It takes a family

Brantford Expositor, Dec 1 2011: I want to thank Dave Levac for highlighting “Strong Start”, a private endeavour made possible by generous donors and volunteers, among them a retired principal. In these days when provincial government has too strong a hand in the education of our children, it is tremendously encouraging to see the efforts of caring individuals making up for our deficient public education system. At the end of the article, Mr. Levac draws the conclusion that this is a perfect example of the phrase “it takes a village to raise a child”; it doesn’t prove that it “takes” a village, it just proves that the village can do it to some extent when a family won’t. It takes a family to raise a child, not a village.

More importantly, what’s highlighted is that the government can’t do it well, (nor cost-effectively), and if you look around, you will see tutoring-type businesses springing up all over the place as a further testament to the truth of what I recently heard a radio talk show host say: “Education and healthcare are too important for government to be involved in.”

Recent stats note that parents are increasingly choosing alternative education options. Perhaps this is a reflection of Dalton’s efforts to remove children from their parent’s influence at an earlier and earlier age; this is not encouraging, partly because of the huge expense and extensive social science research exposing the many drawbacks of early institutional care for children, but more importantly because of the societal change that will occur when children are raised by the state (or the church) instead of their parents. (see http://imfcanada.org/article_files/IMFC-Cost-of-a-free-lunch.pdf)

Concerned parents should know that the Pascal report Dalton is embracing actually suggests keeping schools open all year, eventually including children in “the prenatal period through to adolescence.” Here’s a chilling little quote from the Pascal report: “The report is about so much more than replacing part-time kindergarten with a full-day program for 4- and 5-year-olds…it’s about transforming schools into vibrant, family-centred learning hubs. Instead of operating for the regularly scheduled six hours a day, 188 days a year, they would open from 7:30 in the morning till 6 at night year-round.”

It doesn’t stop there. A speaker I heard recently was discussing the origins of public, state-controlled education and mentioned that one of the “intellectual heavyweights” who contributed much to the way children are taught today was Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Besides writing the book Emile about how children are to be educated, he also had 5 children, whom he deposited on the steps of an orphanage shortly after birth; after all, it takes a village to raise a child. I’m not sure if it makes it worse, but he didn’t even bother to check their gender. One book Rousseau appreciated above all regarding education, was Plato’s Republic. Plato suggests that, “All … women shall be wives in common to all the men, and not one of them shall live privately with any man; the children too should be held in common so that no parent shall know which is his own offspring, and no child shall know his parent.”

Add a good dose of LGTB activism that passes for Dalton’s “sex” education, and Ontario’s parents have never had such good reasons to take back their children.

Brad Vandenberg

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