Smart adults don’t wait for government to tell them what to do
I remember the day I posted a photo of my son drinking Gatorade. People commented about Red Dye #40. It turns out that it’s banned in much of Europe. The US FDA knows it likely makes kids hyperactive, but has not actually banned it.
It seems though that many parents are not waiting for the FDA ban. Parents are banning it themselves.
The same is true for diet soda – sales are plummeting. Despite multitudes of studies that determined diet soda is safe, many people simply don’t believe it. The sugar substitute scares people. (I am scared as well. In 1994 I dated a lawyer for Nutrasweet and he said he stopped eating the sugar substitute right before he quit his job for ethical reasons.) What surprises me, though, is the number of people who simply don’t believe the government has our best interests in mind.
Katherine Jay, writing at Children Deserve Families, describes how US foreign policy does not focus on issues around child welfare because the stakeholders are so powerless. So, while in many cases government does not have our best adult interests in mind, in almost all cases government does not have the best interests of children in mind because children don’t vote.
Steve Jobs wrote about how the schools have the same problem. Government is more interested in keeping the unions happy, because teachers unions have huge turnout in elections. After working hard to use technology to reform schools, Jobs concluded that school reform is impossible given the power of teachers unions.
Quitting Diet Coke and avoiding Red Dye #40 are acts of protest, in a way. Because it’s saying that we don’t trust government to tell us what’s safe. People like Katherine Jay, and people who take their kids out of traditional school, are activists saying that ethical standards are not defined by politicians, but by ourselves.
The homeschooling movement gains traction in the same way that Diet Coke sales drop: one person at a time decides that it’s up to them to align their life with what’s right for them.
P,
AMEN.
Also:
paragraph 2, “intresests”
paragraph 3, “chid”
penultimate para, “its”
So this is my jam!
Go Penelope-I love the connections you make!
Forget the politicians – “Politics is downstream from culture”.
“In our dreams…people yield themselves with perfect docility to our molding hands. The present educational conventions [of intellectual and moral education] fade from our minds, and unhampered by tradition, we work our own good will upon a grateful and responsive folk. We shall not try to make these people or any of their children into philosophers or men of learning or men of science. We have not to raise up from among them authors, educators, poets or men of letters. We shall not search for embryo great artists, painters, musicians, nor lawyers, doctors, preachers, politicians, statesmen – of whom we have an ample supply. The task we set before ourselves is very simple…we will organize children…and teach them to do in a perfect way the things their fathers and mothers are doing in an imperfect way.” John Rockfeller, 1906 letter to General Education Board.
You have not quoted the entire text.
http://books.google.com/books?id=ArdKAAAAYAAJ&pg=PP12&output=text
“We shall seize the restless activities of his body and mind and, instead of repressing them, we shall stimulate those activities, as the natural forces of growth in action. We shall seek to learn the instincts of the child and reverently to follow and obey them as guides in his development; for those instincts are the Voice of God within him, teaching us the direction of his unfolding. We will harness the natural activities of the child to his natural aspirations, and guide and help him in their realization. The child naturally wishes to do the things that adults do, and therefore the operations of adult life form the imitative plays of the child. The child lives in a dreamland, full of glowing hopes of the future, and seeks anticipatively to live to-day the life of his manhood.”
The worst part of the system is that there are wonderful classroom educators stuck with decisions made by administrators and union “educators” who are so far removed from the needs of the children that they do more harm that good. Even if a child is lucky enough to have a good teacher, the system as it is now would fail them.
I miss Steve Jobs! Not sure why that was my take away from this….
Because he was awesome :)
http://news.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/jobs-061505.html
The children Deserve Families Link reminded me of one of my mom’s good friends who has 11 kids most with special needs (including FASD) whom she homeschools
Her story and perspective are really amazing and give evidence to the fact that parents can be powerful forces even when government is not.
http://urbanservant.blogspot.com/
Great take on the commonalities. So precise and yet I didn’t make the connection between them all until just now. Thank you!
Oh, and you’ve inspired me to give up Diet Coke once and for all….. It is incredibly addictive and I have given it up about 25 times. Your anecdote about the lawyer, however, might be the push I needed. Thank you, again!
I gave up Diet Coke about two months ago and I’m really struck by how disgusting it seems after just a few weeks of giving it up.
Penelope
Former Diet Coke addict here… I switched our family to an organic diet completely everything like 6 months ago. I found that it wasn’t that I missed the Diet Coke, but the carbonated water! So I bought a Soda Stream and make my own sparkling water several times a day and I feel great and don’t have the D.C. cravings at all anymore.
Inspired by the German drink Apfelschorle, my husband and I keep no-sugar apple juice and sparkling mineral water on hand at all times. We drink a mix of the two (we can each set our own percentage split). We don’t drink soft drinks, and it’s replaced beer many evenings as well.
Oh that sounds delicious! Thanks for recommending.
This is great. More and more people are starting to realize that they vote with their dollars. Government is ‘owned’ by corporations and the corporations are ultimately ran by the people. If we, as citizens, decide not to partake in unhealthy foods, poor education systems, etc. then the government via the corporation’s control has no other option but to give us what we feel is right. Similar to the what the infamous farmer Joel Salatin says, we don’t need the government to regulate. We just need to stop being indifferent and start educating ourselves on matters we’ve expected the government to handle for us for way too long.
It is dangerous to underestimate the coercive power of the state. The power to tax is the power to destroy.
Google the Ron Swanson ‘Why Government Matters’ skit on Youtube.
Penelope is starting to sound like a libertarian!
Is that supposed to be an insult?
No. I’m a libertarian.
I think that every time I hear someone say that it’s supposed to be an insult and I don’t get why.
My understanding is that libertarians are like republicans but they don’t hate women. So essentially they understand that government in small quantities is a good thing. But it’s the abuse of power that makes things bad.
I, too, am a libertarian, but I truly wish people would stop saying that Republicans hate women. Ad hominem attacks are much less effective than constructive criticism.
Have you seen the documentary “War on Kids”?
Suppose government is force. Then government is likely always on the lookout for things that can only be fixed by force. Thus, it discovers frightful perils, from dangerous drugs to climate change, and frightens us into accepting its program of compulsion.
Or like in education, it decides to force all parents to send all children to government school, or show the reason why not. And guess what, the federal Dept. of Education has its own TAC squad.
Really, how much force do we want in our lives?
The accurate title of this would be, “Smart adults don’t wait for the American government to tell them what to do.”
Europe isn’t perfect but the EU regulations on food, drugs and skincare are much more strict than US, even banning all GMO foods.
We know what they know, it’s just that money matter more.
I think “we” as opposed to “I” are our own worse enemy. I will always be looking out for my self-interest. I can’t always say that for whoever is “we”. “We” can be government, corporations, private businesses, organizations, or other groups. Common Core is the result of groups of people and organizations that came together to convince the federal government of its usefulness and use government’s resources and coercion to institute it in public schools. Done with little to no input from those directly affected – teachers, parents, and students.
Curricula in schools comes in the form of textbooks and tests formulated by faceless publishers. While in college, I had a few courses taught by professors who wrote their own instruction material and cited references. No textbook. It made attending class and taking good notes important. Why can’t more teachers at the K-12 level be given those same privileges, responsibility and accountability? School has the potential to be a much better place to learn than it is currently. However, there are just way too many competing interests that aren’t focusing on the student. That’s why I think homeschooling is a great option for those willing to give it a try.