The Children All Belong To The State

The Children All Belong To The State

By VIN SUPRYNOWICZ

Las Vegas Review Journal

A reader writes in from Southern California:

Well, Vin, I thought you were over the line when you talked about the public schools issuing a parents report card, but it has happened to me and I'm so angry I can hardly see straight.

Just today (6/21) I received from my third-grade-going-into-fourth-grade son a list of requirements that have to be met over the summer in order for him to succeed in the fourth grade.

Tomorrow, 6/22, is the last day of school. Doesn't leave much time to respond, does it? Here is what our local elementary school is demanding:

1. Every child is to keep a "journal of their activities and thoughts" throughout the summer. Twelve quality lines 3 to 4 days per week. They "will collect this during the first week of school."

2. Each child is expected to have memorized their addition, subtraction, multiplication and division facts from 1 to 10. We're supposed to photo-copy the test sheets and the kids will be tested the first day of school.

3. Each child will read 2-6 books per month. Keep a record of each book and author.

The note says that these are requirements that will allow your child to be successful in the fourth grade.

We (the parents) are expected to sign and return this document tomorrow to their third grade teacher.

And what happens if we don't sign it? It doesn't say. Will this go into our "permanent record"?

What about future legal entanglements? Will our refusal to sign be evidence that we are not suitable parents?

Vin, we are supposed to be running the schools, not the other way around. These professional bureaucrats are so brazen that they are dictating how we will spend our summer with our children.

Maybe that's the problem. They are not our children, they belong to the state. Next week I'm buying more guns.

-blk

Hi, B.L.K. --

I believe there may be court decisions on point, barring the schools from requiring any student to read or otherwise disclose to the class or teacher or staff their private journals.

You're not being paranoid in expressing concern about this. In all innocence, your child might write about feeling temporarily depressed, or upset at some punishment he received. Imagine a reference cropping up to his parents being angry at one another Ä or the presence of guns in the home.

I'm no expert and I can't give specific legal advice, but I'd strongly consider responding with a formal letter to the school principal Å copied to the chairwoman of the school board and their attorney Å demanding citations of any legislative or judicial authority for them to demand that such a journal be kept and turned in to authorities, as well as a demand for full disclosure from that named attorney of any on-point precedents he's aware of, which may restrict the schools from demanding such disclosure.

Specifically mention the reference to your child's "thoughts." Demand to know the purpose of the school system seeking disclosure of your child's "thoughts." Do they pretend this will somehow help them teach algebra or geography? Do they intend to submit these recorded "thoughts" for professional psychiatric evaluation?

I'd also mention the requirement that the school be told what your child is reading. Ask whether he or she would gain extra points for reading books by Ralph Nader and Al Gore, or have it held against him if he reads books by Robert Bork, Ayn "Rand, Albert Jay Nock, Frederic Bastiat or Lysander Spooner. (Don't worry about the kid only being 9. Your child will be 11 or 12 before they ever answer such a demand, and 11 or 12 is a great age to start reading that stuff.)

As to the notion that students on summer vacation after attending third grade are "expected to have memorized their addition, subtraction, multiplication and division facts from 1 to 10. ... The kids will be tested the first day of school".

I would express formal, written shock at this indication that your child may not already have these tables memorized. Are they actually admitting they have failed to teach these basic skills by the end of third grade, on a wholesale and systematic basis?

Do they intend to return all tax moneys they were paid in the past nine months, if in fact they haven't performed one of the most basic functions they were paid for?

Yes, you're right. "Failure to sign" is highly likely to get you identified as one of the droves of parents who "just don't care" . . . as they busily try to shift blame for their failures onto others. So, far from "refusing to sign." I'd send them a whole lot of new reading matter.

But then, I can't give you any specific legal advice.

Best Wishes,

-Vin

Vin Suprynowicz, the Review-Journal's assistant editorial page editor, is author of "Send in the Waco Killers." His column appears Sunday.

TORCH EDITOR: Isn't it amazing that Christian people are still sending their children to the government controlled schools?