imagine living in such an entitled, hallucinatory bubble that you could say this out loud and expect people to agree with you.
just because they are your kids, your responsibility, and attend a school you paid for, why should you get a say in what they learn?
we are the experts and we know best.
the last 2 years have provided quite a potent taste of rule by dictatorial technocrats.
how did you like it?
so how about waking up to the fact that the schools have been permeated by this for decades?
because it has become one of the great problems of our time.
this is, of course, classic marxist/authoritarian doctrine. the children are not your children, they are the state’s children and their education is to serve the collective. the state shall decide their “consciousness” not their regressive parents and certainly not the children themselves.
it’s worth remembering a couple things:
this is always and everywhere true,
so is this:
government and voting alone is not going to fix this.
we must. the real solutions lie with us.
make school choice THE issue of our time. tie the money to the kids and let every family choose where to spend it. let a free market in education flourish. build, from the bottom up, the system of schools we need.
top down educational diktat is a grotesque failure.
every year we spend more and get less.
every year, the schools become less about learning and increasingly about indoctrination.
this is the way a civilization dies when it should be thriving and unlike many of the world’s problems, this one is EASY to fix.
the money is all there. the technology is there. the teachers are there. all we have to do is stop wasting it all and allow choice and competition to restore competence and focus.
we spend over $250,000 a year per class of 20 on public education in the US.
try to tell me with a straight face that this is not enough money for an incredible education.
all that is lacking is the will to roll up sleeves and make this happen.
sure, it will take some doing and comprise real work, especially early on, but consider the alternative.
how has “waiting for the government to fix education” been working out for you?
We homeschooled our kids - I’ve been “retired” now for nearly a decade. I had one graduate at 15, one at 16. Both were in Honors at college. (While they’re bright they aren’t geniuses or anything!) Both have been excellent employees - one is now an entrepreneur with her husband, the other (the youngest) still working but he’ll end up an entrepreneur too, if the government doesn’t totally disincentivize it. My son in law was also homeschooled. My kids never went to public school, and even though our property taxes went to the system, weren’t allowed so much as a school library book. It was worth it.
The school systems are broken. This has been the case since the 80's and it has become critical. My grandchildren are in what many believe to be good schools and I swear they are illiterate (ages 12 and 13) but receive good grades. Home schooling or small community schools (not public) are the only answer.
All of our metrics are broken. Human capital has dropped off a cliff but we measure it by years in school so it has never appeared higher. We are at peak idiocracy right now.
Education is a goods and service, NOT a right. Founding Fathers wanted all of us to have Allodial Property Titles for good reason. Taxation is theft. Prior to Victory Tax, which was repealed in 1944 as unconstitutional, we had roads, police, schools, etc. Property taxation ensure no one owns anything, which reinforces the Marxist plan.
"Although Marx advocated the use of any means, especially including violent revolution, to bring about socialist dictatorship, he suggested ten political goals for developed countries such as the United States. How far has the United States -- traditionally the bastion of freedom, free markets, and private property -- gone down the Marxist road to fulfill these socialist aims? You be the judge. The following are Marx's ten planks from his Communist Manifesto.
1. Abolition of private property in land and application of all rents of land to public purpose.
The courts have interpreted the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution (1868) to give the government far more "eminent domain" power than was originally intended, Under the rubric of "eminent domain" and various zoning regulations, land use regulations by the Bureau of Land Managementproperty taxes, and "environmental" excuses, private property rights have become very diluted and private property in landis, vehicles, and other forms are seized almost every day in this country under the "forfeiture" provisions of the RICO statutes and the so-called War on Drugs..
2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.
The 16th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, 1913 (which some scholars maintain was never properly ratified), and various State income taxes, established this major Marxist coup in the United States many decades ago. These taxes continue to drain the lifeblood out of the American economy and greatly reduce the accumulation of desperately needed capital for future growth, business starts, job creation, and salary increases.
3. Abolition of all rights of inheritance.
Another Marxian attack on private property rights is in the form of Federal & State estate taxes and other inheritance taxes, which have abolished or at least greatly diluted the right of private property owners to determine the disposition and distribution of their estates upon their death. Instead, government bureaucrats get their greedy hands involved .
4. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels.
We call it government seizures, tax liens, "forfeiture" Public "law" 99-570 (1986); Executive order 11490, sections 1205, 2002 which gives private land to the Department of Urban Development; the imprisonment of "terrorists" and those who speak out or write against the "government" (1997 Crime/Terrorist Bill); or the IRS confiscation of property without due process.
