Posted on 12/26/2012 11:03:12 AM PST by wintertime
If public education is allowed to survive, all efforts to resuscitate the inert husk of modern civilization will fail. It is time to unravel the most wasteful and destructive entitlement program of all. .
(snip)
For years, reasonable and serious people have known that the educational establishment is at the root of the undoing of modernity and its natural political fruit, individual liberty. And for years, excepting a tiny, brave minority of parents and educators, most citizens have assumed that the problems of the education system, however grave, are to be resolved through legislative reforms, bureaucratic changes, or school board activism.
Such methods, though often undertaken with the noblest of intentions, have always failed, in spite of the few heartening but minor victories that may have been won on the way to ultimate defeat. This general failure is inevitable, as treating the superficial symptoms of a fatal disease will always be, whatever temporary relief such treatment may bring to the sufferer.
It is time for all those who have struggled in frustration to change "the system" -- and that includes the brave minority of public school teachers who have chosen to stand quixotically against the progressive avalanche -- to band together with other advocates of freedom and virtue in taking a bolder step: acknowledge that the system itself is rigged to fail, or, at its worst, to "succeed" on evil terms. Acknowledge that, implausible as it may sound to most people at this early stage, if you really want to raise a generation of rational, decent adults prepared to shrug off the chains that today's majority has accepted in exchange for its "fair share" of the state's ill-gotten booty, you must emancipate the next generation of young adults from progressivism's universal indoctrination program.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
I don’t plan on doing anything. Except raise my kids myself. Which includes educating them.
Was the word “centralized” before public education left out on purpose?
Just as slavery should have been shut down. We demand that government schools be shut down.
Period. End of discussion. Some things are that evil.
No!
Would localized control of slavery been OK?
Answer: NO!
Once the so-called "public school" movement was under way, there were those who warned of potential dangers, and were either ignored or ostracized.
It is the same today. Those who speak out against the Dept. of Education and all of the other multitudinous bureaucracies that control the propagandizing of youth today in the name of "educating" them must be willing to be marginalized by the media and politicians.
Even as early as the Year 1886, such was the case. A man by the name of Zacharias Montgomery was denied an important post in the federal government for doing just that.
You will read some of Montgomery's words below. You may read or download his complete work entitled, "Poison Drops in the Federal Senate - The School Question from a Parental and Non-Sectarian Standpoint" HERE. His objections are to what he describes as an "anti-parental" system whose consequences to that time he documented. He provides statistics and facts from public records of that date to support his position.
To read his report and conclusions today leads one to realize this man's ability to see the consequences of what his fellow Americans were advocating in the area of education of youth.
With that said, those who love liberty must be willing to come forward to declare that it is better to be remembered for standing on and articulating enduring principles of right versus wrong, liberty versus tyranny, than to be praised by the mainstream media and so-called "progressives."
The words of Zacharias Montgomery in his 1886 Book entitled "Poison Drops in the United States Senate . . . ." are worth reading. Although his treatise dealt primarily with the public school question, the following remarks might be helpful to those who, today, are concerned by what passes for "public education."
Excerpts from his work:
"My countrymen, disguise the fact as we may, there is in this country to-day, and in both the political Parties, an element which is ripe for a centralized despotism. There are men and corporations of vast wealth, whose iron grasp spans this whole continent, and who find it more difficult and more expensive to corrupt thirty odd State Legislatures than one Federal Congress. It was said of Nero of old that he wished the Roman people had but one head, so that he might cut it off at a single blow. And so it is with those moneyed kings who would rule this country through bribery, fraud, and intimidation."It is easy to see how, with all the powers of government centered at Washington in one Federal head, they could at a single stroke put an end to American liberty.
"But they well understand that before striking this blow the minds of the people must be prepared to receive it. And what surer or safer preparation could possibly be made than is now being made, by indoctrinating the minds of the rising generation with the idea that ours is already a consolidated government ; that the States of the Union have no sovereignty which is not subordinate to the will and pleasure of the Federal head, and that our Constitution is the mere creature of custom, and may therefore be legally altered or abolished by custom.
