21 Ways "Public Schools" Harm Your Children

by R. C. Hoiles

1957

It is a crime of crimes to compel pupils to attend schools where the teacher dare not teach moral laws. It is hard to conceive how anything can do more harm than the kind of "education" we are getting in tax-run schools.

Now, what are the things that government schools dare not teach?

1. They dare not teach the spirit of the Constitution as set forth in the first official

document of the United States, the Declaration of Independence. They dare not teach

it because it says that all men, not just the majority, are endowed by their Creator with

certain unalienable rights, among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. A

man isn't free to pursue happiness when the majority in any school district, state or nation can coerce him to pay for a school that he believes violates the principles upon which this government was formed. The school teachers dare not emphasize this part of the Declaration of Independence. They dare not explain the true meaning of this statement. If they were successful in explaining and teaching the true meaning of these ideologies, there would be no gun-run schools.

2. Again, they dare not teach that to secure these rights governments are instituted

among men, deriving their just power from the consent of the governed. They have

to completely repudiate the ideas of the American way of life. They have to teach the old-world philosophy of the divine right of governments, only now they call it the divine

right of the majority rather than the divine right of kings.

3. They dare not teach in government schools the meaning of liberty. It is doubtful

whether any teacher in gun-run schools dares define the kind of liberty the Founding

Fathers mutually pledged to each other their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor to support. If the government schools successfully taught the meaning of the liberty our

Founding Fathers had in mind, there would be no government schools that starve the

intellects of our children.

4. The government schools dare not teach the meaning of the Golden Rule. If they were

successful in getting their pupils to understand that they should not force other people to pay for something they did not want, then they could see that it was a violation of the

Golden Rule to force others to pay for their schooling.

They, of course, dare not teach their pupils to believe that if it is wicked and a violation

of the Golden Rule for one man to do a thing, it is still wicked and a violation of the

Golden Rule if 49 per cent or 99 per cent of the people do the same thing. They, thus,

dare not teach the youth that the ideal government, the only kind of government that can

be of value to mankind, is one that is limited to the use of defensive force and never has a right, under any circumstances, to initiate force.

I want to continue suggesting things that tax-run schools dare not teach.

5. They dare not teach the First Commandment: "Thou shalt have no other Gods before

me" because they are bowing down and worshipping the will of the majority rather than

the eternal laws of God that no man made and no man can unmake.

5. They dare not teach "Thou shalt not covet," because they are violating the Coveting

Commandment. They believe they do not need to teach well enough that people will

voluntarily pay their salaries. They get their pay by violence rather than by rendering

service well enough so that those who pay them believe they are benefited by their

employment.

7. They dare not teach discipline and self-reliance because they are not disciplining

themselves enough to render such service that they can be paid voluntarily. The teachers take the shortcut and use a police club to get their money. That certainly is not discipline, nor is it self-reliance.

8. They dare not teach thrift and the harm that comes from getting into debt. They

dare not do this because the government burdens every child and every person in the

United States with a monstrous debt.

9. They dare not teach respect for individual initiative because government schools are

based on lack of respect for other people's initiative. They are based on the theory that

"We've got the power and the individual is helpless and we're going to make him pay for

anything our agents think is education."

10. They dare not teach humility and meekness because the means used by government

schools are the exact opposite of humility and meekness. Are believers in tax-run

schools so sure they are right that they are willing to initiate force to make people support their ideas of education? They see themselves as so exalted that they have lost all humility and meekness. And remember, "He who exalts himself shall become abased."

11. They dare not teach children to reason. They have to teach them not to recognize a

contradiction or a dilemma. If the pupils were taught to reason, they would recognize the tyranny that is bound to follow making people pay for things and ideas they abhor.

12. They dare not teach the harm that follows socialism, communism, collectivism and

fascism for to do so would let pupils realize that aggressive force is part of socialism,

communism, collectivism and fascism.

13. They dare not teach that what man wants must be obtained on a voluntary basis.

They dare not teach this because they get what they want on an involuntary basis.

14. They dare not teach the difference between socialism and private ownership of

property. They dare not explain that under socialism the only way a man can benefit is

by injuring another, as in the case in compelling people to pay for schools they think will

destroy the country.

15. They dare not explain that in free enterprise, including free enterprise in education,

the gain of one is the gain of all.

16. Tax-run schools dare not teach love and charity because they are using aggressive

force. They seem to think that aggressive force is better than persuasion by love and

charity.

17. They cannot teach patience because they are so impatient about getting what they

seem to believe is an education that they dare not wait to persuade those who should

employ them to pay their salaries.

18. They cannot teach peace and goodwill because they are an example of the opposite

of peace and goodwill. They are an example of initiating force, of threatening to get

from others by aggressive force what they think they should get.

19. They cannot teach that the government is a servant of individuals because they

believe it should be supported by giving it a monopoly to use aggressive force to

make people pay. They can only teach that it is a master of the individual.

20. They cannot teach justice because their method of supporting the schools is based

on injustice—arbitrary, initiated force.

21. They cannot teach that each man is responsible for his own life because they deny

that by using force to take part of man's energy against his will, and man cannot be

responsible for his life unless he has the right to choose.