The Choice Channel

The first time I ever saw the term “controlled choice” was in literature my child brought home from school when she entered kindergarten six or seven years ago. County school superintendent Dr. Donald Martin proclaimed he was proud that the school system supported “controlled choice” in choosing the school my child could attend when she entered first grade. I was given only two choices. In other words, the Board of Education grants you certain choices, excluding all others, that they feel are appropriate for your child. By controlling parents’ choices, the State is able to control parents; and, do it under the guise of giving them greater freedom. It is a ruse. I realized that the State had so much power that it dictated to me what my child would be taught and where my child would learn whatever the bureaucrats said she needed to know. I saw they were trying to trick me into believing I was free to choose what school my child would attend. But of course, they chose the choices, so how free of a choice was it really? Then it occurred to me that the whole concept of “controlled choice” is being applied at every level of government, not just our school boards, and is the very teeth of the beast we call Bureaucracy.

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Some lessons our children learn at school are not found in the pages of textbooks or lesson planners. Some lessons go beyond the facts and figures we normally associate with institutional learning. How often has it been said that children are like little sponges that soak up knowledge from everything around them? How wonderful it is indeed to learn while things are as fresh and new as they are to a growing child. Adults, particularly parents, teachers and school administrators, should remember these simple truths always when dealing with today’s young people. Be ever mindful of what your children are learning from what you do to them, for those lessons are just as important as the ones held by textbooks and lesson planners doled out daily by the well-intentioned professionals of America’s school systems. Be careful we do not turn American pupils into prisoners of a government system that tries to do too much for too many.

“Melissa Galarneault’s fourth-grade class at Indian Mounds Elementary had just started a math quiz when the alert came over the loudspeaker: ‘Attention staff, this is a lockdown.’”

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That’s right, every child should be homeschooled. Now, before you start writing that e-mail that tells me how some parents are not fit to school their own offspring; or, how parents are too busy in this modern age to educate their own children properly, hear me out. While it is true that most things are best left to the professionals, some things are just too important to be left to anyone but yourself, particularly if you are a parent. Teaching your precious children to read and write or to add and subtract or to understand the implications of history upon mankind are one thing. I have no problem with parents that choose to have professional teachers educate their children. I believe parents should enjoy as many choices as possible, including homeschooling, when it comes to the expansion of their children’s minds. However, the kind of homeschooling I refer to here has little to do with academics and everything to do with building character, developing personality and simple love.

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How many times have you read or seen a news story and thought to yourself, “This is just plain silly?” I mean, the item is just so bizarre you can’t even believe it could be true. Such was the case for me this week when during one of my nightly editing searches I came across the headline that read, “Blind students required to pass driver’s ed,” at MSNBC.com. My very first reaction was, “This is just stupid! Too stupid to be true!” My next thought was how once again meddling politicians have blindly legislated a group of Illinois students into a totally unfair, not to mention ridiculous, graduation requirement.

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Should individuals be forced to pay for something, to pay for anything, that they have no use for? Would you expect to receive a bill from say, the gas company, if you did not use natural gas in your home? Would you pay an invoice from an appliance store where you had never made a purchase in your life? Why would you pay a milkman who never delivered any milk? Would it help to be told that you are being charged for all these things because you must be forced to contribute “your fair share” for the benefit of everyone that does use those goods and services? Your fair share? What is fair about forcing people to pay for things they do not need and will never use?

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Dear TCC readers: After a server change and various technical difficulties, The Choice Channel is operational again. In this spot, you’ll see the latest editorial from TCC editor R. Lee Wrights shortly.

Regards,
Tom Knapp
Editor-in-Chief
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