Fundamentally, there are institutions so evil that they must be abolished even if those oppressed are materially worse off than before. Government K-12 schooling is one of those institutions.
By the way,.....In one very tiny way, slavery was not as evil as government schooling. At least the government did not force citizens to pay taxes to uphold and support slavery institutions, and no one was forced by the government to buy or use the services of a slave.
And....This article outlines very clearly many of the reasons why government schooling must be abolished. It can not be reformed.
The first paragraph says it all. Yet freepers will call us kooks.
you need an educated populace to maintain a republic, that is the why of public ed. However, the commies infiltrated and now it is re-education.
“Separation of School and State” —rings nicely.
I got to the word always and quit. Whenever you get to those words in a “the moon is falling” article you know they are just bold faced lying.
Always and never are almost never true but are the words used by zealots who do not want to have a logical truthful, factual, discussion on a given subject. What they are trying to feed the readers is that, “this is over, this is decided, because I SAID SO.”
BS
The top producers from our schools right now are not from home schools but are Asians who attend our public schools.
If they have been employed more than 2 or 3 years, if they are not warning every parent they see to remove their kids, if they are not seen protesting the union mobs, then they are part of the problem. They are enablers of evil.
My decision: I shun these people. I will not have a government school employee for a friend and work to keep them out of my life as much as possible. They are too evil, too stupid, or too much of a well-meaning Useful Idiot to be a friend.
Was the word “centralized” before public education left out on purpose?
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.
I totally agree with you based on one sentence in Marx’s Communist Manifesto:”Free education for all children in public schools” Plank #10
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The dominating Leftwing faction of media is a greater threat in my opinion.
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.
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.
Socialism can not be reformed, it can only be replaced by freedom.
That's all you need to know about government schools.
The problem with public schools, and to a large extent with private schools today is that administrators and teachers are unable to distinguish philosophy from religion.
There are only three ways to think about reality. You can can a philosophic idealist (Plato, Lao Tzu) a philosophic realist (Aristotle, Confucius) or you can be a Sophist (De Sade, Heidegger)
Protestants and Greek Orthodox following Agustin early Church Fathers are typically philosophic idealist and this is reflected in their theology. Catholics follow Aquinas who was following Aristotle are typically philosophic realist. (Notice I am not advocating one over the other)
However, if you make an argument for ethics or morality from an idealist perspective in a school setting the idiots in charge call you a Baptist. If you try and make the argument as a philosophic realist you are denounced as a Catholic. Thus all that is left to the educator is the Sophistry that is Post Modernism.
While Idealism and Realism are different in many ways the ancients realized that the true enemy was was Sophistry and both were ways to combat it.
It is impossible to have any meaningful educational reform until educators understand this. Public schools should be, in their current incarnation be abolished because they teach Sophistry
Public educations was good when it was strictly on a local basis and paid by (and controlled by) local taxpayers. When it became funded by state and federal government it went straight to the socialist way of life.
I started school in 1950 and the percentage of tax paid by my parents for my education for 12 years was NOTHING compared to the same costs for a 1 to 12 education today.
I believe that property owners (and renters who pay property tax as part of their lease or rent payment) should ONLY pay school taxes WHILE THEIR CHILDREN ATTEND SCHOOL.....................PERIOD!
Don’t make people like me (66 years old) pay my entire lifetime for a “piss poor” socialist indoctrination of our little liberal zombies at a cost that is simply stupefying and cannot be justified at all.
When people have to pay for their children’s education while they actually attend school they will be one hell of a lot more concerned with both the quality and scope of the education they are paying for. If they know that they will pay up to 12 years for their own children’s education and then be forced to pay another (estimated) 75 years for other people’s children and have no say about it.....wouldn’t that be a clear case of forced servitude to the government and wouldn’t that be called Socialism?
It’s time for a property tax revolt.
The problem with public schools, and to a large extent with private schools today is that administrators and teachers are unable to distinguish philosophy from religion.
There are only three ways to think about reality. You can can a philosophic idealist (Plato, Lao Tzu) a philosophic realist (Aristotle, Confucius) or you can be a Sophist (De Sade, Heidegger)
Protestants and Greek Orthodox following Agustin and early Church Fathers are typically philosophic idealist and this is reflected in their theology. Catholics follow Aquinas who was following Aristotle are typically philosophic realist. (Notice I am not advocating one over the other)
However, if you make an argument for ethics or morality from an idealist perspective in a school setting the idiots in charge call you a Baptist. If you try and make the argument as a philosophic realist you are denounced as a Catholic. Thus all that is left to the educator is the Sophistry that is Post Modernism.
While Idealism and Realism are different in many ways the ancients realized that the true enemy was was Sophistry and both were ways to combat it.
It is impossible to have any meaningful educational reform until educators understand this. Public schools should be, in their current incarnation be abolished because they teach Sophistry
It's possible that some new way will replace existing public schools, but there would simply be other things to complain about. It won't lead to some bright new rational world.