Sunday, February 19, 2012

Parents 'may not know what actually is best' for their children

During a House Education Committee hearing in Michigan this month, one of the benevolent shepherds in the education establishment inadvertently revealed what many educators think of we the sheeple:

Ms. Squires doubtless would be surprised to learn that parents, in addition to knowing what’s best for their children, in many cases actually educate children better than the educators themselves. As Milton Friedman observed, the explosive growth of homeschooling is "evidence of the failure of our current education system. There is no other complex field in our society in which do-it-yourself beats out factory production or market production. Nobody makes his or her own car. But it still is the case that parents can perform the job of educating their children, in many cases better than our present education system."

Even if parents don’t choose to do the teaching themselves, they are quite capable of choosing good schools for their children. But many education "professionals," especially administrators, tend to look down their noses at parents, who, after all, are mere "amateurs." These professionals have forgotten that the word "amateur" traces to the Latin amāre ("to love"), and that amateurs are people whose actions are motivated by love rather than something else. People motivated by love make it their business to “know what’s best” for the objects of their affection.

No comments: