I’ve Moved!
November 20, 2008
So I’m sure that most people have noticed that the site has been offline for a few days. There’s a reason for that, which I will get to shortly. But first, let me just say this:
In fact, I am blogging at a new site I have just finished setting up: kennethhynek.net. A full explanation for the reasons behind the move can be found here
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That said, this is not the end of Time Immortal. My wife Grace has expressed interest in taking over blogging at this domain, and I am working to make sure that she gets set up here as soon as possible.
Also, my profound apologies for the modification to the site face; the move was not as seamless as I would have hoped, and many of the image files for this theme, and in the gallery, were corrupted during the course of their evacuation from my previous web host’s servers. Until such time as I have repaired them, I’ve put a clean-looking template in place of the previous one.
Update: for the purposes of further traffic shaping, new posts from kennethhynek.net will be excerpted below. Full articles can be read at the new blog.
Suddenly, I find the temptation to home-school Ella getting stronger
November 7, 2008
Vox Day reflects, by way of citing Joel Belz, on an odd blip in American attitudes toward socialism and socialized institutions:
…Socialized medicine? Most of us recoil at the idea. Socialized airlines? Reminds us of Aeroflot. Socialized banks? When it happened last month, it terrified us.But socialized schools? Nine out of ten of us patronize them regularly. And we do so with na’ry a thought or concern about how such an arrangement affects next week’s election, or the election after that, or the lifetime of elections to come.
Seizing the intellectual high ground of education has always been a priority for totalitarians. Marx advocated it, Lenin prioritized it, Hitler incorporated it into his 25-point plan. It’s important because it negates the natural advantage of conservatives, which is that they propagate themselves. Socialists, by and large, don’t, which is why they have to propagate by parasitic conversion.
You know, I’m only now beginning to understand just what level of involvement Grace and I are going to have to have in Ella’s education once she starts attending school. And it’s not even just in things like sex-ed, which we of course attempt to supplement with Church teaching when necessary (and it almost certainly will be necessary). It will be in things like history (I’m not suggesting whitewashing all the evils done in and through colonialism, but I’d rather that not be the only side of the story presented. Also, not all cultures are equal, and some are indeed better than others; I’d rather she learn this truth too), art, English, and possibly the sciences as well (no dysteleology, please!). And that says nothing about what her teachers might say by way of offhand remarks during class.
And don’t get me started on the concept of Religion classes. Grace was fortunate, and got a solid education in theological concepts; I was not so fortunate.
I admit a genuine fear of what my daughter is going to be exposed to in school, in the slant that will shape not only what she learns about the world and what has gone before, but which will also shape how she learns about it. And quite frankly, I’d rather she grow up with a properly nurtured ability to look at facts and to make decisions based on truths, rather than be spoon-fed a progressive worldview.
In Alberta, there’s still some hope: many rural schools are simply excellent, I gather, and actually teach students to think critically, without demanding that they likewise put on the proverbial rose-coloured glasses of modern liberalism. My wife stands as an example of someone who has encountered just such an institution.
Failing that, the temptation to home-school Ella is getting stronger.
