Opening Quotes

"So long as the State undertakes to force upon the children of any class of parents a system of education which they cannot accept without a violation of conscience and of Nature’s laws, it is nothing less than the most cruel tyranny on the part of the State to make such a system compulsory" (Mongomery, 1889/1972, p. 55).

"But if a man is taxed to support a school, where religious doctrines are inculcated which he believes to be false, and which he believes God condemns, then he is excluded from the school by the Divine law, at the same time he is compelled to support it by the human law.  This is a double wrong.  It is politically wrong, because, if such a man educates his children at all, he must educate them elsewhere, and thus pay two taxes... and it is religiously wrong, because he is constrained, by human power, to promote that which he believes the Divine Power forbids.  The principle involved in such a course is pregnant with all tyrannical consequences" (Horace Mann’s Twelfth Annual Report, 1849).

"That to compel a man to furnish contributions of many for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors, is sinful and tyrannical; that even the forcing him to support this or that teacher of his own religious persuasion, is depriving him of the comfortable liberty..." (Thomas Jefferson’s Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom).

References:

Montgomery, Zach. (1889/1972). The school question. New York: Arno Press & The New York Times.

Mann, Horace (1849). Twelfth annual report of the Secretary of the Board. Boston, MA: Dutton & Wentworth.

Example Injustices

1. Professor Paul Vitz’s systematic examination in 1983, of ninety widely used public school texts and readers revealed that religion, family values, and certain political and economic positions have been systematically omitted from these books.  In a total of 670 stories, not one reference to representative Protestant religious life was found.  Aggressive feminist themes were prominent in many of the text.  None of the social studies books on modern American social life mentioned the words "marriage," "wedding," "husband," or "wife."[1]

2. In response to a father’s 1994 inquiry about the film containing nudity and lesbianism that was shown to his daughter in a California school, the teacher responded, "he would rather watch two women embrace than people being killed."  He told the class that they needed to learn things from a different perspective... He also said that "just because you’re raised to think one way, it doesn’t mean that another way is wrong."  In a meeting that finally occurred after months of trying the parent concluded, "This accomplished nothing.  In fact, during the meeting, the teacher had the gall to say that he feels part of his job is parenting.  The assistant superintendent of instruction never did give an opinion on the movie.  Two and one-half months later the movie still has not been reviewed by the board."[2]

3. On March 19, 1996, 59 sixth-grade girls were given gynecological exams at an Intermediate School in East Stroudsburg, PA without permission of the parents and against the objections of these ll and 12-year old girls.[3]

4. Results of the 1999 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in writing indicated that the "average, or typical, American student is not a proficient writer."  Of the 60,000 students in 35 states who took the writing test, three-fourths did not perform at levels considered proficient for their grade level.  In fact, the longer in school the worse the writing abilities.  Only one percent was counted as showing advanced proficiency.[4]

5. In March 2000, officials at a high school in Fairfax County, VA, "corralled 41 students in the cafeteria and asked them to forge their parents’ signatures on a federal form."  The principal claimed "that students were never bullied or threatened."  He did understand however "that they might feel intimidated by being pulled out of class and sent to a room full of security officials."[5]

6. When the parents wanted to take their seven-year-old son off Ritalin for two weeks to see if that would relieve his unusual symptoms, they got a call and then a visit from a Child Protective Services worker based on a call from the child’s school guidance counselor.  The Albany Times Union reports in May 7, 2000 that the family name is now on a statewide list of alleged child abusers for "medical neglect."  The Albany paper claims that this is not so unusual.  "Public schools are increasingly accusing parents of child abuse and neglect if they balk at giving their children medication such as Ritalin, a stimulant being prescribed to more and more students."[6]

7.  In 1985, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to remove a book from the required curriculum that was religiously offensive to a child and parent in that it said, among other things, "poor white trash God," and "Jesus Christ, the long-legged white s__ of a b____."[7]

8. A 1999 Los Angeles Times story reports that "Tens of thousands of students in California’s special education system have been placed there not because of a serious mental or emotional handicap, but because they were never taught to read properly... There they are failed a second time, by a badly flawed system designed to be their safety net."[8]

9. One year after the 1999 Columbine shootings, a national poll by the Discovery Channel and TIME magazine reports that over one-third of both teenagers (35%) and parents (39%) say that youth violence has increased.  (In 1998, students ages 12-18 were victims of more than 2.7 million non-fatal crimes.)[9]  Nearly a third of the teens say they have witnessed a violent situation in school; over half say they have been verbally insulted or threatened in the past year, and nearly 4 in 10 have heard a student threaten to kill another.[10]

10. California schools, whether public or private, that receive direct or indirect government financial assistance, can no longer refuse to hire or admit transsexuals and transvestites even if for religious reasons.  The state’s Title 5 regulations against sexual discrimination have redefined gender so that it no longer means male or female but however the person perceives him or herself to be.  As of June 2000, 18 other school districts and states have added self-determined gender definitions to their codes.[11]

As the Example Injustices demonstrate, there has been a "long Train of Abuses and Usurpations" (quoting from U.S. Declaration of Independence) in education sufficient to be labeled as an "absolute Tyranny."  In addressing this matter, the author full well knows, as Leonard Read says, "The myth of government education, in our country today, is an article of general faith.  To question the myth is to tamper with the faith, a business that few will read about or listen to or calmly tolerate."[12]  Even so, the felt obligation, the duty, "to take alarm at the first experiment on our liberties" which has "one of the noblest characteristics of the late Revolution" according to James Madison (Memorial and Remonstrance, 1785) is long overdue in education.

References:

1. Vitz, Paul C. (1986). Censorship: Evidence of bias in our children’s textbooks, Ann Arbor, MI: Servant Books.

2. Duffy, Cathy (1995) Government nannies, Gresham, OR: Nobel Publishing Associates, pp. 119-120.

3. Exams violated girls’ civil rights. Pocono Record Writer, July 28, 1999.

4. Klicka, Christopher (2000). Home schooling: The right choice, Sisters, OR: Loyal Publishing, P. 29.

5. Student newspaper exposes Fairfax school’s misbehavior, Washington Post, April 5, 2000, p. B01.

6. The Albany Times Union, May 7, 2000.

7. Grove v. Mead School District, 753 F. 2nd, 1540 (9th Cir. 1985). Cert. Denied, 474, U.S. 826.

8. Twice failed: California’s lost students. Los Angeles Times, December 12, 1999, Part A, p.1.

9. National Center for Educational Statistics, Indicators of School Crime and Safety, 2000.

10. National Campaign Against Youth Violence and TIME.com, April 24, 2000, vol. 155.16, The Perception Gap: School Violence.

11. Bending Gender, World, June 16, 2001, p. 45.

12. Read, Leonard E. (1964), Anything that’s peaceful. Irvington-on-Hudson, NY: The Foundation for Economic Education, Inc., p. 221.

Acknowledgements

Thanks are due to the many students who helped bring the ideas to shape and who helped with the information search and compilation.  Regent University has been most kind in its granting of time for writing the manuscript.  A summer institute at Harvard University and a research conference with the Foundation for American Christian Education (http://www.face.net) contributed to shaping my thoughts on the matter.  Trish Tarpley, Lydia Wade, Jenny Kenner, Gloria Ross and most significantly Sue Boysen faithfully typed and retyped.  And to Brian, Kristin, and Kerri go my love for their faith, patience, and encouragement.

Related Links

Tyranny Through Public Education - Central

Definition of Tyranny, and The Setting

Table of Contents

Chapter 10 Part 1

Chapter 10 Part 2

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