5. Centralization of credit in the hands of the state, by means of a national bank with state capital and an exclusive monopoly.
The Federal Reserve System, created by the Federal Reserve Act of Congress in 1913, is indeed such a "national bank" and it politically manipulates interest rates and holds a monopoly on legal counterfeiting in the United States. This is exactly what Marx had in mind and completely fulfills this plank, another major socialist objective. Yet, most Americans naively believe the U.S. of A. is far from a Marxist or socialist nation.
6. Centralization of the means of communication and transportation in the hands of the state.
In the U.S., communication and transportation are controlled and regulated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) established by the Communications Act of 1934 and the Department of Transportation and the Interstate Commerce Commission (established by Congress in 1887), and the Federal Aviation Administration as well as Executive orders 11490, 10999 -- not to mention various state bureaucracies and regulations. There is also the federal postal monopoly, AMTRAK and CONRAIL -- outright socialist (government-owned) enterprises. Instead of free-market private enteprrise in these important industries, these fields in America are semi-cartelized through the government's regulatory-industiral complex.
7. Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the state; the bringing into cultivation of waste lands, and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan.
While the U.S. does not have vast "collective farms" (which failed so miserably in the Soviet Union), we nevertheless do have a significant degree of government involvement in agriculture in the form of price support subsidies and acreage alotments and land-use controls. The Desert Entry Act and The Department of Agriculture. As well as the Department of Commerce and Labor, Department of Interior, the Evironmental Protection Agency, Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Reclamation, Bureau of Mines, National Park Service, and the IRS control of business through corporate regulations.
8. Equal obligation of all to work. Establishment of Industrial armies, especially for agriculture.
We call it the Social Security Administration and The Department of Labor. The National debt and inflation caused by the communal bank has caused the need for a two "income" family. Woman in the workplace since the 1920's, the 19th amendment of the U.S. Constitution, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, assorted Socialist Unions, affirmative action, the Federal Public Works Program and of course Executive order 11000. And I almost forgot...The Equal Rights Amendment means that women should do all work that men do including the military and since passage it would make women subject to the draft.
9. Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of the distinction between town and country by a more equable distribution of the population over the country.
We call it the Planning Reorganization Act of 1949 , zoning (Title 17 1910-1990) and Super Corporate Farms, as well as Executive orders 11647, 11731 (ten regions) and Public "law" 89-136.
10. Free education for all children in government schools. Abolition of children's factory labor in its present form. Combination of education with industrial production, etc. etc.
People are being taxed to support what we call 'public' schools, which train the young to work for the communal debt system. We also call it the Department of Education, the NEA and Outcome Based "Education" . "
I agree that this is critical--at least, as soon as we stop trying to maim and kill them with vaccines they do not need. OTOH, the "Suburban Moms" (read "single parent children, 'college-educated' women") voted for Biden in large numbers. THAT'S the prerequisite problem that needs to be solved. As long as young women give birth to and raise 40% of their children outside of wedlock, the cultural Marxist brainwashing they received in college will keep them firmly in the NEA/AFT camp (how many of them are teachers themselves?).
John Muir said, "When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe." Government school indoctrination is huge, self-reinforcing problem that has roots in the coarsening of culture and the perversion of morality. There exists a large block of parents who think that the education of their children by experts is just fine.
’Twas always thus with totalitarian regimes. From Plato advocating abducting children from their parents for inculcation to Hitler Youth to cult leaders, authoritarians always want to sink their fangs into those tender, malleable developing brains for maximum indoctrination potential:
The US has been no better than 30th in world education rankings for at least 40 years. Yet, policy seems to make things worse. The thought that everyone should go to college is also some utopian nightmare. I'm all for getting the government out of education.
I don’t have kids but as I like to say ‘ I don’t have to know how to lay an egg to smell a rotten one’. We are a failing children terribly.
I so admire parents that take on school boards, that home school. If I could help with that - I would. My main assistance seems to come from voting for school choice and voting to defund any education initiatives - government education doesn’t deserve one dime more. The teachers unions are the top of the heap of systemic racism - past time to abolish the unions, the idea of tenure and the National school Board. Get rid of the Department of Education and you’ve got Yahtze!!!
You left out an important part, el gato. The self- serving teachers unions will have to be abolished before school choice, especially in blue states, becomes widely available. Right now, they're willing to fight a cage death match at the first whiff of parents' ability to take their kids out of their terrible schools.
No accountability and brainwashing the public into thinking they're invariably hard working heroes has served them well the last few generations. Kids and families, not so much. Now we have kids who graduate high school illiterate and innumerate, not to mention unable to think for themselves.
