Beware the hired hand
In a child's life, parents are the good shepherd. Teachers are hired hands. We confuse these at our own peril.
“The hired hand is not the shepherd who owns the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.” — Jesus in John 10:11-13
Across America, schools have failed to teach reading, writing and arithmetic. So in the last decade they’ve created a fourth metric, the one thing they can do better than parents: Affirmation.
Schools that can’t teach your child basic schools are positioning themselves as more affirming, welcoming and safe for your child than your own home.
If you send your kid to public school, this is a risk.
Schools now make a regular practice of shielding a child’s gender identity from parents, under the theory that the parents might not be supportive. Since the parent is not consulted, this judgment is made without basis.
Parents are not only kept out of the loop, they’re treated as the problem.
This is meant to create enmity between parent and child. Its message to kids is that school is where they can be themselves. Home is not.
Home is “unsafe” until deemed safe by the school.
Parents are the good shepherd in a child’s life. It’s their job to train the child in the way they should go. Social and emotional needs are best handled at home. Not at school, and especially not when the school has failed in its actual job, education.
Teachers, coaches, and counselors are hired hands. To the extent they add value, great. Children benefit from relationships where people don’t owe them unconditional love, as parents do.
What’s dangerous is the idea that the hired hand loves the child in a way the parent does not. This results in the secrets and lies that breed distrust.
Is that what you signed up for, when you sent your kid to the school in walking distance? Probably not. But in the 2020s it’s what you’ve got.
When the wolf comes — when reality hits — the hired hand will run away, because he cares nothing for the child. By then they’ve got a new batch of kids.
Poisoning the well was their only mission. It was never about getting the child to a better place, but removing their protectors from the picture.
In John 10:10, Jesus said that “the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.”
Sometimes, the thief comes dressed as a hired hand.