With the signing of the “No Child Left Behind Act” by Bush in 2001, what should have been obvious to most Americans should have become painfully obvious to all. The fact is, the U.S. has had its sights on the indoctrination of its children, and now it begins to completely dumbing down the students of America.
What does “No Child Left Behind” really mean? It means that “No Child Gets Ahead” so that all students are dumbed down to the same level as the lowest common denominator.
This is the method that inevitably makes sure that the above average kids become bored with school, leading to behavior problems, and potentially, knocking them out of the education system entirely. The slower minds that are left continue to chew the cud of the state to numbness of mind.
Some of the greatest minds of the world never had a public education. They were, Fraud Forbid, self-taught. Great people like Frank Lloyd Wright, Alexander Bell, Thomas Edison, Samuel Clemens, Albert Einstein, Edgar Allen Poe, Steve Jobs, the Wright Brothers, and Patrick Henry. If they didn’t learn it all on their own, they had been given the basics of education, and then their bright minds forged on ahead.
Today’s graduates can barely think critically. They know little of this country’s history, or of the world around them. What they do know, they’ve been told, er indoctrinated. The level of education these days mean little as well. Teachers would much rather pass a student than hold him behind. Thus, we have ball players who can’t read at all. Even in college, it is possible for students to just squeeze through the railings of a poor education, and are welcomed out into a world where a magic piece of paper, i.e. diploma, are more worthy of hiring because they have “paid” for their education.
I hate to say it, but more time in the sewer doesn’t make one a better plumber. It is the individuals who have somehow retained the desire of learning that learn, and then excel.
Education has come to be one of those things most people can’t imagine existing without the state. Hmm . . . Let’s see, who would there be to teach the children if the state was out of the picture? Well, three equally viable alternatives come to mind.
The first, which we’ve already dealt with, is the self-educated. This is the mind on fire. These students, who tend to be very well rounded in many disciplines, having fought for every shred of knowledge, value their minds as their most important asset. They won’t accept anyone’s opinion of anything, and will search for the answers for themselves. They are the most independent thinkers and great things are generally to be expected of them.
Another alternative in its simplest form is the idealized one-room schoolhouse. The teachers were paid by their student’s parents, or even possibly by their students. Private schools have much to offer those students who are willing to learn. The creme de la creme would be the Montessori schools which endeavor not to teach the children, but to cultivate a love of learning and experience, which then naturally leads to an accelerated education.
The third alternative is to bring education home. Parents were ultimately responsible for their children’s education. In decades past, this was much easier than it is today. Today, it is difficult for two parents to make ends meet, let alone one, saving the other for education and such. This option is bound to become more and more difficult as the life of the state nears its end.
Some would still complain, “Who will teach the poor children?” Well, one of the things that society does to the extremely poor, is actually make it impossible for the children to go to school by requiring certain things, like vaccinations and residency. For those children who actually breach the walls of indoctrination, isn’t it obvious that these children aren’t being educated at all, but are being babysat to the tune of millions of dollars? For the children in the public education system, isn’t it obvious that it is nothing but a training ground for absolute submission to the state?
we homeschool…not for religious reasons, but because america’s school system has been long broken and much in the habit of churning out ill-informed, unable-to-think-for-themselves wage-slaves for exploitation by future generations of the 1%.
read also anything by ivan illich
Somehow, I hadn’t come across anything about him. Not quite surprising considering the education system today. Just went and read some about him and his ideas, thanks.
Considering the monster of the machine, it seems that he met with greater success than was likely. Today, he would have had a worse time of it.
It is unfortunate that these great ideas are so few and far between; and that the burn brightly for so little a time.
Thanks again for the information. 😉
I have met a lot of home-schooled kids. They only need half a day for school and the rest of the day they can help around the house or help their dad at his work. Some of the brightest kids I have ever met were home-schooled and they have respect for their parents and for authority figures.
I dropped out of high school twice. High school was oppressive and stifling. Within a week of dropping out, I got a job at a lumber yard and this guy gave me some books to read: Jean Paul Sartre and Aristotle and Plato–it was really beautiful. I really enjoy being around self-educated people; they are great for conversation. Brilliant people need to create their own existence.
