"Preposterous!" (You think to yourself....as you wonder how preschools will be run and who will be paying to operate them.)
You might think it's a bad idea, expensive for taxpaying citizens... but not everyone thinks so. President Obama, for one, has compulsory preschool on his agenda.
"By the end of this decade, let’s enroll 6 million childrenin high-quality preschool, and let’s make sure that we aremaking America stronger. That is good for families; it’salso good for the children, because we know investing inhigh-quality early childhood education makes all thedifference in the world, and those kids will do better."
~ President Barack Hussein Obama, Rhode Island College, October 31, 2014
It's not a new idea... Obama has talked about it for years, with hopes of getting people on board with legislation to make it happen in the next ten years. He will also take every media opportunity count for political maneuvering to that end.
The date was May 21st, 2013, and President Obama was on national television. He was informing the country about the death toll after a terrible tornado tore through a sleepy city in Oklahoma the previous night. He began by saying:
The date was May 21st, 2013, and President Obama was on national television. He was informing the country about the death toll after a terrible tornado tore through a sleepy city in Oklahoma the previous night. He began by saying:
"Good morning, everybody. As we all know by now, a series of storms swept across the Plains yesterday, and one of the most destructive tornadoes in history sliced through the towns of Newcastle and Moore, Oklahoma. In an instant, neighborhoods were destroyed. Dozens of people lost their lives. Many more were injured, and among the victims were young children, trying to take shelter in the safest place they knew -- their school." -President Obama
Remarks by the President May 21, 2013,
Tornadoes and Severe Weather in Oklahoma,
State Dining Room, whitehouse.gov
Tornadoes and Severe Weather in Oklahoma,
State Dining Room, whitehouse.gov
Did you catch that? The young children were killed while trying to take shelter in the safest place they knew... "their school." Apparently school is not one of the safest places.... it's the "safest." Apparently those young children thought school was safer than even their home.
Well, we have heard about how in Washington State, schools are getting "safer." In fact, the schools are, (no kidding,) ridding their playgrounds of a terrible danger..... swings! Sadly, it's not a concern for the children's safety and well-being that drives the removal of swings; it's insurance liability. With no swings to fall off of (or get hit with during playground recess, school will be much safer.. until you walk home.
Walking to, and from, school and home, can be a dangerous journey, and it is dangerous, not just for the little ones, but also for older kids as well. There are known incidents of bullying, from time to time, both during school and after school, and there is as always, the risk of a child being lured by sexual predators, both outside and inside the school grounds if they are left unsupervised by a caring adult and unprotected. In many schools, the kids there are so "safe" that they not only need to hire security policemen to help keep the peace and use video cameras to monitor the children in the school. While school and home should both be considered to be safe places for children, this is obviously, not always the case.
We have to face the truth...in school or home, there are dangers. People are not perfect and life is full of risks and challenges. So is is just a casual remark of the president as he spoke his own words or are his words calculated, written by a team of speech writers, and then delivered to send a certain message or create a specific effect upon the hearers? Truth is that this kind of comment spoken when emotions are high, servesd to promote a particular ideology... one that exchanges the role of a parent in the life of a child with teachers and replaces what a child thinks about the home, with "school."
Have you ever heard, for example, that it takes a village to raise a child? This is a concept that is not only politically motivated but also directly taught to children in the schools. The impetus for this ideas became popular with the help of the former First Lady, Hillary Clinton, (and her ghost writers) in her book by the same title: It Takes A Village To Raise A Child.
It's a "collectivist" mentality, one that usurps the authority of parents in the life of their own children and it's running rampant. In more recent days, MSNBC helped to proliferate the idea that children do not belong to their parents but rather, to "the collective." (No Joke!) This was done most notably through Melissa Harris-Perry, (Click on ther name to see the MSNBC video) Melissa Perry is a well-known author, school professor, abortion rights activist and television host that a lot of people admire, but thankfully, not everyone agrees and her comments raised a lot of controversy.
There are still people who do understand that their children are not the possession of the state, but there certainly are plenty of people, who embrace this idea that your children belong to the collective... to the village...to the state.. and, ultimately, to the world.
