In a post headed by a quotation of Lenin - Give us the child for 8 years and it will be a Bolshevik forever - Restoring Britain writes about an education paper presented to one of his children, a post well-worth reading and one that every parent who cares about his/her child - and the education he/she receives - should read.
On a similar theme, one of child indoctrination, an article appeared in yesterday's Daily Telegraph by Peter Stanford in which he queries whether the best is being achieved for children in care, in particular where the question of adoption is concerned and asking the question why is the system seizing up. He offers various reasons, one being an institutional bias within the social work profession against white middle-class adopters. Links to the two charities he mentions can be found here and here. (Interestingly, the annual accounts for the first can be found via their website, whilst it appears those of the second cannot.)
Reports have appeared in the media detailing instances where couples have been refused permission to adopt, or to act as foster carers, for what appear to be bizarre reasons, here for their Christian views on homosexuality and here for once having smacked a child for swearing. As with the education of children, so with the care and adoption of children - in each the 'rules' are set by people over whom the customer has no control.
If we also include children taken into care by social services, a subject on which Christopher Booker has written endless examples where this has been done and has catalogued examples of 'rules' set again by those over whom the people have no control, one has to wonder if there exists an unseen programme to create model citizens of the future - a programme that may have a hidden 'common purpose'?
