By Dr. Dan Eichenbaum
A top priority for any parent (or grandparent for that matter) is ensuring their child has all the tools necessary, beginning with a quality education, to become a successful, productive adult.
In the past, education in our country provided for each student the basic knowledge and essential skill sets necessary to succeed as a person, a family member, a citizen, and a worker. In the one-room school houses of the Wild West or the formal classrooms of the eastern cities, students learned reading, writing, and arithmetic, along with fundamental moral principles.
To our founders, the Natural Law Rights, secured by our Constitution, were acknowledged to be the foundation of individual freedom based on an equality of opportunity. Limited government, private property rights, unlimited natural resources, and no tax on income created an environment in which innovation and hard work could easily lead to financial success for anyone. Education, although not a requirement, did provide the tools for better access to opportunity and upward mobility through the free market economy.
Unfortunately, in current times, the teaching of that basic set of skills and values has been watered down to include areas of study that are designed to undermine individuality and competition in order to promote the progressive agenda of collectivism. The individual achiever is a threat to those who desire to force everyone down toward the lowest common denominator of accomplishment regardless of individual ability.
