Barack Obama's Head Start, Good or Bad?

As I have mentioned before, I grew up in poverty. Even now, I wouldn't call my financial situation a screaming success. But the number in my bank account does not define the person I am, nor should it. It is the measure of a person's character and heart that should define them.

With Barack Obama's desire to get children into school even younger than they are now, age three, he is following the pattern of many communist nations, dictators and despots. I am a Latter-day Saint, as such I have availed myself of the immense knowledge and history of both my church and my nation. In my church we have had a prophet at the helm since 1830. In the early 1900s a man named Joseph F. Smith was the prophet. He issued a statement stating that public education should never be the main source of education for a child, but merely supplemental to the education the child should be receiving at home. If parents had adhered to this way of thinking America would not be in the condition it is in now.

Barack Obama has asked that a Head Start program be made mandatory and children, beginning at the age of three, be forced to attend, although evidence proves that Head Start makes no difference at all. And yet the excuse I'm seeing from many across the social networks is that poor parents just can't afford to care for or educate their children so the government needs to step in. But what happens when the government, especially one such as ours today, takes over the education of your children at such an impressionable age?

Moving on to the history of the world, we see communists, dictators and despots always going after the children, just as Obama has in America, to craft the way they think and to remove all morality from their souls. And why would they do that? Looking back to Germany and my own family's history. My father, Fritz Sluyter, was born in Amsterdam, Holland to a Dutch father and a German mother. World War II hit his country on May 10, 1945. Over the course of the next few years it was unmitigated hell. They eventually ended up in Germany because my great-grandmother was dying. But by the time they got there, she was better and their paperwork was no longer valid. They were them in Germany illegally.

Oma (Grandmother), my dad and my aunt ended up hiding out in my great-grandfather's attic. My grandmother was a difficult woman, and I'm convinced she was just like her father, my great-grandfather. They had a fight and my great-grandfather turned them into the Gestapo. They went on the run through wartorn Germany trying to reach safety. A father/grandfather turned in his daughter and grandchildren to a known violent entity which would insure their imprisonment and possible death, and he felt no remorse.

How do we come to this in any nation? Simply put, it happens when parents cease to be the sole arbiter of the morals and values of their children. When children are removed from the home at three years of age to have their minds, morals and values carefully molded by another, the above is what happens. Are all parents good parents? No, of course not. Are most parents good ones? Yes, they are. Are all teachers bad? No, but most are, now. They have been thoroughly brainwashes to the liberal way of thinking and are doing their best to educate the nation's children to think the same way.

However, I submit poverty plays no part if the parent is determined. My mother worked full-time. In addition, she tended a full garden, milked goats and tended to chickens in order to keep food on our table. Despite all this, each night she read to us. First from whatever fiction book had caught her attention, generally James Herriot's books, and then from the scriptures. We began and ended each day with prayer. Dinner wasn't just for eating, but also for conversing about our days and what we learned at school. We had family night each Monday where the evening set aside for family. We had a small religious lesson, each of us taking a turn teaching it, another in charge of preparing the treats, and oft times we played games, wrote and acted out plays, etc. As such, my mother also taught us all to read and write before we entered kindergarten.

I submit poverty is an excuse for laziness. Poverty of the wallet does not mean poverty must also rule our lives, intellect or hearts. If you truly wish to save your children and the nation you are leaving them, there are four simple things you could do that would truly society around with a generation or two:

1) Families need to learn goodness together. That means you talk, and listen, to your children. You teach the difference between right and wrong. You teach them they are a child of God, and as such they have a divine heritage. You teach them to reach for knowledge, their dreams, and to understand their life and how it plays a part in the plan of salvation. You teach them to be the very best that they can be.

2) Families need to work together. In so doing, parents help their children to learn how to work hard and develop a good work ethic. If all parents do is order children around while they are sitting on the couch, they aren't getting the job done. If parents work with children, their children will internalize that work ethic and become good, strong, productive members of a free society.

3) Families must pray together. In so doing, you teach your children how to petition the heavens and conversely, to listen. As they teach them to pray, you arm them with a protection and inspiration they can gain from no other. Teach them of God, our Father in Heaven. Who He is and why we are here.

4) And families must read good books together. As I mentioned, my mother was fond of James Herriot's books about his escapades in the British countryside as a veterinarian. Now, we have a number of excellent authors in J. Scott Savage, James Dashner, J.K. Rowling, Janette Rallison and many others. I invite parents to start reading again, for through stories you are able to teach so many critical principles to children without always being in the authoritarian position.

Just because your bank account is low doesn't mean you can't help arm your children for life with knowledge, hope, and a vision for a bright future.