Choose Your Expert

A new study done by Duke University finds that spanking a child may have "detrimental effects on behavior and mental development." The research focused on 2,500 children from low-income families and concluded that children spanked at age 1 tended to behave more aggressively at age 2. Agreeing with these findings, Susan Newman, the author of "Little Things Long Remembered: Making Your Children Feel Special Every Day," said that spanking reinforces negative memories and parents should aim to build "prominent, happy memories." Many other experts agree that parents should never "resort to violence." This study's leader, Lisa Berlin, said, "This is definitely the direction in which American culture is going." (And we all know how well-behaved the typical American child is.)

There is at least one expert who disagrees with the findings, though. His exhaustive knowledge of humanity has lead him to the opposite conclusion. He says, "Don't withhold discipline from a child; if you strike him with a rod, he will not die. If you strike him with a rod, you will save his soul from Hell." This expert goes on to say, "The rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child left to himself brings shame to his mother." The expert, whose name is the Great I AM, leaves no doubt where he stands on the spanking issue. He couldn't disagree more with Duke University and all it's child-rearing professionals. The bottom line for God is, "whoever spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him" - no matter what the 'experts' say.

I guess the issue for parents is choosing which expert to believe: the ones who study children or the One who creates children. As for me and my house, we choose the latter.

Education...Indoctrination

President Obama used his rhetorical skills today to deliver a back-to-school speech to the children in our public school system. I read the speech, and it seemed pretty standard. Personally, I think it's good for a president to give a motivational speech to students as they begin a new school year, and I commend Mr. Obama for doing so.

I'm in the minority among conservatives, though.

The news reports that many parents complained about the Obama speech, claiming it is the president's attempt to indoctrinate their children. A few parents I spoke with said, "We don't know what he's going to be telling our kids." Parents feared our nation's leader speaking to their children. Is that not a tell-tale sign of where we are, America? Even still, all their fears turned out to be much ado about nothing because today's speech was just your typical stay in school, work hard message... no indoctrination as far as I could tell.

But it's a fair question for a parent to have, isn't it? What exactly is my young, impressionable child going to hear at school? That seems fair to me. At the same time, it's quite confusing to me. Why complain about a fifteen minute speech but say nothing when your kids sit under someone else's influence 7 hours a day, 5 days a week, 10 months a year? With all due respect, conservatives, that makes no sense to me. I understand that you disagree with Obama. I understand that you fear government take-over of everything. But think it through. Who runs the school system? The government. Who decides what your child is learning? The government. Who influences your child's life from 8:00am to 3:00pm Monday through Friday? The government. Long before they took over GM, the government took over education!

Indoctrination didn't happen in the president's speech today, but it happens in classrooms everyday as evolution is taught as truth, homosexuality is normalized, feminism is propagated, and tolerance is exalted as the greatest virtue. The fifteen minute back-to-school speech was a good thing. It's the fifteen years (ages 3-18) of government indoctrination that concern me.