“The Bible teaches that the civil magistrate may require a certain level of taxation (Rom. 13:6-7) and that Christians are required to pay those taxes cheerfully. But the Bible also teaches that civil authorities are capable of breaking God’s law, including His prohibition of stealing. Even if Ahab had had his wits about him and …
Free Market Non-Responses
“We see private schools and homeschools springing up all over, we see programs like Hooked on Phonics, and we see Sylvan Learning Centers. All these are intelligent responses to the disasters caused by the government’s teaching disability. But we will never see a chain of Dyslexia Underwriting and Mentoring Businesses (DUMB). That’s a job for …
Corporate Servanthood
“The answer is found in the nature of corporate servanthood. When a school establishes itself to serve parents by teaching certain subjects to the kids, this does not mean that any given family has complete authority over the school. What happens is that the school clearly notifies the families of a given community what service …
Dyslexics of the World, Untie!
“Just as a poor coach blames his team, so a failed education establishment has taken to blaming the students. It is worth remembering that these students were coerced into coming to these schools through compulsory attendance laws, made to sit in a desk for twelve years, and then graduated without being able to read their …
Abandoning Education
“And the result of that is the destruction of education, which is what we in fact see all around us. Without discipline, there are no disciples, and without disciples or students, there can be no education . . . The excuses may be believed for a while, but time is a great revealer. The abandonment …
Punishment and Discipline
“Punishment is interested simply in justice; discipline is interested in the twin aspects of preparation and correction. When students are made to work hard, this is preparation for life. When a student is corrected for fooling around and wasting time, this is correction that returns the student to his preparation for life. In both cases, …
Looking Out the Window
“Whenever we run into this uncomfortable thing called work in our studies, we think that something has gone wrong. If it is borning, it must be bad. And whenever we think that something has gone wrong, we ipso pronto hustle out children off to a specialist, who discovers that they have LOWS (Looking Out the …
You Protect What You Love
“Moreover, a refusal to discipline teaches students to treat the education being offered with contempt. The students will certainly despise any education that the educators themselves hold in contempt. And if parents and teachers refuse to discipline, they are holding in contempt the education they offer. A man who refuses to defend his wife does …
Half As Hard
“I was once speaking with a mother who was wanting to excuse her son’s behavior because of certain circumstances which she believed were rigged against him. I did not agree with her, but her assumption led to an interesting question. She believed that her son was living in a world where he would have to …
Self-Study
“This difference in student ability is one of the reasons why our government school debacle is not a whole lot worse than it already is. Even though most schools do not teach phonics anymore, some students are bright enough to teach themselves phonics — but of course these are the kids who could teach themselves …