I have written several articles on Education. A list of links have been provided at bottom of this article for your convenience. This article will, however address different aspects on education.
Boston Latin School was the first public school in America an opened on 1635. The first free taxpayer-supported public school in North America , the Mather School, was opened in Dorchester, Massachusetts on 1639. From the start our uniquely American school system was plagued with problems, from lack of books, supplies, teachers to the actual curriculum to be taught. We have had integrated and segregated schools, all girl public schools, separate but equal schools and since the early 1900’s and Dewey now a school system surprisingly communist-like for a country based on the Capitalist model. Religion and public prayer has played in part in our public schools until the 1962 when the U.S. Supreme Court banned school-sponsored prayer in public schools(the only type of prayer that is constitutionally permissible is private, voluntary student prayer that does not interfere with the school’s educational mission). Private schools always flourished in America, but by the mid 1850’s Public schools began to outnumber private schools and that trend continues to this day. There have been education reform programs throughout our history, some more successful than others. Some reformers of note were Mann, Pestalozzi, Herbart, Montessori, Child, Sedgwick and Sigourney. Of all the educational reformers, John Dewey had the greatest impact on our public school system. He was the leading proponent of Progressive education. He insisted that education and schooling were instrumental in creating social change and reform. (A little side note, the Dewey Decimal system was invented by Melvil Dewey in 1876 and he was not related to John Dewey, he was also known for being a serial sexual predator and harasser of women.)
Since long before the industrial revolution, the main purpose, besides the obvious goal of educating the masses, was to indoctrinate society with American centric ideologies. After the advent of the industrial revolution that has shifted towards socialistic teachings. For example the advent of No Child Left Behind, Race to the Top, Common Core and STEM require a complete forfeiture of an educator’s creativity and individuality. However, these policies took place later in the 1970’s. The real changes began under our 28th President Woodrow Wilson, who was a democrat and a Marxist. While the Rockefellers and the Carnegies were instrumental in funding the University system, they also impacted the K-12 system as well. They founded the National Education Association, the largest teacher’s union in the country. The Frankfurt School was founded in 1923 in Frankfurt, Germany. This school system was heavily Marxist in theory. This system was funded not only by European money but by American money as well. This system was gradually adopted by the American educational system. The Rockefeller group owned Grolier Publishing, one of the major textbook printers in America. So they basically controlled the curriculum of the public school system. By controlling the curriculum and eventually removing religion from the school system they were on their to way radicalizing education. They were in effect stomping out American Christianity, nationalism, and an accurate telling of our history.
In Communist teachings there are four stages of ideological subversion. What it basically means is to change the perception of reality of every American. So, that the individual is unable to come to sensible conclusions in the interests of defending themselves. It is a system of very slow brainwashing on a grand scale, involving every aspect of American society. Stage 1: Demoralization takes 15 to 20 years, because it involved the complete education cycle of at least one generation. We have completed three of these cycles, so we are thoroughly indoctrinated now. Many people are so completely programmed that despite all evidence to the contrary they cannot be convinced of the error of their ways. Stage 2. Destabilization takes 2 to 5 years and involves the economy, foreign relations and defense systems. Stage 3: Crisis may only take up to 6 weeks. After the Crisis there is usually a violent change of power, structure and economy. Stage 4: Normalization is what we have been hearing for some time now the “new normal”. Right out of the Communist playbook. The left is so sure of themselves that they don’t even try to cover it up. At least during the 1950’s and McCarthyism they tried to be stealthy about it.
The subversion of our culture to communism can take many paths, because their playbook is very extensive. One way is to attack the male masculinity in college students, thereby creating a division in the genders. They also like to create new catch phrases as part of their social engineering. Phrases such as, feminism, racism, Anti-Seitism, islamophobia, xenophobia, Nazi, Fascist, supremacy, social justice, diversity equity, climate change, best practices and so on. She listed many words that should be eliminated from all statues that she personally found offensive, including; man, woman, man made, mankind, husband, wife, mother, father, sister, brother, watchman, seamanship, and to man a vessel. Call me crazy, but I thought Supreme Court Justices were supposed to protect our country, our way of life and our constitution. It doesn’t sound like she felt that way.
In 1953 author Verne Kaub stated that Communism had specific goals for American Education: (1) Eliminate prayer of any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violated the principle of separation of church and state; (2) Discredit American Culture, Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and divorce; (3) Infiltrate churches and replace revealed religion with social religion; (4) Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a religious crutch; (5) Control schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda Soften curriculum. Get control of teachers’ associations. Put party line in textbooks; (6) Control student newspapers.
Sexual exploitation and disintegration of America’s youth are goals of Cultural Marxism. As well as the collapse of gender and sexual responsibility in order to divide and destroy a faith-based, law-abiding moral society. By weakening strong American laws, surrounding communities will experience an influx of racialized law. They also want to destroy private property. Communists and Marxists don’t care how society destroys itself, it just wants it destroyed.
Now that I have discussed the educational system from a National perspective and how communist ideology affects our overall system, it is time discuss the system at the school level. Many critics believe that the major problem with public education is a lack of focus measurable outcomes. We pass all students regardless of how poor their performance is. Schools have little autonomy when it comes to hiring and firing of teachers. Salaries are another matter, teachers are not given incentive pay for good outcomes. They are unable to recruit better teachers by offering them competitive pay. The school unions are very powerful, and if a teacher is granted tenure, his job is guaranteed no matter how poor is performance is. Schools that allow autonomy in staffing matters tend to be more effective. Another trend that has had an adverse affect on schools is that principals are no longer highly trained administrators taken from the franks of teachers, but are now business majors with MBA’s. Bloomberg’s Leadership Academy and Eli Broad’s Superintendents Academy have been churning out principals and superintendents for over ten years now. They have little concern or knowledge about the how the school actually works or what is involved in an effective education program. They are only concerned with the bottom line.
