Aretae

The virtue of excellence

Monday, January 30, 2012

QoTD

Instapundit:
"IS IT PARENTAL MALPRACTICE TO PUT YOUR KID IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS?"
And in homage to Instapundit's approach to simple questions...
Yes.   What else.
Posted by at

4 comments:

Stephen Gustav said...

Even more telling, I think, is the first comment, by Urban:

"Sadly, this is similar to the quite notorious fiasco in Wisconsin where another 6 year old boy was charged with sexual assault for playing doctor with two of his classmates.

Overall, The US isn't a bad place to live, but life here is starting to scare the hell out of me. I'm probably quite different than others; however, I've noticed myself becoming very neurotic, paranoid even.

I live in Manhattan and spend time in Jersey, all big city type places. Whenever I'm out and about now, I worry about breaking what passes for the law these days. Did I make it across the crosswalk fast enough? Oh , no! I think that's a fine! I just conducted a fairly complex banking transaction. Did I fill out IRS form IW23-9 properly? What about federal banking statutes; did I violate one? I just did some business in south Asia and wired money there. Will they think that I 'm working with Al-Quaeda? I'm constantly expecting black SUVs to swoop around the corner any minute and disappear me into some legal black hole.

We've given so much power to authority; when authority fails to act rationally the effects are devastating.

But you know what? It's conspiratorial of me, but I think that this is being done on purpose. Yeah, that's right; there's an agenda afoot. The nation is being transformed....into one massive prison.

Bars and walls everywhere, physical, mental, emotional, discursive, and political. And let's not forget the rules; please, don't forget the rules....enforced without context or reason right down to letter of the law. Why, that boy touched that young lady's lower hip! According to state legal code 67C-w1 sub-paragraph F, that constitutes sexual assault. He's a veritable rapist!

Oh, and they never stop coming, do they? The rules, I mean. Nope. Like a candy bar factory turns out Snickers by the millions day in and day out, or a GoodYear factory continues to make tires non-stop, state and federal legislatures keep churning out the rules. Every day, every week, every year....more and more. The state law code in Jersey is larger than the encyclopedia Britannica, but ignorance is never an excuse. Whoa, whoa....you're not familiar with the the federal marine mammals act of 1972, and you just tossed some chum into the water in efforts of feeding that humpback? 20 years in the joint, you federal felon piece of trash!

Eh, I'll stop here; I'm borderline incoherent at this point. I'll leave with this: By my calculations, if things continue as they are, by 2040 half of us will be in prison and the second half will be guarding the first."

Learned helplessness, paranoia, unreasoning fear: their plans are working.

January 30, 2012 6:37 PM
Aretae said...

Stephen,

There is a strong argument made by BBdM that the scenario you're describing is an invariant preference among rule-makers.

January 30, 2012 6:40 PM
spandrell said...

Hi there, nice to be able to comment at last.

US Public schools sound awful but Private schools also don't really entice me.

Any real life advice in how to teach stuff to a child? I might need it soon.

January 31, 2012 4:34 AM
Aretae said...

spandrell,

Here's my first big advice posts on education: here and here

January 31, 2012 12:52 PM

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