Posted on 10/20/2009 2:17:20 PM PDT by rabscuttle385
We would not have to ask the above question if public education had not become the great, costly, and tragic failure that it is. It has failed the children, but in reality it has not failed the progressives. They were the ones who engineered the dumbing-down process which parents and taxpayers continue to pay for. But it is the children who suffer in terms of becoming intellectually disabled, semi-literate, disoriented, frustrated, and terribly unhappy. But what is even a bit disheartening is that many liberals still believe that government schooling has been a noble experiment.
Perhaps Walter Lippmann, the great liberal pundit, best expressed liberal disappointment in the great experiment when he wrote in 1941, while World War II was raging in Europe: “Universal and compulsory modern education was established by the emancipated democracies during the nineteenth century. ‘No other foundation can be devised,’ said Thomas Jefferson, ‘for the preservation of freedom and happiness.’ Yet as a matter of fact during the twentieth century the generations trained in these schools have either abandoned their liberties or they have not known, until the last desperate moment, how to defend them. The schools were to make men free. They have been in operation for some sixty or seventy years and what was expected of them they have not done. The plain fact is that the graduates of the modern schools are the actors in the catastrophe which has befallen our civilization. Those who are responsible for modern education -- for its controlling philosophy -- are answerable for the results.”
Unfortunately, they have not been answerable for the results. In fact, if you read today’s slick professional education journals, you detect great pride in what they’ve accomplished. And of course, since the time Lippmann wrote as he did, we have had any number of wars — Korea, Vietnam, First Gulf War, Iraq, Afghanistan — with no end in sight. Not even Lippmann would have foreseen our war against Islamic terrorism. In fact, on September 11, 2001, the United States was attacked in a manner that no one could have predicted. It was worse than Pearl Harbor, and the reason why the terrorists succeeded was because what they planned and successfully carried out was too diabolical to be believed. It required believing the unbelievable. A well-educated people is supposed to believe the unbelievable when warranted.
There were many seductive arguments for free universal public education at the time of its first promotion in the early years of the nineteenth century. Horace Mann spoke of compulsory free education as the means of perfecting humanity, the “great equalizer,” the “balance wheel of the social machinery,” the “creator of wealth undreamed of.” Poverty, ignorance, prejudice, social injustice, and every other evil afflicting the human race, it was thought, would disappear.
Others argued that free education for all would help us preserve our way of life. Governor DeWitt Clinton of New York said in 1826: “I consider the system of our common schools as the palladium of our freedom, for no reasonable apprehension can be entertained of its subversion as long as the great body of people are enlightened by education.”
Daniel Webster, the famous Senator from Massachusetts, eloquently echoed those optimistic sentiments in 1837 when he said: “Education, to accomplish the ends of good government, should be universally diffused. Open the doors of the school houses to all the children in the land. Let no man have the excuse of poverty for not educating his offspring. Place the means of education within his reach, and if he remain in ignorance, be it his own reproach…. On the diffusion of education among the people rests the preservation and perpetuation of our free institutions.”
But of course neither Daniel Webster nor DeWitt Clinton could have foreseen what would happen to public education once atheistic socialists got their hands on it. We have seen a steady erosion of our domestic freedom to an ever growing dependence on government to solve all of our problems. Most Americans, living in a capitalist society, still cannot understand such basic economic concepts as supply and demand, or the meaning of the word profit, or how government can cause inflation with the printing press and thereby destroy the value of our currency. Even the President of the United States, a graduate of Harvard Law School, seems unable to understand some fundamental economic principles that govern a free, capitalist society.
It is important to note that our system of compulsory state-controlled education was not brought about by any spontaneous popular demand, for education was already virtually universal in America before it became compulsory. And most people did not relish the idea of paying taxes to support schools that were not really necessary. But the politicians and professional educators wanted government financed education because running successful private schools was not easy.
According to Prof. E. G. West: “The supplier of educational services to the government, the teachers and administrators, as we have seen, had produced their own organized platforms by the late 1840’s; it was they indeed who were the leading instigators of the free school campaign. Whilst conventional history portrays them as distinguished champions in the cause of children’s welfare and benevolent participants in a political struggle, it is suggested here that the facts are equally consistent with the hypothesis of self-interest behavior as described above.”
It has become abundantly obvious that all of the totalitarian states of the modern world have used the instrument of public education, with the willing cooperation of most public school teachers, to keep their people enslaved. School teachers, even in a free society, are not necessarily freedom fighters. They generally do what the government tells them to do. That’s the way they keep their jobs, particularly in a down economy.
