We are the fathers and mothers of this land. You are, I am. Everyone concerned with this bill is a parent to future generations of Coloradans. This bill is of vital concern to those who see our people as on the verge of greatness, as ready to remove the blinders we have carried culturally throughout this century. 
 One question at issue is whether we will continue to allow anyone to tell us and our children what to think, or more specifically what not to think. There was a time when the present school system was necessary and vital. When we moved from an agrarian society to an industrial society people needed to learn the skills of punctuality, obedience and rote. It was proper that our parents provide these learning facilities. However, in the act of making such education compulsory we have created an obsolete beast. The very act of making such education compulsory and somewhat uniform has had the effect of limiting to the point of extinction certain areas of knowledge from the public mind. For a public institution to set and limit the available information necessary to achieve educational parity among public and private schools must also limit the actual diversity of knowledge and experience that is required by the society as a whole to function in a healthy and vital manner. There are vast areas which the public educational system, by its very structure and nature does not and can not address; for example personal responsibility, creativity, intuition, and compassion.
 We are now in need of a somewhat different type of education. New skills are needed. The vital areas that we must concern ourselves with, are in need of testing grounds. Some private schools are not only willing to provide this function, but make exploration itself the thrust of the curriculum. Whatever the outcome of these individual experiments the net gain for this society as a whole is enormous, and this is the level upon which these decisions must be based.
 The government, according to the constitution, was set up not to control the thoughts of the individual, but to operate only on that which affects everyone. For the society to be healthy we must have explorers in all fields. Therefore, this bill allows for a con-comparable curriculum between public and private schools. It provides that the state no longer can be permitted to establish standards of education in private schools. It allows the parents the right to establish the best form of education for their children.
 As for the compulsory attendance and attendance requirements, I have this to say: Of all the crimes this society has committed, there is none so heinous as the committing of our children, those under our individual care and protection, to 13 years of enforced imprisonment during their formative years. My own children are not yet school age and they are eager to comprehend this world. They are hungry for knowledge. They are insistent in their questions. However, there seems to be but a minority of children who wish to continue this learning process once they are told they must do it, once they are held against their will. This would not be tolerated in the adult community. School should be offered as an opportunity for improvement of the individual, augmenting one’s natural abilities and tendencies. It should never have been allowed to become an internment camp.
 House Bill 1346 addresses both of these issues. It is on note that George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and Abraham Lincoln were all self-educated men. We must provide a way of allowing these types of fully integrated people to exist for the health of society as a whole.