The Best For Our Kids According to Who?

Talking about government policy when it comes to kids is downright ridiculous in the modern era. You can’t have a discussion about affecting the way that anyone under the age of 12, er 18, er 25 will grow up anymore without a littering of “our kids”, “the future”, “the best possible” and other vague, all-encompassing yet woefully empty platitudes utterly trashing the conversation.

Such was the case tonight on Steve Paikin’s The Agenda. Paikin’s a smart cookie, and not just because he’s a loyal CFL fan, but I really wish tonight that he had found a better crowd to discuss the massive day care nationalization that Dalton McGuinty is bringing forward than former Mike Harris Education Minister John Snobelen and four professional stateists from various universities. Apparently our education system does need an overhaul as one of said stateists blandly countered Snobelen’s valid question on why we are turning the current batch of toddlers into lab rats by parroting McGuinty’s baseless argument that keeping four and five year olds in school all day is a “Cadillac” system — incidentally, does this mean that it too will be overpriced and eventually brought to an end by less expensive, more efficient foreign models?

As tempting as it is to take this “Cadillac” into the shop for a full inspection, something is pressing me even further tonight: who says what’s best for the kids anyway? This debate isn’t new, as the last provincial election and the recent 2006 federal election both pegged those who think mom & dad know best versus those who want to be tucked in by the all-caring state, even if the policies each side put forward weren’t as dramatically different in practiced. I understand a few wise fellows wrote reports for the Premier to tackle what is best for our kids recently (names aren’t important) about what’s best for our kids. Has anyone bothered to ask how? Were there specific parameters put forward, and why are those parameters important anyhow? Also, while we’re on the matter, why is it “our” kids and not my kid or your kid? Certainly, if we follow the logic through, presuming that I already have a couple million kids of my own scattered throughout Ontario, I should be getting a whole lot more Christmas presents this year than I expected and have some right to tell the rowdy teens who come around on Friday night that they better be back home in 15 minutes, or else!

Where are we drawing the line here? For that matter, while the institution of parenthood exists because adults are essential for the proper upbringing of a child, can we not consult with the little ones to some degree on what they want? I’d love to know how many five year old boys, for example, are eager to have a fully structured day from 7 am – 6 pm where a bossy stranger will tell them when they can play, where they can play and how they can play. Personally, I remember five being a lot more free and, well, fun!

And here inlies the truth of the matter: we’ve been spending too much time telling each other what’s best for the kids (whoever they belong to!), and absolutely no time listening for what’s best. None of us would appreciate a complete stranger (who stands to make a lucrative career out of bossing us around, mind you) going around dictating our lives to us on the premise of “you’ll thank me later”, so why are we putting the next generation through such pains? This explains why parents, the good parents, are such a dramatic improvement over the professionals: they have a vested interested in listening out for the needs of the individual child, and while the day care regime in Ontario hides behind the rare bad apple for why they need to rock the cradle, I have never met a Premier or teacher that has come close to meeting the standard of a faithful mother or father. On that note, I think it’s nap time!