I was leaving my political science class today, and my professor – NH State representative Charles Weed – had commented on his frustrations with a one Barack Obama. This sparked a conversation that, as we walked, got quite heated as it ran the gamut from national socialism to the legitimacy of a social contract which he seemed to suggest was not only acknowledged by using the roads, but that that act became my signature on it. We departed on the topic of public schools. The following is a response for Professor Weed articulating some points about libertarianism it was apparent he either did not understand or could not see.
Professor Weed,
I’ve been having a tough time in class, as evidenced in my brief and sputtering tirade today. I feel the need to explain what the political landscape looks like to a large amount of people in this country (numbering in millions) that have no voice in the pageantry called democracy. These people, myself included, can no longer turn a blind eye nor participate in, nor give our sanction to a system that has perpetrated the greatest evils the world has known. It has empowered and enabled the kinds of dictators around the world that it itself claims to protect us from.
You asked me something about public education. The reality is that it can be funded publicly AND voluntarily. Take for example the recent vote on increasing taxes in Keene, or at least using that money, to fund the construction of the new middle school. Instead of taking the money from people to fund education via taxation, let them keep the money to fund the education of their own children! Can’t afford it still? I will refer you to the same case with the school. When the appropriation of funds was rejected, an anonymous donor stepped and donated something to the tune of half a million dollars for survey and architectural design fees. You can’t expect me to believe such a benefactor would not leave private schools with endowments for students of promise who lack the necessary means to a higher education. Furthermore, compulsory public education operates on the basic premise that the State knows what is best for your children, and that the one size fits all schooling is the best option. It has been awhile since you were within its walls, but i’ll tell you that even in the New Hampshire public schools (most of them free of metal detectors and prison-style regimentation) are still glorified day-care centers for disruptive youths that not only do not want to learn, but hinder the ability of those who actually do. The forced age segregation is another disastrous effect of the public schools – a policy that expects a child to gain a social consciousness by limiting their interaction to people their own age. It used to take a village to raise a child, now apparently it takes home room. Do you ever stop to think what happens in the mind of a child tormented constantly by children he would never freely associate with? Think about what happens when he is punished for acting on the innate human instinct to defend oneself. From the earliest age, the public schools teach children that they themselves have no power to shape their lives, and that such power lies in the authorities they grow up around.
The cost of education would fall considerably if some of the following were implemented: 1) No more mandatory schooling beyond the eighth grade, private public home or otherwise. By that point, a child has developed enough and is capable of continuing on his own decision. If he or she hates school that much then perhaps trade apprenticeship is the logical course. I do however applaud vocational programs for giving those young adults the options they want. 2) Funds for education are not funds for sports. Private schools have any right to manage their funds as they see fit, but publicly funded education has the responsibility and obligation to reduce costs and cut pork. 3) Stop teaching for awful standardized tests that by their very nature are designed to produce an educational system as good as its lowest common denominator. While it may identify intellectually deficient students, it does not care to investigate why those who score in the 90th percentile were not challenged and how they can be. This is the reason for smart kids that still rank in the bottom of the class. 4) Most would laugh if I called public schools a mandatory day prison for children, but how else should I interpret detentions, demerits, suspensions and expulsions? Slight deviations from established protocol, violation of some arbitrary dress code, or even something as benign as not having an instrument with which to write have all landed me in forced detention after established school hours. The penalty for “failure to appear” is of course more time added to your sentence; the thirty minute “teacher detention” presided over by the complaining “teacher” then becomes the hour long “administrative detention”, the guard on “duty” determined by a rotating schedule. No Professor Weed, I do not acknowledge any claim of authority over me and it was the public schools that are responsible. Any one of these changes would help the situation considerably. Those who rail against public schools are simply fed up with their money being stolen to fund the types of institutions I have mentioned.
I mention what I do about the public schools to show that they are a microcosm for the society at large; by observing the way the children are treated one gains a more detailed perspective on how intrusive government really is. Within its architecture, a person has limited to no choice of how they can express themselves and no recourse with which to redress grievances. They cannot even withdraw themselves from school. As evidenced recently in a Texas court, attending school is “not optional” to the extent that truant students are now subject to constant tracking via an ankle bracelet that they cannot even remove in their own homes! So sayeth the court. What greater good is this serving? The majority of people do not connect the system with the violence it perpetrates. You want me to somehow see the value in a system that claims my life and the lives of everyone else as its own, that claims their property and their labor as its own, to dispose of as it sees fit. Taxation is nothing more than institutionalized theft! Article 1 of the New Hampshire Constitution states that the right to govern comes from the “CONSENT of the governed.” I have withdrawn my consent. I no longer consent to the assertions that a group of men calling themselves “government” have the power to claim any part of my life as their own. That is what I mean by personal secession. In the end, the government is a business, but unlike private business it operates on a completely coercive basis with force as its only market motivator and tool of negotiation. They seek my voluntary compliance – the faith that is my cooperation and the vote that is my sanction. If I do not voluntarily comply their only recourse is force; i will either be kidnapped, my property confiscated, or my money stolen – my life broken. Democracy is nothing but the tyranny of the majority. It is an absurd ad populum argument that allows a majority of a small minority of voters to run rough shot over the lives of any dissenting minority opinion. Democracy claims to give everyone an equal voice, but that is not the case. In a democracy, minority rights matter not to the demands of the majority. The Civil Rights movement is a perfect illustration. The system that actively suppressed an entire class of persons only acknowledged their rights when they withdrew their consent and went into action. I too have a dream and it is that the world awakens from this nightmare.
To most of you, this old hat. But for a seasoned public official and man who is also the department chair of political science at Keene State College it might be something totally new. Also do not take this as an attack on the character of Charles Weed. He is a great and highly intelligent man with a more than healthy cyncism for the system. However, he is one of the insiders that thinks they can fix the system via the sytem – logic that is akin to renovating a crumbling house with bent and rusty nails. With any luck, I’ll form a constant dialogue with Professor Weed on these issues. I would be nice to have another vanguard of liberty in the system.
