Are Smart People Really Smart People?

Elizabeth Bartholet is the Morris Wasserstein Public Interest Professor of Law at Harvard Law School,[1] and Faculty Director of Harvard Law School's Child Advocacy Program (CAP).[2] She teaches civil rights and family law, specializing in child welfare, adoption and reproductive technology. She calls homeschooling 'a threat to children and society'.

Elizabeth Bartholet has called for a “presumptive ban” on homeschooling — claiming that the freedom to do so under our current laws is “authoritarian”.

“The issue is do we think that parents should have 24/7 (essentially authoritarian) control over their children from ages zero to 18? I think that’s dangerous,” Elizabeth Bartholet said in an interview with Harvard Magazine.

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Professor Bartholet does get support from another “smart” professor…

William and Mary School of Law Professor James Dwyer, has stated:

The state needs to be the ultimate guarantor of a child’s well-being … The reason parent-child relationships exist is that the state confers legal parenthood. 

Thank heaven both William and Mary are too long dead to roll over in their graves.

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There may be a Federal Law prohibiting me from me from commenting contrary to a person who is so smart that she specializes in Child Welfare, Adoption and Reproductive Technology so I am going to have a go at it quickly before there is a Federal Law prohibiting me from me from commenting contrary to a person who is so smart that she specializes in Child Welfare, Adoption and Reproductive Technology…

Elsewhere in her 80 page legal opinion paper Professor Bartholet says…Children should “grow up exposed to...democratic values, ideas about nondiscrimination and tolerance of other people's viewpoints”

• Fella thinks Professor Bartholet’s Brush is far too wide. She is saying that all Homeschooling Parents are all teaching their children Discrimination and Intolerance of Other People’s Viewpoints but “All” is a Big Word.
• If some homeschoolers do something that Professor Bartholet does not approve of, does that mean that all (there’s that word again) should not be allowed to home school their children? 
• Would she also concur that, if some public education teacher taught something that she did not approve of, then all Public Education should be terminated?
• Is Fella getting too picky when he asks if Professor Bartholet is being Intolerant of Other People’s Viewpoints when she advocates that they not be allowed to have Their Own Viewpoints?

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It seems to me that a parent has an absolute right to raise their children based on their Life Experiences and Beliefs. If this were not true we would quickly run out of Muslims, Outdoor Campers, Amish, People Who Like to Read Books, Gardeners, Christians, Football Fans, Knitters, Joggers…need I go on?

If we are not to be allowed to pass on our Life Experiences and Beliefs, who’s Life Experiences and Beliefs are we to be allowed to pass on?

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I have been known to pile Common Sense on top of Silliness and I am going to attempt to do that now…

If really smart people like Professor Bartholet are going to be put in charge of us all, are we going to find where we are now required to teach the opposite of what we believe?

 To carry this Non-Thinking to its Illogical Conclusion, this may be the only way we can prevent the “sin” of Powerful People (parents) Being Put In Charge of the Powerless (their children).

(Quote Professor Bartholet, “I think it’s always dangerous to put powerful people in charge of the powerless, and to give the powerful ones total authority”.)

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Someone smarter than both Professor Bartholet and Fella once said if you have two people always think exactly alike, you probably have one person who is not thinking (or, in this case, not allowed to think).

Fella is on a roll and while he is rolling he would like to propose that we ought to put in place a National Yes Man Day. Its purpose will be get all Americans adhere to a Nationwide Practice of, “Don’t be a Yes Man! Next time your boss says ‘No’, you say ‘No’!”

Would I kid u?

Smartfella

Deuteronomy 6:6-7: And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.