Children likened to gold - need to be locked up, kept in safe
by Damien Moore
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Children likened to gold - need to be locked up, kept in safe |
"Our children are simply the most precious things in our life. I don't know what we would do if anything untoward happened to them" says Mary Curtis, tying her 12 year old to a chair and carefully binding his eyes with a cloth. "In this modern corrupt world, it has become almost a full time job to make sure that they don't see or hear anything threatening. "
"Oh heavens, yes, I can't help but agree". Evan Gregan rapidly nods in assent. "With two kids of our own, and trying to work two jobs and we couldn't trust to the television to keep regurgitating the same spam as a nanny - we just had to pluck out the eyes of our 16 year old."
These two normal, middle class people are just a few of the modern parents who feel that their children must be kept away from anything challenging or even vaguely unusual. This small but growing group is beginning to make their voice heard in communities around the world.
"I mean, we could take responsibilty for raising our own children and help them becoming functional human beings, but who has time for that these days? Its simply a matter of efficiency to wrap them in cotton wool and not let them encounter anything to disturb their mundane, middle class lives." Smiles, nods and murmurs of assent greet these statements.
These proposed classrooms are intended to ensure that students encounter no challenging ideas |
These voices are part of the Parents Against Independent Thought, a small group of concerned parents, friends and community leaders. In the wake of events like the Littleton massacre, they are now lobbying the local government to put in place more measures to protect their children from having to think while at school.
"Even if we thought that it would be worthwhile to let our children experiment with any sort of individualism or non-conformity, tragic events like those in Colorado have shown that such expressions of personal uniqueness will only lead to bloodshed and death. Nevermind the fact that these children had access to shotguns - lets look closely at the fact that they were different from all the other children." says Irma Fowler, de facto president of PAIT. "It is demonstratably better for these developing minds that they are each fed the identical same cultural pap and kept well clear of any sort of intellectual pursuits. If I had had access to the sort of educational programs that we are proposing, I'm sure my life would not have had the ups and downs that I have had to endure"
Academics and social scientists are beginning to agree with the PAIT approach to education and life. "It is beginning to become clear that most people would cause a lot less trouble if they were locked in a wooden box and fed paste through one of the bungholes." comments Dr Wayne Preston, a psychologist at a leading institution. "It would certainly smooth out a lot of our results and make doing any analysis a lot simpler. No serial killers - how are they going to know where to point the guns?". Dr Preston argues fiercely. "I'm sure that with the proper sort of government funding, and some sort of armed guard force around our schools, we could even do away with the box. It wouldn't take much more effort to turn the children into mindless drones who would not even attempt to rebel, let alone instigate any behaviour that might cause neurons to fire."
"There's been a lot of pointless discussion in the media recently - should parents be responsible, should the government be responsible, should the internet be policed - what it all comes down to is a need to protect our children" says Mary Curtis, carefully locking her young daughter into an airtight safe. "They are our future."