The public school system in America has become a dismal failure. But education in many other times and cultures has been quite successful. The ancient Greeks, whose civilization was at its height around 500 B.C., founded Western civilization as we know it. The Athenian Greeks invented or perfected logic, drama, science, philosophy, astronomy, mathematics, literature, and much more. Yet ancient Greece had no compulsory schools.
Other than requiring two years of military training for young men that began at age eighteen, Athens let parents educate their children as they saw fit. Parents either taught their children at home or sent them to voluntary schools where teachers and philosophers like Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle gave lectures to all who wanted to learn. These great teacher-philosophers did not need a license to teach, nor did they have tenure.
The ancient Athenians had a free-market education system. The thought of compulsory, state-run schools and compulsory licensing would have been repulsive to them. The Athenians respected a parents' natural right to direct the education of their children.
In contrast, Sparta, Athens's mortal enemy, created the first truly state-run, compulsory education system on record. Individual Spartans lived and died for the state, and had to serve the state from birth until sixty years of age. Their society was a brutal military dictatorship in which male children literally belonged to the city, not to their parents.
The Spartan military government took boys from their homes and parents at the age of seven and forced them to live in military-style barracks for the rest of their lives. Spartan men were life-long soldiers whose highest duty was to obey the commands of their leaders.
It is no coincidence that Sparta had compulsory, state-run education. If a society believes that children belong not to parents, but to the state, then the state must control children's education by compulsion.
Are our public schools any different than the brutal Spartan society in the way they treat parents and children? Today, school compulsory-attendance laws force parents to hand over their children to government employees called teachers for eight to twelve years.
In effect, our local and state governments claim that they, like the Spartans, own our children's minds and bodies for twelve years. Parents who refuse to hand over their children to the public schools can be and have been locked in jail for disobeying the compulsory-attendance laws.
In this respect, our public schools today are just as brutal as the Spartans. The difference is only in degree. Where the Spartans stole children from their parents to serve a lifetime in their military, our local governments create laws that let them, in effect, legally kidnap our children to serve twelve years in their education boot camps called public schools. The brutality of the principal is the same. Like the Spartans, our public-school officials think they own our children, and have contempt for parents' rights.
Joel Turtel is an education policy analyst, and author of "Public Schools, Public Menace: How Public Schools Lie To Parents and Betray Our Children." Contact Information: Website: http://www.mykidsdeservebetter.com, Email: http://www.mykidsdeservebetter.com, Phone: 718-447-7348. Article Copyrighted ? 2005 by Joel Turtel. NOTE: You may post this Article on an Ezine, newsletter, or other website only if you include Joel Turtel's complete contact information, and set up a hyperlink to Joel Turtel's email address and website URL, http://www.mykidsdeservebetter.com
maid service near Mundelein ..When a child is born, a new number is added... Read More
We are all aware of the child obesity epidemic that... Read More
A learning disability is defined as a permanent problem that... Read More
Goal setting is essential for building a successful life. However,... Read More
Baby names are as diverse as the people to whom... Read More
Frankly, as a single parent of young children, I struggled.... Read More
The brightly colored plastic mobile dangles lazily overhead in the... Read More
Nothing touches the heartstrings of a parent or teacher more... Read More
Love, love, love. It makes the world go round. It... Read More
Reasearch into children's friendships shows that those children who are... Read More
'Picky Eater' is a label coined to describe the phenomenon... Read More
Does your child pout, blame and brood? Does he gripe,... Read More
The key to a successful car wash fundraiser event is... Read More
Diagnosing children and teens with ADHD can be a challenge.... Read More
It's no surprise that the self-image and self-esteem of overweight... Read More
Best friends! It may seem impossible to believe, but today's... Read More
I was reading "A Modern Infant Armada", a humor column... Read More
Kids today no longer live the kind of privileged lives... Read More
As a step daughter and step grand daughter, I followed... Read More
Along with eating healthier we need to be more active.... Read More
Software for parental control is a useful tool, if applied... Read More
There has been much attention in the media of late... Read More
I have three children, ages 19 and 16 (yes, the... Read More
Q. With another school year starting, we are not sure... Read More
For the first year or two of life outside the... Read More
high-end home cleaning Bannockburn ..Finding answers to a child's underachievement is often a difficult... Read More
An address given by Rev. David B. Smith... Read More
Learning obedience is an important part of child development. This... Read More
If you were to ask 100 parents why they think... Read More
The initial state of happiness about an own child is... Read More
Do you want to create a deeper, more loving relationship... Read More
O.K. So now you have taken the step of having... Read More
It's hard to explain to the uninitiated the changes that... Read More
The biggest complaint you hear from parents about their children... Read More
Many research studies have shown the overall effectiveness of stimulant... Read More
Be sure to respect the intellectual changes that mark adolescence.... Read More
You're trying to catch up on some sleep on a... Read More
Sometimes a change of perspective can make a huge difference... Read More
Before my daughter was born my house was... Read More
Sitting by her Pinocchio lamp, she smiled at me as... Read More
Night Visits From Your ChildIn the middle of the night... Read More
"Do not think that love, in order to be genuine,... Read More
When we talk about attention, we are talking about two... Read More
A strange thing happened to me today. Or more precisely,... Read More
Many children are jittery on the first day of school.... Read More
There are many parenting styles. Yours may be very different... Read More
Is it possible to be using our children addictively?Anything that... Read More
Even if your teenagers do not use drugs, you still... Read More
Spare the rod, spoil the child!This philosophy's been around a... Read More
How should one look upon Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)... Read More
Parenting |