Independence Day ...

     As we are year-round homeschoolers, Wednesday, July 4th, was a scheduled school day. Coincidentally, my son, who is studying American History in Depth using Sonlight Curriculum Core 100, was scheduled to read The Declaration of Independence, the very document celebrated on that day.  It is quite an impressive piece of writing.  One can only wonder how many Americans have actually taken the time to read it, understand it, know the context in which it was written.  To read about the "usurpations" on the part of the English Crown that would no longer be tolerated, and realize that we are suffering from such usurpations again today perhaps might make them less tolerable.  To become familiar with the terms "national government" versus "federal government" might make Supreme Court decisions that favor the former versus the later - which was not the intention of a government set up to maintain the sovereignty of its individual states - well, those decisions become all the less palatable.      Reading the Declaration of Independence on Independence Day may seem too schoolish for some.  But it is who we are. It is, in part, why we homeschool.  Education is not to be mocked.  Education is not for the less popular so they have something with which to idle away the hours.  Education is necessary so that we may continue to celebrate the Day that brought us the freedoms we so take for granted in this country.  These freedoms were established by some brilliant minds who possessed insight into what was needed to maintain a certain standard in this country.  And the further we have fallen away from educational ideals, the further we find ourselves from those standards.        What was meant to make us a free people is being ignored to enslave us once again.  If we have leaders who are not well-versed in the ideals with which we should be ruled, we will be ruled by their ideals.  And when I read of their ideals, I am certainly not in awe, certainly not stirred within, and certainly not inspired in any way to strive for greatness - but a read though the Declaration of Independence certainly did do all that and more.