Freedom & Responsibility

We are responsible for ourselves. Throughout our childhood, we are responsible for heeding the warnings and guidance from our parents and families. Our innate desire for freedom is at odds with our responsibility to heed the warnings and guidance. Anyone who has spent time with a 2 year-old understands that they are sovereign beings.

Parents need to ensure that their children don’t become monsters, but need to ensure that they don’t lose their spirit. There is a balance that needs to be maintained to keep children from harm and monster-hood while allowing kids to have fun learning what they need to know. 

“Kids are like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re gonna to get”. Kids are all different and some require more negotiation than others. Each one is its own work in progress and both parents and kids are prone to making mistakes. The goal is to get kids to be responsible for their own behavior and have a good time without killing themselves or breaking things.

Free will dictates that kids are responsible for learning enough to be able to function successfully as adults. Kids who don’t take on their responsibility to learn what they need will suffer. 

The goal is to accomplish this transfer in responsibility as soon as possible. The best education is self-education and that won’t take place until Kids begin to view themselves as the consumers of education.  Kids should learn what they are interested in and should concentrate on their talents. In addition, kids will need to develop occupational skills consistent with these talents.

Whether they like it or not, kids need to learn to read, write, communicate, comprehend and do math before they enter school. They really don’t need to learn anything else until they can master the basic skills.

Kids need to learn to work, do chores and take summer and part-time jobs when they are age 16. They need to earn their own spending money. Teenagers need to buy their own cars, auto insurance and gasoline. Teenagers need to learn how to save money, do their own taxes and look things up.

Government needs to get out of education. Closing the US Department of Education is a good start.  Next, we need to remove States from legislating rules. Government laws at the federal and state level lead to too excessive costs and a failed curriculum. US education won’t improve until government is removed from the process.

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader