This from the, "Take it for what it's worth" category.
Last week I visited my 5 year old son's school for his Easter party. Being in Oklahoma, it is still acceptable for a school to have an Easter party. As long as we only talk about Easter bunnies, and eggs, and candy. Don't bother with that historical Jesus event.
Anyway.
It came time for the egg hunt. They kids all grabbed their baskets and trooped outside. My son has inherited my non-competitive nature. He leisurely wandered around the playground, not bothering with the objective of finding and gathering eggs. That were obvious. It's not like it was hard to find them.
18 seconds later, all the eggs had been found. My son had 2. Out of 500. Luckily one of his friends was a merciful type and shared from his bounty.
But the point of the story is that when they got back to the room, the kids had to pool all of their eggs and then the eggs were redistributed equally to everyone.
And I scratched my head. And I looked around for the picture to Karl Marx. This was a practical lesson in socialism.
You say, "Oh, you're just overreacting. This is 5 year olds."
My wife said, "The teacher didn't want to deal with crying kids who didn't find as many eggs."
I say, "Look at the bigger picture."
What this taught the kids was that your hard work and effort is repaid by having to give up what you have earned so that everyone can have an equal portion. The kids were told that they couldn't open the eggs (they were all plastic with candy inside) and eat the goodies that they had found. They couldn't enjoy the benefits of their hard work. What they were being taught was that you must work for the greater whole.
My Mom was there also. She works with a state agency. Her observation is that it was teaching welfare. She felt that they were learning that if you don't find enough eggs, then someone else will provide you your fair share.
I am not a big fan of the rampant capitalism that has been the trademark of American business (mostly because I am not a big fan of the rampant consumerism that is a trademark of American lives). But I also understand the power of concrete teaching to younger children and youth. They learn through concrete experience. This was a lesson in socialism.
Our nation has been on a trend of reversing the free enterprise system and personal responsibility mindset for some time now. We are moving to a system where the people who work hard and produce capital have to pay over more and more to support state-run programs to take care of those who do not produce or who do not use the resources they have responsibly.
I know that this is a small, insignificant episode in the lives of a child. But it is also a glaring example of the fact that our nation is moving closer and closer to a socialized form of business.
That's why, this Sunday, our children will participate in a Capitalist Easter Egg Hunt following worship. And if my son only has 2 eggs at the end of the hunt, then he will have earned those 2 eggs.
Last week I visited my 5 year old son's school for his Easter party. Being in Oklahoma, it is still acceptable for a school to have an Easter party. As long as we only talk about Easter bunnies, and eggs, and candy. Don't bother with that historical Jesus event.
Anyway.
It came time for the egg hunt. They kids all grabbed their baskets and trooped outside. My son has inherited my non-competitive nature. He leisurely wandered around the playground, not bothering with the objective of finding and gathering eggs. That were obvious. It's not like it was hard to find them.
18 seconds later, all the eggs had been found. My son had 2. Out of 500. Luckily one of his friends was a merciful type and shared from his bounty.
But the point of the story is that when they got back to the room, the kids had to pool all of their eggs and then the eggs were redistributed equally to everyone.
And I scratched my head. And I looked around for the picture to Karl Marx. This was a practical lesson in socialism.
You say, "Oh, you're just overreacting. This is 5 year olds."
My wife said, "The teacher didn't want to deal with crying kids who didn't find as many eggs."
I say, "Look at the bigger picture."
What this taught the kids was that your hard work and effort is repaid by having to give up what you have earned so that everyone can have an equal portion. The kids were told that they couldn't open the eggs (they were all plastic with candy inside) and eat the goodies that they had found. They couldn't enjoy the benefits of their hard work. What they were being taught was that you must work for the greater whole.
My Mom was there also. She works with a state agency. Her observation is that it was teaching welfare. She felt that they were learning that if you don't find enough eggs, then someone else will provide you your fair share.
I am not a big fan of the rampant capitalism that has been the trademark of American business (mostly because I am not a big fan of the rampant consumerism that is a trademark of American lives). But I also understand the power of concrete teaching to younger children and youth. They learn through concrete experience. This was a lesson in socialism.
Our nation has been on a trend of reversing the free enterprise system and personal responsibility mindset for some time now. We are moving to a system where the people who work hard and produce capital have to pay over more and more to support state-run programs to take care of those who do not produce or who do not use the resources they have responsibly.
I know that this is a small, insignificant episode in the lives of a child. But it is also a glaring example of the fact that our nation is moving closer and closer to a socialized form of business.
That's why, this Sunday, our children will participate in a Capitalist Easter Egg Hunt following worship. And if my son only has 2 eggs at the end of the hunt, then he will have earned those 2 eggs.
Comments
At one time I would have agreed about the Christ-like sharing aspect. There is a huge difference between the Christ-like sharing (as we see in Acts 2 and 4) and state mandated equalization, which is what was essentially being taught.
The difference between Acts 2/4 and socialism is essentially that in Acts the implication is that the Holy Spirit transforms a person's life to enable them to freely give of their own will. Even if they reserve a portion of it but are honest it can be honored. In socialism, there is no freedom of will or honor attached.
There was no discussion of sharing or the virtue of helping others coming from the teacher. The boy that shared with my son was an example of Christ like sharing. But my concern is for what the school system is teaching kids.
When I told my fanatically liberal sister about this, she referred me to Nickel and Dimed, a book that "proves" the American Dream is kaput because no one who is poor can rise up from their circumstances. Ironically, Scratch Beginnings was an experiment done in response to Nickel and Dimed.
When I triumphantly declared that the American Dream is alive and well to anyone who will focus and work, she just rolled her eyes and walked away.
I realize that some people truly need our help. But I also believe that there are vast numbers who don't want to "hunt their own Easter eggs," so to speak. They wait until you earn yours so they can be forcefully re-distributed--all in the name of equity, of course.
I agree that there is a difference between socialism and Christ centered giving. Christ always gives us free will. I like it better the way my sons first grade teacher handled it. She talked with them about sharing with each other and especially about helping those in the class that were handicapped in some way or another. I thought that helped to teach the lesson.
Again, even in those times that sharing and helping others are not talked about, that can be done at home. I am greatly concerned about the school system taking ove parental responsibility. Sometimes this allowed by ther parents lack of teaching at home. Other times it seems to be an attempted mandate by the state. However, we as parents need to be doing our job and allowing such things to open up a conversation with our children and using them as teaching moments.