Stop the War on Toddlers is a cry from kids to voters, demanding an end to Weapons of Mass Instruction, citing studies that show enforced governmental preschool programs do far more harm to kids than good.
Yes, in the state that takes any and all issues to the ballot box via referendum, that wacky California, a call for a preschool boycott and a no vote on Proposition 92 - Preschool For All Act has been proclaimed.
A group called Tykes on Trikes has issued a Manifesto and is urging the boycott. I might be more convinced if I could find a preschooler who could spell "manifesto" or if teen students were better able to find Louisiana or Iraq on a map.
The Manifesto says:
"Government propaganda, disseminated through the media, insists that society commit to developing future workforces for the global economy as well as thwart crime and social deviance by confining young children in preschools. We have been brainwashed to believe that in order to protect adult interests, we must deny children their right to childhood.
In the name of education and social reform, young children are now detained in weapons of mass instruction called preschools."
Further, the group makes these demands:
" -- Immediate withdrawal of children ages 0-5 from government daycare and preschool facilities and closure of all government preschool and daycare detention centers.
-- The repeal of all preschool legislation currently enacted or in committee in federal and state governments
-- Disarmament and destruction of all weapons of mass instruction known as government preschools and discontinuing government subsidies of private preschool facilities that are required to brainwash children via state sanctioned curriculum standards and testing delivered by state-credentialed agents (i.e., teachers).
-- Abolishing Head Start and other government universal preschool programs. Forty years ago Head Start was instituted to assist disadvantaged children. It has yet to be shown that it helped the 40 million children it claims to have helped at a cost of 50 billion dollars. Instead, Head Start incorrectly led to the cultural misconception that "institutional programs" were the key to early childhood education. As a result, thousands of preschoolers have spent the most formative years of their lives confined in institutions; scores of innocent children ages 0-5 spent years imprisoned on false assumptions about how children learn; childhoods were smashed to pieces; parental rights usurped; entitlement thinking was reinforced; and families torn apart. This infliction of misery has not improved society. It has caused irreparable damage."
You can learn more via the many links offered on this press release page.
Or you may just want to celebrate the fact you and your kids don't live in California. Or you may want to join the movement. Or maybe this movement will help you get started on a science fiction story or the next Fox/MTV/WB pre-teen soap opera.
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ReplyDeleteBefore you go bashing Cali, do you realize that one of this groups' heroes is none other than Dr. Laura Schlessinger?!
ReplyDeleteThis isn't a California thing, this is a right-wing Christian bid to:
A: Enforce "traditional" roles upon women by making funding for pre-school dificult for working MOMS who seek it
B: Keep kids out of the "liberal" education system
C: Keep the wealthiest of taxpayers who can afford childcare and private pre-schools and nannies from having to have a piece of their golden egg go to the low-wage earners trying to give their kids a leg-up.
Do a Google search on some of the other Tykes and Trikes "Heroes," like Darcy Olsen, President of the uber-right Goldwater Institute.
This isn't a California thing, Joe.
Not by a longshot.
not this group, no - the Cali thing is to take every issue to a referendum vote.
ReplyDeletea group that urges the arming of toddlers in an advertising campaign is like ... well, see the drinking/crucifixtion post from yesterday.
The benefits of preschool have, according to some respectable sources, been overhyped.
ReplyDeleteFor parents who have to work and don't have the option of keeping their kids at home 'til the age of five, for the parents who just don't have it in them to be stay-at-home parents for five years, or, frankly, for the prents who are too lazy to do real parenting and choose instead to just park their kids' fat asses in front of the television, preschool fucking rocks.
ReplyDeleteI wasn't planning to start my kid in preschool until she was three or four, but at two, I can already see how much she would benefit from regular structured play and learning time with other kids. But then, I'm lucky enough to live in an area with a lot of great preschool options. Myself, I started Montessori in the mornings and preschool in the afternoons at the age of three, and got to skip kindergarten, start first grade at the age of five, and was in reading classes for at least one grade higher than my grade throughout elementary school. Look at me! I'm so smart!
But why am I commenting seriously on this??? This Tykes on Trikes crap is just fucking ridiculous.
::grumbles::
i offered this sliver of info purely for your review and thoughts.
ReplyDeletei agree - it is pure Horseshit - political mindgames wrapped in baby clothes meant to make an emotional appeal and chip away at ideas outside of the mindless realm of "family values."
as the editor noted, this group is the creation of a collection of elitist, social engineering, neo-cons ... with the emphasis on conning.
A pre-school reality show! It would kill on Nickolodeon or ABC Family!
ReplyDeleteOr maybe, we could just let kids, y'know, be kids. Not that I like the li'l yard apes, or anything.
Ooh, can I start a shitstorm? Please? Please?
ReplyDeleteMaybe couples shouldn't start a family until they have the resources (however they want to define that)to care for that family themselves. If that means somebody has to stay home, so be it.
I'm all for requiring a license to breed. Too many people are having too many kids without a thought of the consequences.