"Such are a few of the pernicious and poisonous doctrines which ten millions of American children are today drinking in with the very definitions of the words they are compelled to study. And yet the man who dares to utter a word of warning of the approaching danger is stigmatized as an enemy to education and unfit to be men tioned as a candidate for the humblest office.
"Be it so. Viewing this great question as I do, not for all the offices in the gift of the American people would I shrink from an open and candid avowal of my sentiments. If I have learned anything from the reading of history, it is that the man who, in violation of great principles, toils for temporary fame, purchases for himself either total oblivion or eternal infamy, while he who temporarily goes down battling for right principles always deserves, and generally secures, the gratitude of succeeding ages, and will carry with him the sustaining solace of a clean conscience, more precious than all the offices and honors in the gift of man.
"History tells us that Aristides was voted into banishment because he was just. Yet who would not a thousand times rather today be Aristides than be numbered amongst the proudest of his persecutors.
"Socrates, too, in violation of every principle of justice, was con demned to a dungeon and to death. Yet what name is more honored in history than his? And which of his unjust judges would not gladly, hide himself in the utter darkness of oblivion from the with ering scorn and contempt of all mankind ?
"From the noble example of Aristides and of Socrates let American statesmen learn wisdom, and from the undying infamy of their cow ardly time-serving persecutors let political demagogues of today take warning."
So said Zacharias Montgomery in 1886.
The term “top producers” can’t just be taken at face value. You might have to consider our culture as a whole and whether public education has played a role in its decline. That it is in decline is self-evident to most. That education has played a role should be self-evident. To the extent that is isn’t self-evident, speaks to the claim that public education is a government entitlement. Few people are willing to give up entitlements after generations of being on them.
I totally agree with you based on one sentence in Marx’s Communist Manifesto:”Free education for all children in public schools” Plank #10
It was first organized and built by a handful of local ranchers who **volunteered** to built it and hire a teacher. In fact, the existing school, a lovely structure from the 1920s was built this way. In the beginning the school year was only a few weeks out of the year. ( I think 8?)
Ah! The problem is that these ranchers turned the ownership and management of this adorable little PRIVATE school over to the government. Big mistake on their part. They wrongly believed the expression, “I'm from the government. I'm here to help!”
Well, one can prove that these kids do attend public school.
Can you *prove* that they are “afterschooled” (whatever that means. If you mean that the parents follow up to ensure that homework is done and lessons studied that is merely what ANYBODY who has a kid should do, that is not ‘afterschooling’).
so, proof?
World Nut Daily, embarrasing thinking conservatives as usual.
You should see the vile names I was called on yesterday's posts....And on Christmas Day, too! Unbelievable! These are from people who consider themselves to be “conservatives”.
The name-callers didn't see the humor in the following. :-)
” School or Prison” ( a 27 second youtube)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2972132/posts
Are US SCHOOLS more like PRISON? JUVENILE HALLS ( a youtube)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2972010/posts
School or Prison/ Play the New Game ( a youtube)
This ping list is for the “other” articles of interest to homeschoolers about education and public school. This can occasionally be a fairly high volume list. Articles pinged to the Another Reason to Homeschool List will be given the keyword of ARTH. (If I remember. If I forget, please feel free to add it yourself)
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No studies have ever been done that separates what is learned in the classroom from that acquired OUTSIDE OF SCHOOL due to the work of the parents, the child himself, study clubs or private or paid-tutors.
Until this is done is it impossible to know if government schools even teach anything at all.
Gee! Spending up to $30,000/year/ per kid to incarcerated them in a prison-like government school is a **LOT** of money to spend on an UNTESTED progressive idea.
The dominating Leftwing faction of media is a greater threat in my opinion.
