The Nanny State takes a giant leap forward in the U.K. The Telegraph reports: 

Babies will be given marks for crying, gurgling or babbling under the Government's new curriculum for 0-5 year olds which all nurseries must follow. Playgroups and childminders will also need to show that they help babies make progress in 69 areas of education and development or risk losing funds. The new Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum lays down how children are expected to develop from birth to the end of the first year of compulsory schooling

Last year, when Governor Blagojevich's taxpayer-funded "Preschool for All" program was proposed, those who should have been adamantly opposed based on parental rights said weak things like, "It's great idea, but we just can't afford it," while others shrugged their shoulders, saying  "It doesn't affect me, it's voluntary."

How naive can we be?  When will we learn that social progressives strategically maneuver frog-in-the-gradually-boiling-water proposals to make their radical long term socialized education system more palatable to the average parent?

The all-knowing Government Super Nanny has come in because we forfeited our rights to her by our own negligence.

Yet one more parent-right-stealing proposal is squirming its way through the Illinois Senate.  Senator Kwame "I-want-compulsory-school-attendance-age-down-to-3" Raoul's SB 543 demands any child enrolled in kindergarten to be kept in the system, regardless of his or her parents' desire to back out.