Immunize Your Kids Against Intrusive Government

DO I VACCINATE my son? You bet—and not just against the usual motley mix of physical childhood ailments. Almost every day our homeschooling curriculum offers a boost to his immunity against excessive respect for meddlers and control freaks.

- J.D. Tuccille

In the course of teaching Anthony, I’ve discovered that inoculation against veneration of government happens almost inevitably. If you honestly teach history and analyze policies and their outcomes, education is something like a chicken pox party to build anti-state immunity. Over the last few years, he and I have delved into the dehumanizing effects of slavery and the Indian wars; President Woodrow Wilson’s racism, nationalization of industry, and suppression of dissent; the presumption and failure of Prohibition and the war on drugs; the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II; the body count of militarism; the hubris of economic regulation; and much more.

If you’re looking to dispel any starry-eyed misconceptions your kids may hold about war, the PBS American Experience episode about the 1968 My Lai massacre is a good place to start. It doesn’t hold back on graphically documenting the grim events.

“That was pretty emotionally wrenching,” I admitted to Anthony after advising him that the U.S. military generally conducted itself better than many rivals, who might treat such atrocities as par for the course. “Why don’t you take the rest of the day off?”