The Hand that Rocks the Cradle
- May 1
- 4 min read
“The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world.”
What does this mean? This proverb comes from an 1865 poem titled “What Rules the World” by William Ross Wallace. It means that a mother’s nurturing profoundly influences her child’s moral, spiritual, and intellectual development. Her child will, in turn, influence the future of the world. To quote the third stanza:
Woman, how divine your mission
Here upon our natal sod!
Keep, oh, keep the young heart open
Always to the breath of God!
All true trophies of the ages
Are from mother-love impearled;
For the hand that rocks the cradle
Is the hand that rules the world.
This brings to mind our friend, Fr. George Welzbacher. When Father, born in 1928, was 2 ½ year’s old, his mother would cut out letters from cereal boxes and teach him their sounds. By age 4, he could read! His parents taught him his faith, and by age 6 he pondered becoming a priest. Due to his medical problems, his mother taught him cursive and arithmetic at home. Meanwhile, his dad developed multiple sclerosis, and by the time he was 8, his dad was cared for full time by his father’s unmarried sisters. That same year, his mother began working full time. Father entered 4th grade at Cathedral Grade School and was taught by the Sisters of St. Joseph. He skipped 7th grade, and, when he was 12, in 1940, entered Nazareth Hall preparatory seminary. There, besides the usual classes in English, history, science, and math, he learned French, German, Greek and Latin. He received special permission for ordination when only 22 years old.
Fr. Welzbacher’s parents exercised their right to educate their son: first, through home schooling, and then a Catholic grade school, and then preparatory seminary. They provided him with an excellent education!
But there have long been those who believe that government should be “the hand that rocks the cradle.”
Orestes Brownson, for example, an American who was an activist in the public school movement in 1829, later wrote: “The great object was to get rid of Christianity--- to establish a system of state--- schools, from which all religion was to be excluded… and to which all parents were compelled by law to send their children.” Karl Marx, in The Communist Manifesto (1848) condemned “The bourgeois clap-trap about the family and education…” and instead proposed “Free education for all children in public schools.” In 1918, the Bolsheviks in Russia closed all religious schools. In Nazi Germany, most religious schools were closed and homeschooling became illegal in 1938. Religious schools became illegal in Cuba in 1961.
More recently, in 2017, Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, opposed school choice, charter schools and vouchers, stating that those who wanted these were motivated by “…racism, sexism, classism, xenophobia and homophobia.” This statement brings to mind an objection to public schools raised in 1840 by a citizen in Massachusetts: “…the French and Prussian… public schools appear to have been devised more for the purpose of modifying the sentiments and opinions of rising generations, according to a certain government standard, than as a mere means of diffusing elementary knowledge… The right to mould the political, moral and religious opinions of his children, is a right exclusively … reserved… to every parent.”
Those who favor school choice believe public education funds should follow students to schools that best fit their needs. As to their motivation, perhaps the parents can’t understand why the central book of Western Civilization, the Bible, which adjures the reader to “love your neighbor,” is excluded from the curriculum in the name of “inclusion.” Or the parents might object to “sex education” classes, want their child to learn cursive, or a safer environment. Perhaps the reason is academic rigor: school time spent on social engineering decreases the time spent on reading, history, writing and mathematics. In 2022, students in Singapore scored 5 academic years ahead of U.S. students in math proficiency! On the 2023 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, U.S. eighth graders ranked 24 out of 45.
Finally, isn’t it a “social injustice” that parents who prefer a non-public school education for their child are forced to pay thousands in property taxes for schooling they do not support and then have to pay the total tuition for the schooling they do support, that saves taxpayers thousands of dollars? Is this equitable?
Catholics believe that this life is a novitiate for the next, and that by striving to conform our wills to the will of our Maker we will live more peaceful lives, be good neighbors, and reach our ultimate end. Parents have a right and duty to educate their children and to choose schools which correspond with their convictions. Parents, not the government, should be “the hand that rocks the cradle.”
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More information on this issue is available through the Child Protection League, and articles by Catrin Wigfall at the Center of the American Experiment. To explore home education, visit the Minnesota Catholic Home Education Conference and Curriculum Fair. The book, Is Public Education Necessary, by Samuel Blumenfeld, was a key resource for this article.