Most Americans are not aware that our own compulsory education system was based on the Prussian model, which was criticized by wary citizens as being inappropriate for a free country. It was suspected that such a system transplanted to our country would not promote freedom. Horace Mann, who was most instrumental in getting America to adopt the Prussian system, addressed the critics. He wrote in 1844:
“If Prussia can pervert the benign influences of education to the support of arbitrary power, we surely can employ them for the support and perpetuation of republican institutions. A national spirit of liberty can be cultivated more easily than a national spirit of bondage; and if it may be made one of the great prerogatives of education to perform the unnatural and unholy work of making slaves, then surely it must be one of the noblest instrumentalities for rearing a nation of freemen.”
One of the great uses of history is to be able to study the foolishness of past leaders who today are upheld as great benevolent statesmen. Horace Mann is certainly one of these moral idiots who gave us an education system that has gradually dumbed-down the American people to the point where their enslavement is virtually assured. If under the present regime in Washington, the American people manage to fend off their enslavement, it won’t be because of anything they learned in the government schools. It will be because of a spirit of independence and love of freedom that is enabling them to rise up in face of a potential dictatorship.
Public education was not only unnecessary, it has become the major destructive force of American culture, a destroyer of academic excellence and moral behavior. The growth of the home-school movement has demonstrated that parents can become better educators than the so-called professionals. Our colleges of education are producing educators who have no idea of how to teach reading, writing, or even simple arithmetic. Their minds have been filled with a collectivist ideology that makes them unwitting accomplices in the enslavement of the American people. Unbelievable, but true. If you want to survive in today’s America, you’d better start believing in the unbelievable.
Dr. Samuel L. Blumenfeld is the author of nine books on education including NEA: Trojan Horse in American Education, The Whole Language/OBE Fraud, and The Victims of Dick & Jane and Other Essays. Of NEA: Trojan Horse in American Education, former U.S. Senator Steve Symms of Idaho said: “Every so often a book is written that can change the thinking of a nation. This book is one of them.” Mr. Blumenfeld’s columns have appeared in such diverse publications as Reason, The New American, The Chalcedon Report, Insight, Education Digest, Vital Speeches, WorldNetDaily, and others.
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...which is tantamount to a redistribution of wealth, i.e., full-on Socialism.
But then they would do things differently and we could figure out what "the" "best" methods are for achieving various goals through an efficient market approach. Not to mention the moral aspects of letting people decide what they want.
No, we're much better off having 536 lawyers in DC decide the one approach that's best for everyone.
“Is public education necessary?”
No.
Yes, but this isn't 1830, where virtually everyone was raised in a two-person, agricultural society, and where the mother bore the responsibility of educating her children. The fact of the matter is that in-school education also keeps a LOT of kids out of situations where they'd probably be destroying their lives, and quite possibly the lives of others. That is not going to change ANYTIME soon, no matter how much someone wishes it would.
""Sunset" the federal student loan program for college students."
Three years ago, China began to graduate more engineers than the US graduates total under-grad students. If we are going to continue to be the technology leader, we have to increase the number of students in getting degrees - especially engineering degrees - not decrease them.
The student loan program makes college available to MANY students that couldn't otherwise afford to go to a quality school. It may have some inflationary impact on tuition, but the lion's share of tuition inflation is a direct result of powerful teaching & administrative unions, just like those union increase the per-pupil costs in primary & secondary eduction.
Unions aren't going away, short of impeaching virtually every federal court judge and half of the Supreme Court, and replacing them with libertarians or conservatives. And, while the DOE could possibly be weakened or down-sized, it's not totally going away either.
The only realistic alternative continues to be school vouchers.
Only if you adhere to Marxist/Fabian ideology...
A more important question would be: "Is Public Education Execution Necessary?"
Answer: "Only if we are to have any hope of restoring the Constitutional Republic."
I couldn't disagree more! Instead of government spending tax dollars, they are sent back to the people. A tax rebate.
Granted, taxpayers without school children are still having their taxes taken, but the competitive pressures would reform education, IMHO.
Public schools wouldn’t be so bad, but like everything else, they’re increasingly being controlled from Washington.
NCLB changed everything, and for the worse. Challenged schools, like those in inner cities, struggle so much to meet the NCLB accountability benchmarks that it’s all they concentrate on. There’s very little real learning going on there - it’s all about the test.
The kids are turned off. In my inner-city school district 40% of the high school students are chronically absent (miss 15 or more out of 180 days of school). That’s 1 day in 12. That’s enough to get anybody fired from their job quickly, yet 40% of the kids do this. So how are they supposed to learn when they don’t come to school? Of course parents do nothing about it, and neither do the schools. What are they supposed to do, fail ‘em and have their failure and sickly graduation rates drop even further?