Even our Governor Kelly of Kansas has said that parents should NOT have any influence over curriculum.Kelly has been told by the legislature that her days are numbered by virtue of her handling of the Covid crises over the past two years. She will probably be the last democrat governor for a while in a predominately red state.
Changing modes here. Our local schools are intimately scrutinized by the parents. We know for a fact that there are two districts near KC that teach crap to kids. They are slowly being pressured to stop by parents. No one in Kansas that I know of, except for the minority schools in KC, want crap taught to their children. Our legislators this next year will pass educational reform to get rid of commies on the boards of schools.There is an overwhelming interest of parents of kids to rid the systems of socialist BS.
I'm 64 and they were "reforming" education when I was in elementary school. They never get it reformed and I think it is time to start over with a different approach. How worse could it possibly get? It is the state monopoly on credentialing that has perverted what an educated individual means.
The greatest thing in the 'crisis' was parents realizing that they could simply pool their money and hire a pod teacher. And then, the teacher realizing they could get paid more for actually teaching instead of going through the system.
The problem has been, unfortunately, that until recently parents didn’t give a damn about what their kids were or were not learning in school. The kids, by and large, were out of sight and out of mind while both parents worked so they could live the lifestyle to which they thought they were entitled. Oh, sure, they would say that they “couldn’t afford to live on one income” but they leave out the bit about their lifestyle expectations. It’s been a similar story with government: ignore it completely and then vote for “your party” just like you cheer for “your team” in the Super Bowl. The front line could all be child killers, but hey, they are MY child killers.
Sadly a couple of generations have been stupefied by beer and football/spritzers and fancy handbags and consequently the nation sleep-walked into this nightmare. The vicious, power-hungry sociopaths weren’t, however, quite as sleepy. It’s our own doing. Time to wake up and take the country back.
And no, you’re not going to get it done at the ballot box. Voting is the last step — the culmination of the hard work that goes into selecting worthy candidates and disciplining them for deviating from well-considered policy platforms of which the constituents themselves have played a major role in developing. Government is NOT to be outsourced.
Top down anything is crap. Easy to tell this is so because the fruitcakes want it so desperately. Too many sentient adults can see through the BS, so time to indoctrinate the kids. Old enough to remember that Pink Floyd had something to say about this in 1979. Hey! (Globalists) Leave us kids alone!
Good article, but I'm going to have a hard time caring about anything but covid biofascism until it stop dictating every move made including where, how, and whether our children go to school and whether they're killed by experimental, shitty vaccines.
Aww, but it's so cute to hear my son's stories when he comes home from school! Kids vandalized the bathrooms using screw drivers, all the girls are changing their names and turning to boys and now use the boys locker room, I can't call people "he" and "she" I have to say "they" and "them", we learned about George Washington's gay commander who got kicked out of the army because he was gay
(Thanks History Channel!), my teacher hasn't graded my writing for a month and when I emailed her she didn't respond, I can't go back and see what mistakes I made on my math because it's an online form so once it's graded it disappears, duh Mom, I don't have a textbook to study from!
School was like this 50 years ago, just different indoctrination. It was BS then, still is BS, just different BS. "Mass schooling of a compulsory nature really got its teeth into the United States between 1905 and 1915, though it was conceived of much earlier and pushed for throughout most of the nineteenth century. The reason given for this enormous upheaval of family life and cultural traditions was, roughly speaking, threefold:
1) To make good people.
2) To make good citizens.
3) To make each person his or her personal best.
These goals are still trotted out today on a regular basis, and most of us accept them in one form or another as a decent definition of public education's mission, however short schools actually fall in achieving them. But we are dead wrong. Compounding our error is the fact that the national literature holds numerous and surprisingly consistent statements of compulsory schooling's true purpose. We have, for example, the great H. L. Mencken, who wrote in The American Mercury for April 1924 that the aim of public education is not
to fill the young of the species with knowledge and awaken their intelligence. . . . Nothing could be further from the truth. The aim.. . is simply to reduce as many individuals as possible to the same safe level, to breed and train a standardized citizenry, to put down dissent and originality. That is its aim in the United States . . . and that is its aim everywhere else." https://wesjones.com/gatto1.htm - "Against School: How public education cripples our kids, and why, by John Taylor Gatto
Having created a charter school and fighting a system that did not want alternative education I wonder how many parents will actively take on their childrens education. My experience is damn few.
