On Public Education
Who loves his neighbor?
“I do!” replies the public educator, “I have spent my life teaching the child of my neighbor the wisdom of the ages!”
I would ask the educator: did you also love the man who never had children, from whom your wages were forcefully taken in the form of a tax on his personal life, liberty, and property?
“But, it was a noble cause, to teach the children! I was merely providing for the general welfare of the child!”
Was it not the responsibility of the parent to teach the child?
“But the parent was not capable, or did not choose to!”
Consider the lilies of the field, the birds of the air. Is not the eye of God on these, and greater? Is not the ever watchful eye of the Almighty on the child as well? Will you mock God? Was it not God who placed the child with the parent, instructing the parent to bring up the child? And if the parent fails in his mission, is it not God who shall stand to judge, and to ultimately provide? Would not God, through the free exercise of agency, the invisible hand of Providence, have established a system to educate the child? If not the parent to educate, would not schools have been built by free men to provide for the education of the child? Would not you, as an educator, have been one of those men?
“But, not all parents would have been able to afford it! It is necessary to provide for the general welfare of the child!”
Is this then the justification for violating the commandment “Thou shalt not steal” in order to fulfill the commandment to love your neighbor? Think you that the general public would not, without compulsion, provide for the education of the child? Is it not the realm of the church to provide for the charity through the charitable giving of men? Is it not the alms that are given, freely, without compulsion, by individuals to the church that should be used to educate the less fortunate? And if not the church, then alms freely given to private charities and schools, schools which exist with no hint of compulsion? Would not funds be provided from the charity of individuals?
“Free men cannot be trusted to provide charity!”
Will you continue to mock God? Will you continue to say He will not provide? Do you truly believe that the freedoms won in the great war in Heaven are not designed appropriately by God to provide justice and mercy to each individual? Will you deny the vast sums of charity given by the free people of these United States, above and beyond the “charity” wrested from them by threat of imprisonment by the law?
“But, we must make sure that no child fails! We must make sure to the best of our ability that they all make it!”
Will you stop to consider that this is not the plan of God? That He fully knows that not all will make it? ‘Tis the plan of the evil one to force all to succeed. Consider the word of God in the matter:
“Howbeit that he made the greater star; as, also, if there be two spirits, and one shall be more intelligent than the other, yet these two spirits, notwithstanding one is more intelligent than the other, have no beginning; they existed before, they shall have no end, they shall exist after, for they are gnolaum, or eternal.
“And the Lord said unto me: These two facts do exist, that there are two spirits, one being more intelligent than the other; there shall be another more intelligent than they; I am the Lord thy God, I am more intelligent than they all.” (Abraham 3:18-19)
Is not each child unique? Is not the intelligence of one as different from another, even as the stars in heaven differ from one another in brightness? And who is better chosen of God to understand this uniqueness than the parent?
“And I, the Lord God, spake unto Moses, saying: That Satan, whom thou hast commanded in the name of mine Only Begotten, is the same which was from the beginning, and he came before me, saying—Behold, here am I, send me, I will be thy son, and I will redeem all mankind, that one soul shall not be lost, and surely I will do it; wherefore give me thine honor.
“But, behold, my Beloved Son, which was my Beloved and Chosen from the beginning, said unto me—Father, thy will be done, and the glory be thine forever.
“Wherefore, because that Satan rebelled against me, and sought to destroy the agency of man, which I, the Lord God, had given him, and also, that I should give unto him mine own power; by the power of mine Only Begotten, I caused that he should be cast down;” (Moses 4:1-3)
Is not the agency of man the most sacred trust we have been given? Is not this the one object the devil sought to destroy? And if agency would be destroyed, would not God himself cease to be God, would not all creation cease to exist?
When all is considered, the public education of our children is at best a plundering of the property of man. At worst, a denial of the infinite justice of the Father and infinite Mercy of His Son.