I heard some years ago, that the public schools that we have today came out of the Industrial Revolution. The people who ran the Industrial Revolution wanted people who were conditioned to be in one place and work 8 to 10 hours a day (a factory).
I was watching John Stossel on FOX News and this 12-year-old girl stood up and asked the audience if America’s university system was obsolete. I thought it was beautiful. I do have a college degree and I think it was what I was supposed to be doing. BUT . . .George Washington didn’t have a college degree, neither did Abraham Lincoln, Harry Truman, Bill Gates, Ernest Hemingway, Mark Twain and others.
To me, the greatest thing after the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the local public library.
I’d have to agree about having more books to read that one has time to read them. I find it difficult to buy books any more as busy as my life is. Most free time to myself these days goes to my writing..Thanks for following again.
I just had an interesting conversation about the method of teaching by means of group work. The point was that extroverts excel but introverts do poorly. Yet in our history past and present, very often it is the introvert who gets the job done, who figures out – specifically – how to get something to work, the person who transfers big ideas into workable and practical applications. Many of the people listed as successful without a great deal of public education are exactly this type – from Gates and Jobs to many billionaire business people.
But lost in all this smoke about education is teaching the mind to think creatively and critically. I have long argued that education geared towards employment through attaining skills is nothing more than glorified job training. When the skill set becomes obsolete, so too does the person’s ‘education’. Yet because skill attainment is easier to measure, we end up producing mass quantities of the lowest common denominator we call ‘school’. We see this in graduation rates, for example, and, if it falls below the medium, judge whatever the delivery system may be – schools, teachers, curriculum – as somehow at fault. What we end up with are somewhat skilled young people unprepared to think independently, unprepared to learn and implement on the spur of the moment the important stuff… like keeping foremost in mind the organization’s goal, so that individual changes to the skill set (whatever it may entail) can be made on the fly, to respond quickly, creatively, and effectively to novel situations, recognize fleeting opportunities and grab them, to make connections between disparate ideas and generate new wealth, to imagine the possible, to invent the necessary, to make real the advances in technologies and therapies and products that serve a sustainable and profitable function.
Reading the Great Books is a great start to learning how to think critically, of first understanding and then working with ideas, comparing and contrasting strengths and weaknesses, being forced to take on and defend positions contrary to one’s own, learning not only how to really listen to people and figure out what they mean but most importantly arming one’s self to know how to ask the right questions. A good education prepares students to tackle the world on its terms and enables the student to learn whatever is necessary. Education that instils other people’s values, other people’s favoured ideas and beliefs, other people’s notions of what skill sets are important, is not an education at all but an indoctrination. I think indoctrination is a recipe for failure whether it comes from institutionalized learning or home schooling. Especially homeschooling where indoctrinating religious belief is often the main purpose.
At my convocation, a wise old philosophy prof stated the case rather well: education is what you have left when you have nothing else. And it is a gift that keeps on giving.
I couldn’t agree with you more!
Schooling today is naught but glorified babysitting and job training. In order to succeed, one must be out of the box.
And that is a wise philosophy professor. It is good to know there are still teachers out there like that.
Thanks for the insightful comment!
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In one of Terry Pratchett’s books (forgotten which one) the narrative complains about the heroine finishing her schooling with only an education to show for it but had learned nothing!
Wacky & off the wall is Pratchett’s way, but there is always a grain of truth in there.
Those little kernels of truth hide everywhere. 🙂 Thanks for digging on my blog, today. Hope you found other things worth reading.
Not so enthralled by poetry -sorry, never my bag.
The only ‘Milton’ I can relate to is the stuff that’s used for sterilising babies bottles! And those days are long past, thank the gods!
But much of the other stuff is pretty good and enjoyable to read.
I understand, Ark. Not everyone is going to like everything. Since I started writing again, that is why I have learned more of an appreciation for poetry (not all). I do thank you for looking about here. My best to you and yours.