Take Paul Reville, for example. He is the Francis Keppel Professor of Practice of Educational Policy and Administration at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a proud supporter of the Common Core Curriculum being perpetrated en mass upon our kids in school. Reville says, along with many others that your children are not your children, as he declares, your children belong to "all of us."
These people think they know better and feel that they must be in control.... even when it come to deciding what your child can and will (or will not) read or learn in school, and what will and will not count for school credit to graduate... regardless of what you , as a parent may object to. The anointed ones have a vision... and they believe that they have your child's best interest at heart and know what is best for your kids, and you... (if you are not sub-servant to them in their role of authority over your kids,) are to have no say in the matter.
It's a battle. But thanks be to God, there is still freedom in our country to send kids to private school and the freedom to homeschool them too. Parents do have a special authority and a responsible role to fulfill in the lives of their kids. The state has no right to take that away... but those of this mindset work hard to get people to think differently... and then perhaps just give it away without contest.
And so, we heard the president, speaking for the "collective" again, when he recently told a gathering at Rhode Island College that there are choices "we" (the collective) want parents to make and choices "we" do not want parents to make.
He said,
"And sometimes, someone, usually mom, leaves the workplace to stay home with the kids, which then leaves her learning a lower wage for the rest of her life as a result, and that's not a choice we want Americans to make."
Apparently, Americans are not to decide things for themselves, like weather to say home with kids or work. After all, one choice that "we do not want Americans to make" is the choice to leave the workplace and stay home with kids.
Needless to say, his saying this riled up a lot of stay-at-home mothers and in doing so, the president has been duly reminded that Americans have the freedom, yes... freedom, to make their own choice in what they do with their lives and that some women (and men) actually like their babies and young children and like being home with their kids and believe it is good for the children too.
Obama's example is about a woman who leaves a well paying job at her workplace to stay home with her kids. Is this a single mom? We do not know.. And we can also note that he neglects to say "baby." ( Why didn't he say, "baby?") Noteable too is that a woman usually does not get paid for being a stay-at-home mother, so how did she earn a lower wage by staying home with her kids? Is he talking about welfare?
Secondly, in his make-believe scenario, we see how we are supposed to view children as being a burden. After all, her leaving work to be a mother affects her negatively... for a long time.... in fact, for " the rest of her life." It's a mindset. It's an ideology... and it's wrong. It's also being promulgated on unsuspecting people who, by a continuous outpouring of subtle suggestions think as they are told to think. by those they admire.
Mr. Obama did not talk about how, as president, he would like to see your taxes pay for daycare and preschool that would be offered for "free" to all those working moms and dads. (Well, "free" much the way that "free" public elementary and high school are currently offered to... or rather, "forced," upon people... which means you and I will be taxed.) And by the way, for the last fifty years we have had "free" day cares and preschools, called Head Start.. However, it's been reported, that "the 48-year experiment with federal preschool has failed to deliver long-lasting, positive developments for its participants." (source, Fox News 1-13-14.)
Now, as our president, Obama says that he wants to implement some kind of compulsory preschool. He wants to see " 6 million children be enrolled in these "preschools" within the next decade.
"By the end of this decade, let’s enroll 6 million children
in high-quality preschool, and let’s make sure that we are
making America stronger. That is good for families; it’s
also good for the children, because we know investing in
high-quality early childhood education makes all the
difference in the world, and those kids will do better."
~ President Barak Hussein Obama, Rhode Island College, October 31, 2014
This is the full speech. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sSO91Zv4uU#t=38
Do not be deceived. They won't all do "better." Big government and capitalism objectors will however do better.... because mothers and fathers will be both working, paying taxes to support government projects and leaving their children in the care of those who maake a living working for the government. On the other hand, it is a proven fact that children playing and learning learning with mom and dad...loving, being loved, and being a part of family is actually one of the most important thing in a child's life....especially at an early age.
This is why homeschooling, homeschooling without governmental meddling or governmental monetary incentives, makes sense, particularly in the early years. Not only that, homeschooling works!
This is why homeschooling, homeschooling without governmental meddling or governmental monetary incentives, makes sense, particularly in the early years. Not only that, homeschooling works!
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Broaden your horizon... Here are some related sites to explore what people are saying on the topic of compulsory preschool:
