[John Dewey] doesn’t want the school any longer to be in the handmaiden role, aiding parents in their goal of passing literacy and tradition and deferred gratification on to the their progeny. . . [H]is schools now have the socially transforming purpose of displacing the parents, with their supposedly petty interests in their children as individuals.
Ben Sasse, The Vanishing American Adult (HT: Mere Orthodoxy
Post authored by:
R. Scott Clark
R.Scott Clark is the President of the Heidelberg Reformation Association, the author and editor of, and contributor to several books and the author of many articles. He has taught church history and historical theology since 1997 at Westminster Seminary California. He has also taught at Wheaton College, Reformed Theological Seminary, and Concordia University. He has hosted the Heidelblog since 2007.
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I came across an interesting article related to this quote. German kids will be obligated by law to report their parents for not receiving advice from doctors on vaccinations. You either have to be immensely desperate or just messed up in the mind to do something like this.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/german-kindergartens-must-report-parents-for-refusing-vaccine-advice-under-new-law/?WT.mc_id=SA_FB_HLTH_NEWS
Let me clarify, it seems from the article that the children have to be provided evidence by their parents that they, the parents, received the advice. So the evidence is not presented by the parents to the authorities, it’s presented to their children. So if children don’t receive the evidence, then they must report it to the authorities.
I remember an incident a few years ago where some parents wanted a second opinion on a diagnosis/prognosis of their child, and the state threatened to take away the child if they did. I would have to sesrch for the article if it needs to be cited.
What I don’t understand is how so many parents, including Christians, can be so hands off when it comes to the thing happening at public schools their children attend. Some are surprised and shocked when I tell them that girls are able to return from school having had an abortion, and the parents remain completely ignorant of the procedure; instead of doing something about it, they move on as if nothing happens or it could never happen in their family. This is one of the worst examples I know of how the state and others grab the power from parents.
Though there probably are exceptions, I think much evil can be done in public schools. Much of the good my church, mother, and other Christian family put in my mind and modeled for me was for a time undone by the influence of schoolmates in public school. Additionally, I never heard music with such vile lyrics and commentary from the radio until I began going on a school bus; that was a form of child abuse in my opinion, and I think many school bus drivers continue that to this day.