secretary of education
for Massachusetts and a Common Core supporter publicly asserted that “the
children belong to all of us”. I’m
sure this came as news to many American parents as well as kids who did not
know that they were “owned” let alone community property.
If it be true that everyone owns the kids, then no one owns
the kids. American kids are fast
becoming the next victim of the Tragedy of the Commons. This is the social principle that when
private ownership is absent, the populace will pillage a common resource without
maintaining or replenishing it, hence, destroying it. This tragedy has replayed itself over and
over again in publicly held forests, fisheries, grazing lands and housing
projects. Precious resources are
squandered and destroyed.
Privately held goods are most likely to be well maintained
because it is in the owner’s interest to protect his assets and investments. He suffers the loss when they are degraded.
The truth is that children are sovereign individuals who
belong only to themselves or, if you are religious, to the God that created
them. They “belong” to no other human
being. Self ownership traces its roots at
least as far back as John Locke
in the Seventeenth Century. This
principle underlies our Founder’s commitment to “unalienable” rights to individual
“life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”.
However; because children are not yet physically,
emotionally or intellectually able to cope in the adult world, they are traditionally
remanded to the “custody” of their parents or other elders of their
families. As defined by the Merriam-Webster
Dictionary, custody is “the act of protecting or taking care of something”. This is the polar opposite community
ownership which exploits and destroys that which it possesses.
As we said however, children are not owned by their
families. If families do not actually
own their kids, what then might be their motivation in caring for the children
in their custody?
That would be called “love”.
Love, as was once defined on the radio by James MacDonald, is the willful act
of putting the well being of another ahead of yours. Love is what sends the fireman into the
building to rescue the trapped kids.
Love is what makes a soldier take a bullet for his buddies. Love is what Jesus did on the cross when He died
for the sins of others.
Love is something that the state does not do. Love is something that does not compute for the
bureaucratic, legalistic and one-size-fits-all controlling statist psyche. That’s because the collectivist sees only statistics,
aggregates, composites and models. He
does not see people. People are
individuals and only living, thinking and feeling individuals can love and be
loved by another individual.
Because loving parents want the best for their offspring,
more and more are rejecting zip code monopoly schools and top-down mandates
like Common Core. Instead they are embracing
school choice in ever greater numbers.
The desire to do what is best their kids is driving parents of all
political persuasions, economic strata
and ethnic identities to demand educational options for their precious
children.
So, we return the opening question, “who owns the children?” The answer is, they own themselves and they
are best cared for by parents who know them, love them and know what is best
for them. Collectivists throughout history have fought
to take child raising out of their parents’ hands. When she was First Lady, Hilary Clinton tried
to convince America of the wisdom of this approach in her book, It Takes a Village. The title is drawn
from an African proverb on child rearing.
Hmmm. How’d that work
out for Africa?
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"Half the people are stoned and the other half are waiting for the next election.
Half the people are drowned and the other half are swimming in the wrong direction."
- Paul Simon
Half the people are drowned and the other half are swimming in the wrong direction."
- Paul Simon
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