If the education of our children is not directed towards freedom, we cannot speak of education. Freedom is not optional. It is a goal, always unattainable in its maximum degree, but one that we cannot give up.
Therefore, part of the education of our children must consist of making them strong, very strong, so that they can be critical, very critical, of society. If our children do not become critical, they will be as many slaves to society as the rest of the animals are to nature. When human beings are not critical, they cease to be rational animals and continue to be mere executors of conducts that are no longer genetically determined but socially established.
However, today, and I am very afraid that when our children grow up we will continue more or less the same, critical thinking is seriously persecuted. Free expression too. We have been living in a “democracy” for many years now, and it is assumed that today we are free to think and express what we want. This is not true. We live under the dictatorship of single-minded thinking and pseudo-tolerant relativism, which are masked under the generic idea that only the “politically correct” can be expressed.
We must make them strong so that they can resist attacks (sometimes subtle, often intentionally hurtful) for expressing thoughts such as:
- I am against same-sex marriage. This does NOT mean that I am against homosexual people. If someone wants to extrapolate that being against same-sex marriage is being against homosexuals, either they have not understood it, or they have not wanted to understand it, or they are manipulating what has been said in a crooked way. In the same way that being against polygamy does not mean that one is against people of the Islamic religion.
- I am against adoption by single people. I believe that children have the right to a father and a mother, and that children are NOT a right of adults. Please, don’t start with casuistry and with “one father or mother is better than none” and “the important thing is love”, etc. I’m not talking about particular cases, I’m intellectualizing. I’m not on an emotional level, nor personalized.
- The expression “scientifically proven” does NOT mean that it is true or that the corollary has to be accepted. I’ll give you an example, even if it’s excessively simple. When I was in college, they explained to us a study that the professor had carried out, in which it was shown that there was an inversely proportional correlation between the IQ and the size of women’s breasts. The results were statistically significant. The only thing that study shows is that there are people so bored in university offices that they spend their time doing studies of this type, NOT that women with larger breasts are less intelligent. When talking about scientific research, the first thing you should know is who is carrying it out, who is financing it and what its objective is. Knowing these three premises, the results are perfectly predictable.
- Education is NOT synonymous with or equivalent to teaching. The role of schools is to teach, the role of parents is to educate. If we, the people who make up society, continue to use both terms as synonyms, there will continue to be parents who believe that the school can do its job.
- I am in favour of homeschooling, that is, I am against compulsory schooling. This does not mean that we should close schools, simply that I believe that parents should be able to choose, as in so many other countries in the world, to teach at home. I believe that a small percentage of the child population could benefit from this.
- I am in favour of single-sex education, which does not mean that I am against mixed education. I simply believe, once again, that parents should have options to choose from, equal options, not “private schools” for single-sex education and “public or subsidised schools” for mixed education. These are not equal or equivalent options.
- Engineers, architects, doctors and notaries continue to have, simply by having completed their studies, a social recognition that is unjustified and that is a reflection of an obsolete status quo. After all, all they have demonstrated is that they have passed a series of academic tests, like any other graduate, diploma holder or school graduate. In addition, the concept of intelligence has evolved enough in the last twenty years to continue to be associated with academic success.
- The political and social opinion of actors and actresses has an echo and impact on society that is absolutely unjustified. Just because you belong to a professional group doesn’t mean that your opinion is relevant to the rest, just as the opinions of taxi drivers, newsagents or teachers on politics or social issues are not taken into account. Furthermore, the fact that the opinions of actors and actresses are apparently so unanimous in one sense, gives us much to think about regarding the freedom of thought and expression of that group.
Our children must know that by expressing thoughts like those mentioned here they can be branded as antediluvian, retrograde, ignorant, demagogues, Taliban and other niceties typical of the lack of freedom and pseudo-tolerance that characterizes this society. Even so, they should never speak like that about someone who has a contrary opinion. We must make them see that it is logical, inevitable, magnificent and a sign of the greatness of the human being that there are different, distant and even opposite positions.
We must also teach them that they must TOLERATE not only the opinions, but also the actions of others. Even if they are against certain practices that are more or less widespread in our society, they should not reject anyone or criticize anyone for doing them. For example, we can explain to them how dad hired two people to work with disabled children, even though he knew they were homosexual, and we have great friends who are MAGNIFICENT single mothers after having adopted one or several children. We can disagree on the way they think, are and act, but we should never reject each other for it.
We should also warn them that it is better not to expect tolerance from others. They would be too disappointed.
In a graphic article in the newspaper La Razón in July 2010, Gaín sums up, in a single sentence, the modus operandi of the current powers that be: “The first step to get rid of moral values is to transform them into prejudices.”
Our children must grow up strong enough to express themselves, whatever their opinion, and overcome any fear they may have (logical, given the way things are), since fear is the enemy of freedom. It is not an easy task, I believe that the fear of today’s parents is limiting the freedom our children will need tomorrow.
