Well, actually it was in April.

Here’s what was put on the front page of our little town’s newspaper so that the parents could take advantage of the ‘expert’ analysis of their little ones and their "skills". 

Birth to three year old screening offered

Growing Together will hold a birth-three screening on Wednesday, April 19 at the —- Public Library.  The screening will begin at 8:30 am and will help determine children’s large and small muscle skills, language development, problem solving skills, as well as their personal and social skills.  Don’t miss this opportunity to check your child’s developmental progress.  This screening is for all children who are between the ages of birth and three, but have not yet turned three years of age.

Call me crazy.  (It’s ok.  I don’t mind having the stigma of being one of those ‘crazy homeschoolers’. ) It seems like parents’ time would be better spent enjoying that time with their brand new Bundles of Joy rather than loading up the kid(s) to be told what’s wrong with them.  We received Growing Together stuff when the boys were little.  I’ve watched these programs evolve here in Illinois and I don’t like what I see.  Getting together with other moms and little ones at the library is swell and I know moms who appreciated that time.  We loved the library story hours when we did go. 

We’ve moved from the introduction of kindergarten in the ’60’s to a program to determine children’s large and small muscle skills, language development, problem solving skills, as well as their personal and social skills for newborns on up within the school system.  Add on laws such as NJ’s mandatory ‘mental health’ screening of pregnant women and the same Plan for Illinois (p.28: Screen all pregnant women for depression and periodically in the six months following the birth of a child.)  And the rest of the nation.   EdWatch has a graphic displaying the federal Plan regarding Infant Mental Health.  Take a look again at Judy Aron’s So What Has Your Government Been Doing Lately? 

What picture is in my head right now? As noted in HEM’s Support Group News Let Them Be Little, little Jessica and her other classmates are trying their hardest to be good little kids while forced to have their heads on the tables. That is the most unnatural position for little ones that I could imagine. But I guess it works for those adults who are making up the Blueprint for our world. I hope our society doesn’t become used to this and rearrange our expectations for our community’s children to even more repressive means.