Devoted love or distracted togetherness

My daughter delights in her children. If they have a need, she finds a way to meet it. Lately folks around her have determined such mothering is not enough, declaring all preschoolers need "structure", and this one element cannot be had at home through the efforts of loving parents, it can only be obtained through "preschool".

I say hogwash!

Preschool never exists in societies of man unless those in power need to foist some new sort of thinking on a resistant population.

During the time of the iron curtain, footage of a certain group of toddlers in the Soviet Union was circulated. The tots were viewed potty-training at the same time, in neat little uniforms led by portly matrons also in neat, but huge, uniforms. They learned to walk, eat and talk as a group. It was touted as being the height of efficiency, and meant to intimidate Americans into wondering how we could ever think to compete against such a machine in which even the children were obedient little robots.

As new and innovative as it seemed at the time, these sorts of callous and unsympathetic systems are not at all novel. The Spartans used them to gain the edge in battle by training children, both boys and girls alike, to be hardened warriors from infancy.

The Prussians of the Revolutionary War period also utilized some of these methods, as did the infamous Nazis.

It makes sense, doesn't it, that if one would want to gain control over a large population of people, one would have to get them early-on, before other thoughts and mores had taken hold?

In order to get people to follow, you must get them to trust, and what better way to get people to trust than to get them to think of the government, in the form of institutions such as schooling, as another sort of parent, one who will take care of them and shelter them and catch them when they "fall through the cracks" (how many times have we heard this phrase when speaking of some new government program?).

Another daughter happens to teach in such an institution. She is biding her time until she can have her own children by working with the offspring of others. She tells me how contrived the lessons are; she knows from experience here at home just how naturally a tiny person can learn basic skills by everyday life in a loving, attentive and protective environment. Her stories are heart-wrenching; children who cry for their mothers, who are often dropped off and picked up by the baby-sitter. She essentially steals the affection from their natural parents--and it grieves her. Little ones hang on her and tell her, "You love me so much better than my mommy"...

Societies which attempt to claim the hearts and minds of children are never benevolent, always malevolent, violent, exploitive, tyrannical. They ultimately self-destruct.

It amazes me just how many in this "land of the free and home of the brave" are falling for the soft-sell; of being suckered into believing we actually need such programs in order to raise good children. It sickens me to realize how many in churches believe the same thing.

What has come over us to make us actually believe a stranger who barely knows a child's name can, or should, be able to train that child better than the very parents that God provided for these defenseless little ones?

It used to be generally understood that the only fit parents for a child were the biological, or adopted, ones. Institutions were the sad replacements formed out of necessity for orphans, reserved only for unfortunates. Blue-bloods utilized boarding schools, not out of concern for their children, but out of convenience and to feel as though they could buy what only love can give.

God gave the first children to parents, and has never done anything different, even with His own dear Son, born into the earth through a woman, given to a man to father and care for well into adulthood. He describes Himself as a Father to the fatherless and gives admonition to members of the New Covenant in terms of familial relationships.

As far as "structure" is concerned, it should be part of any family. Knowing when everyone rises, when breakfast is served, when it is time to go to bed. But little children need a little elbow-room. They need time to be able to feel comfortable in their own skins, Not having everything scripted and planned for them every minute of the day is important, more important than knowing their colors at the age of 2!

Patterns of thinking are being developed in the minds of tiny ones. Having the opportunity to explore, within safe boundaries, without being dictated to allows the natural genius to develop.

More importantly, children who gain their identity from a loving family from early ages grow up to be warm, giving individuals, able to reach out to others from the strength of knowing who they are and what they are about, instead of constantly wondering if they are being "correct" according to someone else's estimation of them.

Institutionalization will do things to the mind; it will get us constantly looking around and comparing, it will keep us off-balance and unable to shake the feeling someone is watching and evaluating us besides God, that the opinions of others, be they in Washington or Hollywood or the group at work or even at church, are more important than those of God Almighty, until they entirely lose themselves to the vain philosophies of man.

I often envy my own children. They do not suffer the angst over these things I sometimes do. They live and act because it is simply "right", not because of anyone else's suggestion, and do not look for anyone else's approval. The little bits of these character traits I sometimes exhibit were hard won--only through a constant struggle and conflict in the private chambers of my mind can I (by faith) break free!

I personally do not wish that sort of life on my own children. I want to hold them and speak into them and learn alongside them who they are. I don't want them to have the pattern of others imprinted on their minds before they have a chance to discover the unique pattern God has given to each, sheltered in the safety of life under my careful and watchful eyes.