Rant on Rant: "If You Send Your Kid to a Private School, You Are a Bad Person" by Allison Benedikt (29 August 2013)

"Trust Me"

Years ago the late Pope John Paul II cautioned about a "culture of death" and here’s its latest iteration: child sacrifice. In her manifesto "If You Send Your Kid to a Private School, You are a Bad Person," Allison Benedikt doesn't call for the physical death of children but for their intellectual and moral degradation. Her thesis? Regretabbly, some public schools fail to educate the young, but we simply must send "our" kids there, so that [through some magical process] these schools will eventually improve.


Oh, my. Here’s a species of logic that only a hard-core national socialist or Stalinist could truly love. 

Do wickedness now in the certainty that a bright shining utopia will arrive tomorrow. 

The absurdity of Ms. Benedikt's thesis becomes clear if one applies her logic to the physical needs of children: Go to an incompetent doctor as this will eventually improve healthcare for all. When public education fails to educate, parents are acting responsibly in sending their kids elsewhere -- to a place where they will be properly educated. 

This ought to be a viable option for all parents but sadly it is largely available for people of Benedikt's stature. One loves to see a form of solidarity in action but not at the expense of kids. White, brown, or black - a mind is still a terrible thing to waste.