I don't believe that the 'schools' will change until there is serious competition... AKA: successful Home Schooling groups. What's better... tuning in to a world class teacher of a subject via a Home School Group... or sitting in a classroom with someone who has a degree, but is not so talented ?
I'll second the notion that the schools are broken. The school is a system, and the heart of the system is the people. Administrators and teachers. That is what is broken beyond repair. They are by and large is not very smart. They do not by and large share the values of the people who put public education in place. They are owned by the Democrat party.
This is true of the Department of Education, the state education associations, every College of Education of which I am aware, and a great number of local school boards and parent-teacher associations. Public and most private as well - see the Brearley brouhaha. Get rid of it all.
I write this as a former parent of private and public school children, trustee of elite private schools, substitute teacher and classroom teacher in Washington area private and public schools, And sometime student of the University of Maryland College of Education.
It cannot be fixed. I do not trust most parents to handle home schooling. I think the best of bad alternatives is school choice among tuition charging institutions, with government money going toward that tuition. Any system will be corrupt – this says the possibility of being somewhat less so.
I write this as the parent a second family of three young children in a country with a fairly honest system of education, Ukraine, where I have nonetheless decided to homeschool.
True education and the ability to develop and use of critical thinking skills are one of keys to most of our problems. In modern societies we do not have education but many forms of indoctrination, brainwashing and social conditioning techniques, which in return it then breads weakness, delusions and ignorance. All to create the obedient and conforming masses.
"When you want to teach children to think, you begin by treating them seriously when they are little, giving them responsibilities, talking to them candidly, providing privacy and solitude for them, and making them readers and thinkers of significant thoughts from the beginning. That’s if you want to teach them to think." - Bertrand Russell
Just saw a school teacher friend of mine on FB worrying that her elementary school students are going to give her COVID and kill her and her family. I'm thinking, "And they let you around these kids at all, you nut?"
Ugh, shut the whole system down and start from scratch.
Just one thing, please try not to use the "R" word or any memes containing this word. It is extremely offensive to people with intellectual disabilities and their families. Using this word encourages people to mistreat those who have these kinds of disabilities. Furthermore, there is a silent genocide going on against people with Down's Syndrome and similar conditions--in Iceland, for example, the government announced the abortion rate of fetuses with Down's is now 100%, which they see as a good thing. Should a couple decide to defy the government and bring such a child to term, I doubt they will see much, if anything, in the way of social services. In the US it isn't much better. Maybe some people don't have a problem with targeting such children for extinction using prenatal search and destroy methods. After all, they are just "retards" and not worth anything, right?
Leftists encroachment in the educational system have turned Schools and Universities into corrupting indoctrination camps.
Any place where leftists have majority is not only the end result of a constant political purge in hirings and workplace practices that filter out dissenting voices, but these places use their services as a political tool to promote leftists agenda or to undermine their political opponents.
Places where leftists have overwhelming majority are already defacto totalitarian enclaves where wrongthink can get you fired: Universities, scientific institutions, Big Tech companies, Media companies, even government agencies are already under this social dynamics.
Leftism is totalitarianism/fascism with a neverending political purge.
One of the benefits of the past two years is the proliferation of home schooling and homeschooling materials AND people seeing that it isn't as hard as it seemed to educate their kids AND that they might be able to make things stretch well enough to be home. For some.
I'd love for the DOE to go away and money to be assigned to individual. Charter schools with a well laid out vision and detailed plan. Some of those pissed off mamas might be the start of a revolution.
I'm thinking about starting a homeschool resource center. I work in public ed and have loved it until the last 2 years. I work in special education so I have a wonderful and satisfying job. My district has been more conservative but that is changing. It's sad. I want better for students.
Another great post. I know the reasons/excuses for not fixing this system are many. But how can we not see by now just how important this issue is? We may never personally benefit from fixing this system, but future generations *will* benefit. To me, sacrificing my children to this despicable school system in the name of materialism or convenience is almost exactly the same as marching them down to get a "shot" because "they are dirty little kids that infect people." It's selfish and abusive as hell. I'm not being mean here. I'm just stating the facts as I see them/live them. It's difficult to make the sacrifices necessary to provide *real* education to our children. But the future we are creating by not making those sacrifices is going to be *much* more difficult and won't be fixed for generations if education isn't fixed as soon as possible. IMHO.
The Fabian Society always understood this... They applied this principle--indoctrination of children--through gradualism and subversion, always stealthily, progressively, and through many generations.
