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Many of us yearn for the America that went with Mom and apple pie. It isn't that those were easier times. People struggled as they do now and there was the threat of nuclear devastation then and the threat of human extinction over man made global warming now but things were a little bit more definite then. We knew who our enemies were and America was one nation under God; the Ten Commandments were displayed in public buildings and people, religious or not, understood the rules so there was a smaller percentage of the population in prison.  Dad went to work, mom stayed home, kids went to school and, though all marriages were not happy, many fewer families were fractured by divorce.  Family was the focus of American social life. People could spell, write a coherent sentence, make change without an adding machine, tell you where Africa and China were and most spoke English as their primary language. The Bible was the Good Book and its wisdom was freely taught in church and in school. Religious displays were expected especially at Easter and Christmas. People felt uneasy if the clerk at the local store did not say merry Christmas and those who refused to pledge allegiance to The United States of America or hesitated to sing the National Anthem were scorned not coddled. People immigrated here from all over the world because they wanted to be Americans, to live in a place where anyone could succeed by the sweat of their own brow. Immigration wasn't easy because numbers were controlled and gaining citizenship required time and study but things that come as a result of great effort are highly cherished.  Our border with Mexico had fewer fences and we had less illegal immigration.

The reason all of this changed is not that travel is easier, cheaper and faster or that we readily communicate around the world by phone and the internet. It is not because of a particular war as those have been regular events throughout human history.  It is not because of computers, cell phones or electronic gadgetry; these things are simply tools. Part of the problem is that being an American has lost its meaning. Though many more people come here now as a result of relaxed immigration quotas, they come not to be Americans but to feed at the trough of plenty often returning home with the loot like vultures picking the bones of a once great society.

If you are old enough to remember the America I described and have spent some time considering the changes then to now it might occur to you that while society was changing the Federal Government was growing in size and influence in our daily lives. A shift was occurring in which we went from a self-reliant people able to determine right and wrong to people more and more reliant on the Federal Government and its interpretation of what is correct.  There are many more laws now and we have more people in prison; the largest percentage of population in prison of any nation. Now, looking back, it is not hard to see that the greater the influence of the Federal Government, the less influence the individual has retained. We have been giving away our very souls, a little at a time, for temporary comfort and perceived safety but what have we really gained? We have succumbed to the very thing that Benjamin Franklin warned us about so long ago when he said; “Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both”. Anyone who objectively views our current state of affairs realizes the wisdom in that statement and recognizes that we have made serious errors in that regard, not the least of which was The Patriot Act. Now, each time someone shouts “Allahu Akbar” our freedom to travel is further restricted but we are told we are winning the war on terror.

We are told that we must go “Forward” and that the same old things that were tried in the past never did work. But logic asks; If the things that we would call ‘tried and true’ never did work, how did the United States of America become the great nation it has been? Instead of tweaking the tried and true methods we decided we were smarter than the founders and set off on a massive social experiment that really has not worked out very well.  I could now present a list of all the failed government programs, which would require much more time and space but the real question is do we have the will to go back and reclaim the American self-reliance that made us great or is it too late?  Do we have the willpower to go on a mental diet and shed the excess fat and government modified thought that occupies our brains or will we go merrily down the garden path to socialism and become part of the regimented, dependent collective?

There is a line in a poem by William Ross Wallace that says “The hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world.” Originally it was a statement about the power of women in society but in South Africa it is a proverb slightly modified to read “The hand that rocks the cradle rules the nation and its destiny”.

With South Africa’s version in mind, let me ask you a few more questions. Who reveals the world to or conceals it from your children? Who tells them what is acceptable or important and what is not? Who defines tolerance and interprets history for your children and grandchildren? Who defines the role of Religion in society? Who is defining family composition and its role in society? Who teaches our children that the Constitution of the United States is an old document irrelevant in today’s modern society? Who tells your child that they can be anything they want to be and then provides them a faulty set of tools with which to accomplish their goals? Who wants every child to go on to “higher” education and who is seeking to provide you the “right” of free day care and an early start to your child’s education? Why does the Federal Government want to be the hand that rocks the cradle?

The key to reclaiming America is removal of the government’s hand from the cradle. Many concerned citizens have tried to regain control of text book content but that road is slow, full of compromise and does not intercept the constant onslaught of pamphlets touting gay rights, rainbow society, a modern non-morality that states everything is relative and history altered to reflect the way some people feel it should have been rather than as it was or invited speakers who say that religion is the problem or Islam is peaceful by nature.  While parents struggle to take back control more and more children are going through the education mill while society quietly loses, through attrition, the generations that understand what is going on.

Some parents have attempted to exercise their “legal” right to be notified in advance when controversial sexual topics are to be discussed so they can keep their children home that day and their attempts to protect their children have landed them in jail. This slow “reasonable” approach will not save our children from the government’s re-education day camps; only removal of the child from the government run school system will do that!

A growing number of parents are choosing to home school their children but that solution requires time and a level of education not available to everyone. Charter schools have been a growing alternative but they are still dependent on government funding to some extent, there are long waiting lists and the Obama administration has signaled its disapproval of charters favoring union run "public" schools.

There are many road blocks to escape from government education but some institutions like Hillsdale College have managed to do just that. Government maintains control of education by taxing you and then offering that money back to fund your local school if you comply with the official government standards. Hillsdale gets around that by refusing all government funding so they are in control of their curriculum. Students there are not eligible for government education loans but they have managed to provide loans through their alumni and associated institutions. They have removed the hand of government and are free to educate their students.  For these reasons, I have been a fan and supporter of Hillsdale for several years.

Hillsdale College has expanded its influence by offering online courses on The Constitution of the United States and various other inexpensive or free non credit courses for those seeking to educate themselves. Real education allows the individual to decide the truth by simply presenting them with the facts allowing them to draw their own conclusions.  More than that, real education allows students to question or challenge information presented without being excoriated for expressing views that differ from those of the instructor. This is the difference between education and indoctrination and the norm at Hillsdale.

This is not intended to be an advertisement for Hillsdale College but simply to make the point that it is possible to escape the influence of government on education.  I had been wondering why this same model could not be applied to home schooling when, on a recent trip to the airport, I noticed a billboard advertising an online home school.  An internet search revealed that there is a community of home schoolers that offers online resources to parents who want to take charge of the children’s education.  If you are interested, I found one source that allows you to pick a customized approach and could be a place for interested people to start investigating the online approach to home schooling their children. I do not have enough information to endorse this site and there are others so decide for yourself.

Many people have taken the attitude that the Federal Department of Education should be closed down since there is nothing in the Constitution that grants the Federal Government the power to be involved in education. This may be so but I would not expect the Constitution to save you when the current administration does not hold that document in high regard and the people of the United States just elected, for a second time, a person who announced to the world in writing that he is not a natural born citizen and therefore Constitutionally ineligible to be President.  What I am saying is the odds of closing that department or getting the government’s hand off of the cradle have become slim to none since November 8, 2012.  You are on your own.

The government has changed society by controlling education; by watering down or removing your influence over what your children believe. If you are wondering why they go off to college and never return to church or why parents and kids find sports more important than church, this is the reason.  Most young parents are themselves victims of government schools so they see nothing wrong with things as they are. The only way to change this is to raise successive generations of children who have been educated to think, reason and know how and were to find the truth. If you are a parent, grandparent or guardian of a school age child the power is in your hand until you relinquish it to the state run school. The hand that rocks the cradle truly does rule the nation and its destiny. Whose hand shall it be?