Epilogue

The Best Of Us Have Been Blinded By The Darkness

Dr. B. is a dentist who practices in our area. He is married and has two children, both of whom were under five years of age at the time of this writing. Dr. B. is a well-meaning man, a very well-liked dentist and a good citizen. He appears to be doing well financially and appears to have both the economic and personal resources to educate his children as he pleases.

Last year, Dr. B. expressed strong interest in the work of the Gentle Wind School. At his request, we gave him copies of our newsletters, both "Great Education Moves" and "Rebound." He read the newsletters from cover to cover. He then told us that he found much truth in our newsletters and he said that he could see that schools are not good places for children. He said that he could see why homeschooling is such a superior form of education when compared to public and private schooling. Then he went on to say that he was going to send his daughter to school in the coming fall, "just to be on the safe side." "After all," he said, "it's a tough world out there and she needs to go to school so that she can learn to be competitive."

Dr. B. represents humanity. He, like most of the educated people in the world, has been blinded by the darkness. He reads the truth about schools, he sees the truth about schools, he understands the truth about schools, he realizes the superiority of homeschooled children... and concludes that he must send his daughter to school, "just to be on the safe side." Dr. B. is a good example of why we say that the destructive educational practices found in this nation cannot be changed or altered on any large scale. We have come to believe (although we have not researched this) that parents like Dr. B. who themselves were exposed to current educational practices are, in a way, compelled to send their children off to school in order to exonerate themselves. Most people who are exposed to schools grow up feeling that they failed, no matter how well they did in school. We believe that many parents send their children off to school with the hope that their children will do better than they did when they were in school and will, therefore, release them (the parents) from their own feelings of personal failure. We tell you this story because when Dr. B. spoke these words, it was like a moment of epiphany for us. We originally wrote these newsletters to homebirthers (who saw the truth about current hospital birthing practices and decided to birth their children at home) and to anyone else who might read the truth about current educational practices and decide to school their children at home. But then we got the idea that we could construct our newsletters in a way that other people could benefit from them. We had hope that we could somehow appeal to people's higher nature (or lower nature or middle nature) with truthful words about the destructive effects of current educational practices and that people would catch on to what was happening and do what they could to prevent their children from being harmed. Then we discovered that our words were spoken in vain and that people were so destroyed by current educational practices that they had been rendered incapable of responding to truthful words, and that people, like Dr. B., could not do the simplest things to prevent their own children from being harmed. People have been blinded by the darkness of educational practices and can no longer see a way out.

Some readers accused us at times of being too pessimistic. Some readers said that we were too negative and that we should try to see the positive aspects of schools. Although we were never able to see very much that was positive about the mental and emotional annihilation of children, we did have our doubts from time to time. But then we met Dr. B., who read our newsletters, saw the truth and concluded that he would send his young daughter to school, "just to be on the safe side" and "so that she would learn to be competitive in the world." Dr. B., in that moment of epiphany, vanquished all our remaining doubts. We knew then that what we had been saying about the futility of trying to do anything to change the educational system was true. There are over 40 million children in America enrolled in public and private schools from kindergarten to the twelfth grade. The education of these 40 million children and young adults costs approximately $215 billion a year by even the most conservative estimate. Although only slightly more than 6 percent of this amount comes from the federal government, the cost of educating these children and young adults is not much less than our annual defense budget. Closing down the schools in this country would be tantamount to trying to close down the Pentagon and the whole Department of Defense. There are 2.3 million teachers in the teacher's union, representing the largest union in America and the second largest industry in this country. These figures represent only classroom teachers. These figures do not include cafeteria workers, school bus drivers, traffic police, maintenance people, school nurses, school psychologists, book publishers or any of the manufacturers who produce the desks, blackboards, pens, pencils, lunch boxes, book-bags, paper, computers, chairs, etc., etc. that are used in schools throughout this country. How many politicians, especially presidents, do you know who would be willing to stop current educational practices and upset this many registered voters? Education in America is Big Business, and, thanks to Dr. B., we are certain beyond any reasonable doubt that the Big Business of Education is here to stay because we have all been blinded by the darkness.

For Educators:
Your Vocabulary Word For The Year

OBFUSCATE: 1. to darken; obscure; hence, 2. to confuse; stupefy; bewilder.

Used in a sentence: Educators obfuscate reality.

Educators destroy children's ability to perceive reality as it exists and to think independently. Once exposed to this educational system, people are unable to perceive certain aspects of reality unless someone outside of themselves tells them that that aspect of reality exists.

OBFUSCATE: 1. to darken; obscure; hence, 2. to confuse; stupefy; bewilder.