Your post is also very timely, as my friend Alison just published a guest post on her blog, addressing the seemingly unbridgeable chasm between those that get it, and those that don't... A chasm, sadly, that often yawns wider and wider between members of the same family :(
Pertinent excerpt:
..."the fact is, we are at war. Your parents are defending humanity. You should be very proud. Don’t worry that you don’t see it now. This is, after all, a war of deception, but later you will understand that you came from parents who stood up to tyranny.
Understand that when children, the elderly, along with other people are being attacked, parents cannot sit idly. They are not wired that way. True, a lot of parents don’t fight this fight. For whatever reason, they cannot, or will not decipher this war. It doesn’t mean the war doesn’t exist. We don’t know the answer to why some people see it, and some don’t. I believe this is a spiritual battle. Maybe some of us come with information that other souls don’t have. Once a parent sees it, they CANNOT let it go. It would be to go against our soul’s mission, our deepest truth, and our deepest instinct to protect humanity."
I see a lot of comments on the school systems and rightly so. I would encourage parents to see tv and social media as the more immediate problem. If you are not in control of this (and most parents are not) it doesn't matter what school your kids attend...they will be indoctrinated into the body of "mass media" and will be unable to think for themselves. First, unplug.
Our 20 month old son will be homeschooled. We’re going to have to form a pod with other parents, but that’s the way it has to be. WA gov has mandated CRT. I think if enough parents pull their kids out school, that’s a big part of the solution. Though I fully expect severe restrictions to come down on homeschools that make it more difficult than it already is.
I calculated my district spends $16k per child per year, k-12. That is more than the $15k the elite private high school charges! Public school is a bloated joke with no accountability.
I agree with funding students not systems. However. I have been struggling the last few years with understanding why the semi free market university system is rotting with indoctrination and falling standards of education quality. There are a ton of options, but all are crap. Why havent high quality institutions that are not full of woke crap come into existence? Is there really no market for a decent school? So, will it be any different for k-12 school choice? If so, why?
The bad cat, as usual, is spot on: Our children’s education is THE issue of our time. Andrew Brietbart famously said that politics is downstream of culture—but both are downstream of education.
I'm NOT on the side of the parents protesting at school boards who are largely idiots and Jesus freaks; however, they are useful idiots because the teachers are always the worse enemy.
Enjoying vacation in Florida after the last 3 out of 4 weeks my kid’s school was closed “out of an abundance of caution as several students and faculty were in close contact with ‘cases’”. Chatting around the pool and beach, Rumor has it that our district along with others in urban areas will do another “two weeks to stop the spread” that will likely last all of January. Time to move and help Keep Florida Great - will not forget why I came back.
Here is the entire Chuck Todd interview of the communist Nikole Hannah-Jones committed to destroy our country with her hogwash. Scary that she is considered acceptable to be on the "legacy media".
I wonder does the Chinese Communist Party own them all? Rewriting history to destroy the past and create a new narrative is classic Mao.
I agree with all in theory but in practice the marxists already have this one sewn up in the bag. School Choice as the Hegelian Marxist technocrats have enshrined it in the ESSA act 2015 will enslave and not free children. Think about it: what the state pays for ( back pack money -with your taxes) the state controls. That means curriculum . That means ideology . And that includes testing. So whether you attend a school with one state approved ( for credentials) curriculum or home school with a state approved ( credentialed ) online curriculum the kids and their parents are still controlled . Little Johnny MUST show proper habits of mind and” quality” ( collectivist thinking and behaviors ) thinking to pass any or all tests.
"the state shall decide their 'consciousness' not their regressive parents and certainly not the children themselves."
The last six words of that sentence point the way to the next two preventive goals after school choice. To raise a thoroughly freedom-loving generation, don't treat children and teenagers as the de facto slaves of adults. How can it not teach submission to arbitrary authority? Every good libertarian should support youth rights and self-directed education. (I admit there are lots of leftists in those movements, but if we ally with them for drug policy reform, why not also for other goals?)
We homeschooled our kids - I’ve been “retired” now for nearly a decade. I had one graduate at 15, one at 16. Both were in Honors at college. (While they’re bright they aren’t geniuses or anything!) Both have been excellent employees - one is now an entrepreneur with her husband, the other (the youngest) still working but he’ll end up an entrepreneur too, if the government doesn’t totally disincentivize it. My son in law was also homeschooled. My kids never went to public school, and even though our property taxes went to the system, weren’t allowed so much as a school library book. It was worth it.
The school systems are broken. This has been the case since the 80's and it has become critical. My grandchildren are in what many believe to be good schools and I swear they are illiterate (ages 12 and 13) but receive good grades. Home schooling or small community schools (not public) are the only answer.
