Posted on 03/25/2003 6:25:21 AM PST by conservativecorner
Summary: Creating mindless followers is one of the most dangerous things that our public schools are doing.
[CAPITALISM MAGAZINE.COM]
A recent news story about a teacher who assigned her students to write anti-war letters may have seemed like just an isolated episode, but teachers using students for their own little ego trips is by no means uncommon. Perhaps the worst recent example was a teacher who unleashed her venom on the children of military personnel who had gone off to fight in Iraq.
Just last week I received a bundle of letters from students who have apparently been given an assignment to write to me by a teacher in an English class in Flat Rock High School in Flat Rock, Michigan. This was occasioned by a column of mine that said some things that were not politically correct.
The first of these letters was from a girl who informed me, from her vast store of teenage wisdom, of things that I knew 30 years ago, and closed by telling me that I needed to find out about poverty. Since I spent more years in poverty than she has spent in the world, this would be funny if it were not so sad.
With American students consistently scoring at or near the bottom on international tests, you would think that our schools would have better things to do than tell kids to write letters to strangers, spouting off about things they know little or nothing about.
Flat Rock High School's envelopes, in which the students wrote their assigned letters, have the motto: "Where Tomorrow's Leaders Learn!" Sadly, they are learning not to be leaders but to be sheep-like followers, repeating politically correct notions and reacting with snotty remarks to anyone who contradicts them.
It is bad enough when someone takes the position that he has made up his mind and doesn't want to be confused by the facts. It is worse when someone else makes up his mind for him and then he dismisses any facts to the contrary by attributing bad motives to those who present those facts.
Creating mindless followers is one of the most dangerous things that our public schools are doing. Young people who know only how to vent their emotions, and not how to weigh opposing arguments through logic and evidence, are sitting ducks for the next talented demagogue who comes along in some cult or movement, including movements like those that put the Nazis in power in Germany.
At one time, the educator's creed was: "We are here to teach you how to think, not what to think." Today, schools across the country are teaching students what to think -- whether about the environment, the war, social policy, or whatever.
Even if what they teach were true, that would be of little use to these young people in later life. Issues and conditions change so much over time that even the truth about today's issues becomes irrelevant when confronted with the future's new challenges.
If students haven't been taught to think, then they are at the mercy of events, as well as being at the mercy of those who know how to take advantage of their ignorance and their emotions.
Classroom brainwashing is not new. I wrote about it a decade ago in my book "Inside American Education." Hearings at the Department of Education brought out the same things a decade before that.
When will the voting public get the message? Where are the parents of these children? Do parents in Flat Rock, Michigan, want their children's time in school wasted on their teachers' ideological hobby horses, instead of being used to prepare an intellectual foundation for their further education?
In the long run, the greatest weapon of mass destruction is stupidity. In an age of artificial intelligence, too many of our schools are producing artificial stupidity, in the sense of ideas and attitudes far more foolish than young people would have arrived at on their own. I doubt whether the youngsters in Flat Rock, Michigan, were brought up by their parents to say and do the silly things their teachers have assigned them to do.
Weapons of mass destruction in the hands of an avowed enemy can destroy many Americans, but they cannot destroy America, because we are too strong and too capable of counterattack. Only Americans can destroy America. But too many of our schools have for years been quietly undermining the values and abilities that are needed to preserve any society -- and especially a free society.
Thomas Sowell has published a large volume of writing. His dozen books, as well as numerous articles and essays, cover a wide range of topics, from classic economic theory to judicial activism, from civil rights to choosing the right college.
I have to disagree, being a recovered anti-war hippie type who worked at UCLA during campus unrest. Although not particpating in any protests, it was pretty hard not to get tired of the little box on the evening news that listed the number of DEAD, WOUNDED, MISSING, year after year after year. If you graduated from high school in 64, these were your peers, your brothers and boyfriends. I partied with Marines from Pendleton and 29 Palms and guys from the VA. I don't remember associating with anyone who was against our troops, just the endless police action in Nam. The fact that there were so many who treated our returning vets with such disrespect was shameful and makes it hard to point out that being against the war back then did not mean you were a Jane Fonda fan.
Because of our education we had been taught to think and to debate. We were taught the Constitution. Other movements that were beginning to catch on because of needed changes, ie; environmental, women's lib. I remember working hard to get my boss to allow us to wear pant suits to work instead of nylons and heels. Perhaps this sounds silly, but that was the point. It was no longer a "man's world" and working women had a right to be as comfortable as men. This was a far cry from being against men and family. When I first heard of these "women's studies" courses, I was shocked after visiting random University websites and perused their course descriptions along with the literature courses. What a load.
The original causes were taken over by leftists/marxists radicals which was the master plan, and a lot of us have grown up and become conservative and wiser with the help of FreeRepublic. I sincerely hope that as the Homeschool Movement continues to gain momentum with parents, that the homeschooled kids will become the leaders of tomorrow. It's so very hard to be hopeful.
Sorry for rambling on.
"The model we used for as the basis for our own public school system on comes from Prussia. The stated goal of the system was to create workers for the factories, soldiers who would mindlessly follow orders, and citizens who would be easy to control. "
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I've not really researched what you are stating here...but in the recesses of my brain...I keep thinking that they used to require Latin..considerable world geography, and fairly complex critical thinking exercises even in many of the ''one room'' school houses...in the 1800's. That doesn't sound like your average assembly line worker..I'm not doubting you..just trying to make it all jive...in my brain.
Is what you have described...Horace Mann's basic template? Horace Mann..was..as many refer...the "father of modern P.S.'s...wasn't he?
But what could we expect from the author of the "Great Society" that left us with so much debt and so many people expecting so much from their fellow citizens via federal programs?
I'm aware of John Taylor Gatto...awesome thinker.
While we have HS'ed since day one..with our children...I don't have alot of time to try and figure out where the government schools went wrong. I just know..that they did.
FRegards,
Absolutely. Which is why the curriculum contradicts the stated goal of "developing critical thinking skills." Yet the superintendents and teachers, having absorbed what they were taught in teachers colleges, believe that they are "developing critical thinking skills," ironically demonstrating their lack thereof.
The fact is that government schools were designed, from the beginning, to retard the development of critical thinking skills.
There is nothing more important than learning how to think systematically and critically. This is why the core of the medieval curriculum consisted of grammar, logic and rhetoric. Yes, that's right. The closed-minded, how-many-angels-can-dance-on-the-head-of-a-pin Catholic Church.
Ironically, our "democratic" government schools were imported directly from socialist Germany.
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