SOCIETY'S CANARY
by Lon Woodbury
It has been reported that the canary was used by early miners as an early warning system for when the air was becoming toxic. When the canary started showing distress, the miners knew that even though the air seemed fine to them, the canary showed there was something seriously wrong and the miners had to take immediate action to escape.
In a sense, the existence of the rapidly expanding network of private residential parent-choice schools and programs for struggling teens is a canary for how our society raises children. The very existence of this private network is a reflection of the distress from which many young people and their families suffer. Those parents lucky or dedicated enough to pay the tuitions for schools and programs in this network are escaping from an environment that is the equivalent of the early miners' toxic air.