I was thinking again.... (uh oh, here she goes again!)

It is not just education that is being influenced by this "professional" mentality. The idea that you have to be told what to do by "professionals" who know more than you .

Look at the medical profession. Most of us have been conditioned that the "medical community" is somewhere up there with God in omniscience. We rarely question the advice of our doctor. We read books written by "experts" to tell us how to raise our children, manage relationships, even the most intimate aspects of our lives are governed by the opinions of strangers. We have been duped into some of the most idiotic lines of thought because we did not trust our own good sense to know what to do.

Look at our nation's views on breastfeeding, co-sleeping, letting babies "cry it out", no spanking, daycare, nursing homes, career mothers.... the list is endless.

Something has changed our values at the very core.

The "Global Village"? What happened to the traditional family?

How could we have let go of the very things that 100 years ago were the foundation of life in America??? Women were not constantly bombarded by messages of inferiority if they did not work outside the home. Children were not considered the inconvieniences they are today. Teen pregnancy was not unheard of, but it had not reached the epidemic proportions it has today!

When we take away the moral foundation from our children and try to replace it with "cold hard facts" and moral relativism, is it any wonder that these things are rampant in society today?

Is this a grand conspiracy?

I believe so.

It is insidious, making minor changes here and there in the name of the common good.

Who could have foreseen the havoc that would be wreaked by introducing infant formula, (which was initially invented for babies who's mothers could not nurse or had died)?

And yet all around the world babies are dying for no other reason but because they are bottle fed. In separating the child from the mother's breast, we have also started separating it from the parent itself. We shut the child away in a separate room, force it to adhere to a schedule foreign to it's nature, and immediately start making plans to send it away to an institution as soon as it is old enough. Scientists have finally figured out that a child will literally DIE without the stimulation of loving touch. Too late, we already have a booming market of devices specifically designed to "hold" the baby for us. Walkers, strollers, bouncers and swings stand ready to take the child off our hands.

Bottle feeding removes the body's natural hormonal response to a child, the "mothering instinct". By not nursing you are effectively telling your body that you "lost" the baby, and the hormonal response, along with the milk, dries up. This is not to say that you cannot be a good mother without nursing, but you definitely go in with a measurable physical handicap. Not nursing can compound post-partum depression. Without it's natural tranquilizer, mothers can become more easily irritated with their child, and the potential for child abuse increases. With this gradual separation of mother and child, is it that much more of a leap to separate them further by placing them in government institutions for a large part of their formative years? Why does the media try so hard to make full time mothers into second class citizens? We are not only devaluing the mother, but the child. We are saying to the child, "you are not important enough to spend time on, you must go to an institution where you can be dealt with more efficiently." While we tell the mother "you are not competent enough to raise your own child, you must let "professionals" do it for you while you engage in something to raise your "standard of living". (i.e.make money) We are telling our children that money is more important, and they are just not worth staying home for!!!!! And then we scratch our heads over the violence of today's youth, widespread low self esteem, etc.? Does this still seem unrelated, or could there be a larger plan in mind?

The media has taken something meant for good (infant formula) and twisted it in much the same way it has corrupted the way we teach our children, a little change here, a little change there. Parents who bottle feed love their children, just like parents who send their kids to daycare and public schools love their children. They are just unaware of the impact their decisions will make on their children. They have been told by the "experts" that it is "just as good, if not superior to... (breastfeeding, homeschooling, etc.)".

So what has all this got to do with unschooling????

In my mind, unschooling is a complete overhaul of the way we think about life!

I would venture to say that unschooling parents are probably a lot more likely to do the things I mentioned, (breastfeeding, co-sleeping, etc.). not because that is our "party line", but rather a natural extension of this way of thinking. Trusting our natural instincts when it comes to raising our children. We are not trying to "brainwash" our children, but rather to help them develop in the way they were designed to be as an individual.

I absolutely believe that by getting back to a more family centered way of life, we can all but eliminate some of the problems that plague society as a whole. By being attentive to their individual needs from infancy, we give our children a secure sense of self worth.

By acknowledging their unique personalities and learning styles, we give them value as an individual, apart from their performance. By allowing them to learn about life in their own time frame, following their own interests, we are giving them the confidence and opportunity to make their own decisions. By keeping them in a loving family environment, we encourage their development of "family values". By the time they reach adulthood, they will not be searching for meaning in their lives, but searching instead for ways to make a meaningful impact in life.

By showing our children how to live we equip them to find out everything they need to know. There is not a set time when you have to learn all you will ever know for the rest of your life. Learning is an ongoing process.

Knowledge is changeable, wisdom is timeless. What your children learn now as "fact" may be obsolete by the time they have children. Unschooling teaches children how to live, how to make good choices...

Public school replaces wisdom with information, so that students come out with knowledge, but no way of putting it together in a meaningful way (wisdom). This renders them essentially helpless, unable to do things independently. They are then fed into the machine of society, sufficiently docile enough to go without a fight, ready to be further "educated" by the mass who engineered this, swallowing the most ridiculous theories without blinking. They are mentally impotent, having been castrated by the government to make them more "tractable".

No, unschooling is not the cure-all, but it is most assuredly a giant step up from the way society as a whole is going! Obviously differences in parenting styles and other variables including the temperament of the child will determine how a child will "turn out". No parenting guide or schooling (or unschooling) technique is going to guarantee you a perfect child.

Neither can vaccinations absolutely guarantee that your child will not contract a disease.

However, they can both insure a certain level of protection against hostile forces that would seek to destroy our children.

The best way to foil a conspiracy is to expose it for what it is.

Now you know.