Posing a Question

I've got this idea in my head rolling around and I'd like to expound on it. I'm writing it down here to start. More to come. But here it is.

Is public education a form of forced welfare?

Ok, here I am. I've come back to this question and I've got several ideas working. I've been reading a lot. Reminds me of Beauty and the Beast, "Lafou, I'm afraid I've been thinking. A dangerous pastime, I know." I've been reading a lot of older homeschool/education movement articles and books and I'm afraid things have changed and we haven't noticed it. Home schooling, or not sending your children to school was a rebellion against a system that was failing our children. Gosh, there's so much and I can't put it down in words.

Ok, try again. It seems to me that home schooling has been hi-jacked by the public school system through these new charter schools. It's as if the people rebelled against a government program and they couldn't prove it wrong or failing so they incorporated the idea into theirs and now have made home schooling mainstream and normal under the government umbrella of charters. I don't like it. It feels wrong. The chat groups and websites don't feel like a movement to take something back. It's just a lengthy conversation about how to use the public school framework at home.

As for forced welfare, like I mentioned before, I was talking to someone on Monday and the idea came to me because she said she is friends with so many school teachers that see her children and know their family and they still insist that homeschooling is not right for our country. It hit me that they have a different mindset, something I've heard from many many people. "Homeschooling is ok for you because you're smart and attentive to your children, but not everyone can do that." It assumes that most people are dysfunctional somehow and shouldn't be allowed to raise their own children. It bugs me.

Then I came home and opened a book called "The Homeschooling Almanac 2000-2001" that a guy gave me on Monday at the homeschool fair and there it was again. Why did home schooling start? Why did we move to this public school thing? When did it become ok to send your children off to be raised by someone else?

It's all so much to think about and I can't get it straight.

Federalist #48

If you have never read the Federalist Papers, you should. They are not hard to read really. I'm not saying they are light or easy, but they are a wealth of information and give you a sense of perspective. Many of the arguments that you hear on the news and in papers are the same ones our country has been hearing 200 years ago.

So #47 was pointing out that the three branches of government cannot be effective at all if they are completely separate and autonomous. This one, #48, points out why and specifically talks about the judiciary branch. Here are two quotes that will make you think.

Regarding Virginia and its constitution, "A great number of laws had been passed, violating the rule requiring that all bills of a public nature shall be previously printed for the consideration of the people." Sound familiar? That's in our Federal Constitution as well and has been effectively kept as a rule until recently. You would think it would be easier to have the bills printed and read by the people in this day. It is written that way so that we know how to influence our representatives to vote. But our population has been so dumbed down and cowed that we can't understand why we need to read them. And our bills are purposely being written lengthy and confusing so that we will give up on it and let the professionals handle it. If I were my areas representative, I'm thinking that if I can't read the bill and understand it, I'm voting no until it is written in a concise and clear manner.

Another one, in regard to a large body of legislators, "being at once exempt from the restraint of an individual responsibility for the acts of the body, and deriving confidence from mutual example and joint influence, unauthorised measures would, of course, be more freely hazarded than where the executive department is administered by a single hand, or by a few hands." Mob mentality? It's much easier to do wrong things in a group. You are less likely to be punished for your indiscretion.