Authority, Permission, and Consent

While I was at the dentist office today, a mom complained about how her son was actually seen by a dentist at school, and came home to tell her that he actually even had a cavity filled. She was horrified!!! How and WHERE could a procedure like this be done at school, and without her permission?  WHO is this doctor - what is his or her credentials? Why did they feel it acceptable to actually go beyond the realm of checking his teeth to FIXING his teeth - when he has a dentist he sees twice a year?! She was upset that no one thought to call her and inform her that such a procedure was being performed on her child. She was angered that she somehow granted authority to the school and dentist to perform this procedure by signing a consent form that she didn’t understand.

We place an enormous amount of trust in the school system. We trust that they know what is best, and that they will teach our children what they need to know. We also trust that they can keep our children safe.

Think about it... we wait for the news to tell us if the school district cancelled school because of cold weather, or snow, or ice. We can look out our windows and make our own determinations on whether we SHOULD or SHOULD NOT send our kids out, or put them on school buses in such weather. When our children are sick, we have to send “excuses” with our children to justify keeping them home, and then the school determines if the absence is excused. We have to have a “good reason” for our children to miss school, or we can end up in truancy court. Do you see how we have given the schools so much authority that we as the parents have to ask for their PERMISSION to do what we think is right with our OWN KIDS!!!???!!!

Who has authority over our children? Why does it seem like we allow the school system to dictate to us how to raise our children, even in our own homes?! They have an enormous amount of authority in our world, if we give it to them!

Homeschooling is a way to change this dynamic. My husband and I have total authority over our children. When we take our children places, like the library or to sports activities, etc... others may have our permission or consent to have limited authority over them, but while we are present.

We have to learn how to break our dependency on strangers dictating what happens in our children’s lives.  And when we TAKE authority over our kids back, and teach them ourselves - it’s not about ASKING for permission to do so!

T.E.A. 2018