But who can blame the kids? The teaching is about nothing but the tests. And the rare creative teacher has no chance. The curriculum is set by central admin. Exactly what will be taught on each and every day is predefined for every teacher. Frequent standardized testing is then used to measure progress. Teachers complain that there’s so much testing there’s no time to teach.
I attended public schools and received a good education. My kids, now in their 30’s, went to public schools and received a fair education. If/when I have grandkids I will lobby my kids not to send them to public schools. I’ll do everything I can to see that they attend private schools or are home schooled. I’ll pay for it myself if I have to do so.
I truly pity the poor folk in our inner cities who have no choice but to send their kids to these institutions of failure. They have no chance.
So basically it's subsidized daycare. Great.
If we are going to continue to be the technology leader, we have to increase the number of students in getting degrees - especially engineering degrees - not decrease them.
I agree with you that the United States, on the whole, ought to graduate more individuals with "useful" degrees, but the present system treats a degree in ethnic studies more or less the same as a degree in electrical engineering.
Furthermore, the focus ought not to be on quantity but quality. Ten engineers who can't do more than regurgitate information are worth far less than one engineer who can actually apply that information to build a system.
The student loan program makes college available to MANY students that couldn't otherwise afford to go to a quality school. It may have some inflationary impact on tuition, but the lion's share of tuition inflation is a direct result of powerful teaching & administrative unions, just like those union increase the per-pupil costs in primary & secondary eduction.
AFAIK, Virginia doesn't have any unions in public education, and tuition and fees at my college have still increased by 8 to 10 percent annually over the past two decades.
“Sadly, now that the hour is VERY LATE, most of those who laughed at is then have stopped laughing.”
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It appears now that the ONLY people who knew what was actually going on fifty years ago were those who were regarded as the lunatic fringe. I suspect I was considered to be one forty years or more ago, I remember saying back then that this was not TRULY a free country and was losing more freedom every year. Very few wanted to consider such things at the time, they were too busy going gaga over the Beatles.
So you take dollars from everyone, and then redistribute only to one set of people based on certain qualifications (school-aged chldren)?
If one family wants to help another family with education, that's fine by me, but your argument is specious and smells of Socialism, plus it can be used to justify all sorts of nasty things, e.g., EITC.
Why is teaching the test a bad thing? Doesn’t the test check for things like basic math proficiency?
I was homeschooled, took standardized tests throughout. My mother never “taught the test” at all, but I always aced it because I had been educated. I just don’t get how “teaching the test” means uneducated, and educated means flunking the test.
Yep.
I’m proud to say that was also one of the lunatics and have the letters-to-the-editor, recordings of my radio shows and the rest to prove it.
Look at this whole thread. Far too many “conservatives” have simply given up on getting rid of Big Government and are content to just “reform” it by embedding it deeper and deeper into American life.
The sad thing is they are probably correct that getting rid of big gubmint is a lost cause.
First, I'd be all for limiting or restricting government-backed student loans, and even grants to students who are endeavoring to get more societally valuable degrees like those found in medicine, engineering and other physical sciences.
It's surprising to hear about Virginia. Although I've actually lived there - twice - while our kids were in school, they went to parochial schools and not public schools so I didn't pay attention. I now live in a state - Ohio - where virtually every public school job, teaching and administrative and at every level - primary, secondary and post-secondary - are all unionized. And, Ohio has more than a fair share of public universities - I believe 13 or more, all unionized.
I used to be a believer in public schools. But my own experiences and hearing what goes on in other schools elsewhere changed that.
For me, it's just a simple business decision. It's far cheaper to educate them for 12 years than it is to incarcerate them for 50. Elementary math.
No Sam, it’s not.
I learned little more in my public school career than always watching my back and how to fight dirty when dealing with older, bigger bullies.
Any other questions?
Your mother had the flexibility to teach what and how she wanted, when she wanted. And my guess is that you weren't missing school 1 out of every 12 days. Public school teachers don't have this flexibility.
What they teach, every day, is prescribed from district central admin. The test comes on Friday. The test may show that the kids didn't learn squat that week. Too bad, next week is already planned and they'll be teaching something else come Monday.
The curriculum is set by district central admin, following standards of learning defined by the state, the SOLs meeting guidelines prescribed by the Feds.
It's all completely regimented now. There are no days where the science teacher can take a break from the curriculum and spark interest with a splashy experiment.
The English teacher who is passionate about a particular book doesn't get a chance to assign that book. What books are read are prescribed by someone else.
Learning happens best when the student is eager and excited to learn, when he is truly interested in the subject matter. Teachers who know their craft can spark this - they can lead the kid to the source and keep him excited and motivated. Teaching and learning works best when the teacher too is excited about the same subject matter.
That kind of teaching is all but dead in today's regimented institutions. NCLB is a big part of the reason why.
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