I don’t plan on doing anything. Except raise my kids myself. Which includes educating them.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I did and my children are doing just that, unfortunately we will facing down tyranny along with the rest of our fellow ( and not so aware) citizens.
It’s the same thing with the NHS in Britain. No one ever thinks of getting rid of it, and every year reforms are put in place that do nothing more than exacerbate the problem, which leads to calls for more reform.
I think local communities should be able to have their own schools if they want it. Likening ALL forms of public schooling to slavery is projection.
Do think people should NOT be allowed to create a local public school system if they want to?
No. . . People should not be allowed to band together to take other peoples money unless the purpose is to protect a natural right.
Do you think all the parents of 5-17 year olds should be able to take other people's so they can throw a Chuck-e-Cheese party every week?
I like to think I have the right to own my own property as well as the fruit of my own labor. . . . but then again I'm a conservative.
Hell, they probably already have.
In 1978, my wife and I came to know a young woman named Patty. She was a devoutly religious young mother who'd become more devout when her husband and father of her two small sons aged 2 and 6 informed her that he was leaving. In dire economic straits, I offered to let her stay in our former home in Chamblee -- which was not rented at the time – rent-free until she got back on her feet. She had been clandestinely home schooling the 6 year old for about 2 years using very well done Christian course materials from an organization in Texas the name of which escapes me. The lad had recently been tested and had placed at least a year ABOVE his chronological age. As required by the government school authorities at the time, she dutifully apprised the authorities of his scores.
For reasons which would become clear in a moment, Patty had been harassed by the DeKalb County school authorities for about 6 months and, by the time she moved into the Chamblee house, had been -- unbeknownst to us -- ORDERED to put the 6 year old into the nearest government elementary school or suffer the consequences. Because she wanted the boys to be educated Christians, there was no way she was going to do that and she told them so.
At approximately 2 am one morning, a loud knock on the door announced the arrival of the aforementioned "consequences." Dressed only in a nightgown, she was confronted by several burly police officers who thrust an arrest warrant in her face. With the now awakened 6 year old watching and the 2 year old wailing in the other room, she was handcuffed and led out the door to jail. She was tossed into a large cell with a couple of hookers and a junkie who spent much of the rest of that morning vomiting in the corner. The two young boys for whom the educational authorities professed such great concern were just left AT THE HOUSE -- ALONE! Patty was later told that the bureaucrats from Children Services who were SUPPOSED to accompany the cops were late and, in their haste to get this dangerous miscreant behind bars, the cops just missed the fact that the Children Services people were, well, missing. The CS folks showed up an hour later to find two terrified kids, one of whom had just seen his mother hauled off in cuffs.
Patty was ultimately brought to trial under the Georgia Truancy Statutes. Her pro-bono attorney tore the school authorities to shreds and hers has been called THE case that opened the floodgates to home schooling in Georgia. Once they had all the facts, the jury didn’t take long to acquit her. I’m proud to have played a small part in that.
At Patty’s trial, a previously overlooked aspect of the government schools was put into sharp focus for those paying attention: The Director of Instruction for DeKalb County testified that the then current 7 hour school day consisted of an average of approximately 3 hours or less of instruction. At that time, Patty was devoting 4 to 5 hours a day to direct instruction.
He also as much as admitted that the REAL reason they wanted ALL these kids in school was the $3,000.00 per kid per year they then got from the state and federal government. Empty seats = lost funds. As in most things, follow the money. Patty home schooled these two boys through high school.
And how did the boys turn out?
One is now a physician and the other a budding journalist.
But that now seems to be the norm for the growing legions of home schooled kids – which most likely explains why the NEA and the government school folks feel so threatened. I believe a home schooled child won the last National Spelling Bee.
Thomas Jefferson believed an EDUCATED PUBLIC to be the cornerstone of the system he and the other Founders TRIED to leave behind. He would NOT, I feel certain, be a big fan of the current government education system. If he returned today, he’d home school his children just as he did before.
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