Teach Your Children

God gave us dominion.  Teach you kids to hunt tasty creatures

Blind Ideology is killing the Democrats.  It would have killed the GOP, if libertarian and free-thinking tea partiers had not infiltrated the ranks.

I decided long ago that my kids would not fall prey to the progressive indoctrination that infests every corner of society.  Teaching kids how to think, instilling in them a moral code, and giving them some historical context for evaluating events goes a long way towards raising an ideologically-bullet-proof person. 


Know how to think
Logical, critical thinking is the most important skill. An easy way to introduce yourself to logic is to do a sudoku. A simple explanation of the syllogism is also a good start. Add to that some examples of logical fallacies and you now at least have a logical framework to analyze what someone is telling you. There are on-line resources that can get you started.

Know what you believe
A person with no moral code is a fire. Could do good, could do bad, depending on which way the wind blows. Any religious person should start with their religious texts.  For Christians, that's The Holy Bible, Old Testament and New Testament. The Bible contains every note in the key of life. It starts with God creating mankind and quickly goes downhill from there. The story of God leading the ungrateful Hebrews out of bondage is a story of each ungrateful person's struggle with obeying Our Creator.

For those agnostics and atheists, there are many non-religious moral codes out there. Pick one.

The 'bible" of American government is The US Constitution.  You can't call yourself a good, patriotic American if you've never read it.  Go here to visit Silverfiddle's Constitutional Resource page.  Proposed legislation and government action should be evaluated against this document.

Read history and the classics
I think history is the best teacher. Read enough and you will learn that there is indeed nothing new under the sun. You will also see that whatever you are going through is not the superlative event of its kind in the history of man. Things have been better, and things have been worse. We're living in higher luxury now, but the basic human condition has not changed.

Churchill's The History of English Speaking Peoples, The Story of English, Gibbons' The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, and Bill Bennett's America, the Last Best Hope are good starters. Be sure to read things you think you will disagree with; it will stretch your brain and maybe change your mind.

Finally, a healthy dose of skepticism never hurt anyone.

See my List of Great Books Here