Back off, man

[Douglas <dougwils@moscow.com>]

Dear visionaries,

Debbie Gray writes:

"But I suspect that 'attitude' doesn't restrict itself only to
_public_  school teachers... and I am certain it extends itself to
many in the religious vocation. As in "back off, man, I'm god's
spokesman"."

The problem with professional educators in the government schools is not
that they speak with confidence. This also is inescapable in every
society -- someone will be authorized to speak with moral authority.
Someone is always god's spokesman, and the only question that faces every
society is "which god?" In America currently, that god is
demos, vox populi vox dei.

So here is one important difference between my "Thus says the
Lord," and the "Thus says the trained professional" of the
government educators: when you differ with what I say you don't get a
bill in the mail for tens of thousands of dollars anyway.

This is the thing that makes the "back off, man" of the
government educators so offensive. Money is coercively taken from us
"for the kids." If parents try to take advantage of the
"benefit" paid for by this money, enroll their kids in the
government schools and then try to exercise any parental influence by
volunteering in the classroom (let's say), they are routinely told
that their presence there is unnecessary and unwelcome. Their money is
essential, their kids are grist for the mill, but their presence and
input is summarily rejected.

It is far easier to find or establish a private school where it is
assumed that parents have wisdom, and where that wisdom is solicited or
encouraged. Again, you get more of what you subsidize and less of what
you penalize. Government schools, by their very structure, subsidize
parental non-involvement and penalize attempts to get involved.