Public schools enjoy a virtual monopoly in most of our northern cities. It is well known that where a monopoly exists there is little incentive to produce a quality product. Students being that product. School systems that have competition from private, parochial and charter schools have to work harder because of the competition and usually have better outcomes. Centralized decision making curtails school initiative and suffocates creativity and learning. There is also an over reliance on Bubble tests like SAT, ACT and the NAEP that supposedly measure the knowledge level of the student and the effectiveness of the school. Schools in poorer neighborhoods tend to score lower on these tests. I have taken these tests as a student, and they are gruel fests. If you have Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) or major test anxiety, forget about it. You can be a genius and score poorly on the test. A little side story, my high school valedictorian scored a 1600 on the SAT test, when that was the highest you could , he got a a full scholarship to Yale. He flunked out in his first year, he not only wasn’t the smartest kid on the block he was also lazy and did not want to do the requisite studying necessary to pass. So scores don’t mean everything. This is one place where one size does not fit all. So know that I have shown that these bubble tests are inherently unfair, what exactly are they testing? Hell if I know.
In the 1970’s education took a shift towards environmentalism, humanism, spiritualism and even socialism and away from sciences, mathematics, history and even physical education. This shift away from a substantive education base to a useless feel good curriculum is a path leading to perdition. This path could quite likely return us to the feudal system with corporate masters and serfs. When the housing market crashed in 2008, I thought we had seen the end of middle class home ownership. I thought for sure we were going to be only renters.
Teachers have also been demonized because of poor student outcomes, their names are being posted on shame walls , deriding them for poor work performance. Not only are they grossly underpaid and over-worked they are now being ostracized. Experienced teachers are leaving in droves from the school systems, only to be replaced with new and inexperienced college graduates that only last a few years before they get burnt out and leave as well.
I have mentioned in passing a few times in this article about Private, military, Parochial and Charter schools. Private schools are either funded from grants and endowments and by student tuition. The schools tend to be of high quality, produce great outcomes, but are prohibitively expensive. Military schools are also expensive and have an obviously military curriculum. Parochial schools tend to also be good quality, but there curriculum is more geared towards religious studies. They do cover the basics, but the sciences are definitely going to be slanted towards creationism. They tend to cost less, because they are partially funded by tuition but also are partially funded by the weekly collections from masses and donations. This brings us to the charter schools. They tend to have a more amorphous structure. Funding can be from corporate sources, universities and even be publicly funded. It all depends on their charter contract and agreement. They can be located pretty much anywhere, there is an available building. However the public schools don’t seem to like them because they tend to take the better students from the schools, which lowers their tests scores. Charter schools tend to provide better educations for the students and they also have better teachers. It makes a difference when both parties want to be there. Their curriculum tends to be more flexible and creative and stimulates a better learning environment. Also one more thing, because they have a lot of outside funding , the tuition fees tend to be much more affordable for the parents.
As you can see from this article, education is a very complicated matter. And if you noticed I barely mentioned Higher learning. That is a subject for another article. We definitely have our work cut out for us if we are going to reform our educational system. There is no simple answer. Federal mandates can be too restrictive, but we do need some form of framework and structure. The curriculum from one state to the next should be similar, so for a parent having to relocate his family to another state in another region of the country their child should be able to enter their classes and be comfortable there. For example, the 12th grade needs to be the same in all states. Schools need to give an active portrayal of our history and of the world. There is plenty of time for choosing sides. Schools should not choose the sides for the students. There is an old saying “Just the Facts Ma’am”. That is the job of the parents. If they want them to be liberal let them raise them to be liberals. Parents need to be parents and teachers need to be teachers. Sounds simple, doesn’t it. So why the hell am I having to write this article? We are an American country with a wonderfully varied history. Yes, we have done bad things, but we have done good and even great things. Our history deserves to be told factually and faithfully, not with any racist slant or communist agenda. If our country is to survive we have to remember our roots and our founding principles. Stop destroying our heritage. Teachers stand up for what is right.
Educational Postings
https://common-sense-in-america.com/2020/10/14/critical-race-theory-training/
https://common-sense-in-america.com/2020/09/18/our-intellectual-property-why-is-it-so-important/
https://common-sense-in-america.com/2020/09/11/the-plot-to-destroy-america-when-and-how-did-it-start/
https://common-sense-in-america.com/2020/08/25/how-to-make-our-country-great-again/
https://common-sense-in-america.com/2020/08/06/teachers-are-making-decisions-based-on-politics/
https://common-sense-in-america.com/2020/07/24/teachers-dont-want-to-teach/
https://common-sense-in-america.com/2020/07/22/the-school-system-public-private-and-charter-schools/
https://common-sense-in-america.com/2020/07/16/kids-need-to-go-back-to-school/
https://common-sense-in-america.com/2020/07/16/do-we-need-the-return-of-the-health-czar/
https://common-sense-in-america.com/2020/07/10/how-are-europes-children-going-back-to-school-while-our-schools-remain-empty/
https://common-sense-in-america.com/2020/06/28/are-colleges-becoming-obsolete-are-trade-schools-the-answer/
https://common-sense-in-america.com/2020/06/21/are-liberal-universities-doing-a-diservice-to-our-young-population/
https://common-sense-in-america.com/2020/06/12/our-history-deserves-to-be-protected-not-destroyed/