All of our metrics are broken. Human capital has dropped off a cliff but we measure it by years in school so it has never appeared higher. We are at peak idiocracy right now.
Education is a goods and service, NOT a right. Founding Fathers wanted all of us to have Allodial Property Titles for good reason. Taxation is theft. Prior to Victory Tax, which was repealed in 1944 as unconstitutional, we had roads, police, schools, etc. Property taxation ensure no one owns anything, which reinforces the Marxist plan.
"Although Marx advocated the use of any means, especially including violent revolution, to bring about socialist dictatorship, he suggested ten political goals for developed countries such as the United States. How far has the United States -- traditionally the bastion of freedom, free markets, and private property -- gone down the Marxist road to fulfill these socialist aims? You be the judge. The following are Marx's ten planks from his Communist Manifesto.
1. Abolition of private property in land and application of all rents of land to public purpose.
The courts have interpreted the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution (1868) to give the government far more "eminent domain" power than was originally intended, Under the rubric of "eminent domain" and various zoning regulations, land use regulations by the Bureau of Land Managementproperty taxes, and "environmental" excuses, private property rights have become very diluted and private property in landis, vehicles, and other forms are seized almost every day in this country under the "forfeiture" provisions of the RICO statutes and the so-called War on Drugs..
2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.
The 16th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, 1913 (which some scholars maintain was never properly ratified), and various State income taxes, established this major Marxist coup in the United States many decades ago. These taxes continue to drain the lifeblood out of the American economy and greatly reduce the accumulation of desperately needed capital for future growth, business starts, job creation, and salary increases.
3. Abolition of all rights of inheritance.
Another Marxian attack on private property rights is in the form of Federal & State estate taxes and other inheritance taxes, which have abolished or at least greatly diluted the right of private property owners to determine the disposition and distribution of their estates upon their death. Instead, government bureaucrats get their greedy hands involved .
4. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels.
We call it government seizures, tax liens, "forfeiture" Public "law" 99-570 (1986); Executive order 11490, sections 1205, 2002 which gives private land to the Department of Urban Development; the imprisonment of "terrorists" and those who speak out or write against the "government" (1997 Crime/Terrorist Bill); or the IRS confiscation of property without due process.
5. Centralization of credit in the hands of the state, by means of a national bank with state capital and an exclusive monopoly.
The Federal Reserve System, created by the Federal Reserve Act of Congress in 1913, is indeed such a "national bank" and it politically manipulates interest rates and holds a monopoly on legal counterfeiting in the United States. This is exactly what Marx had in mind and completely fulfills this plank, another major socialist objective. Yet, most Americans naively believe the U.S. of A. is far from a Marxist or socialist nation.
6. Centralization of the means of communication and transportation in the hands of the state.
In the U.S., communication and transportation are controlled and regulated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) established by the Communications Act of 1934 and the Department of Transportation and the Interstate Commerce Commission (established by Congress in 1887), and the Federal Aviation Administration as well as Executive orders 11490, 10999 -- not to mention various state bureaucracies and regulations. There is also the federal postal monopoly, AMTRAK and CONRAIL -- outright socialist (government-owned) enterprises. Instead of free-market private enteprrise in these important industries, these fields in America are semi-cartelized through the government's regulatory-industiral complex.
7. Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the state; the bringing into cultivation of waste lands, and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan.
While the U.S. does not have vast "collective farms" (which failed so miserably in the Soviet Union), we nevertheless do have a significant degree of government involvement in agriculture in the form of price support subsidies and acreage alotments and land-use controls. The Desert Entry Act and The Department of Agriculture. As well as the Department of Commerce and Labor, Department of Interior, the Evironmental Protection Agency, Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Reclamation, Bureau of Mines, National Park Service, and the IRS control of business through corporate regulations.
8. Equal obligation of all to work. Establishment of Industrial armies, especially for agriculture.
We call it the Social Security Administration and The Department of Labor. The National debt and inflation caused by the communal bank has caused the need for a two "income" family. Woman in the workplace since the 1920's, the 19th amendment of the U.S. Constitution, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, assorted Socialist Unions, affirmative action, the Federal Public Works Program and of course Executive order 11000. And I almost forgot...The Equal Rights Amendment means that women should do all work that men do including the military and since passage it would make women subject to the draft.
9. Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of the distinction between town and country by a more equable distribution of the population over the country.
We call it the Planning Reorganization Act of 1949 , zoning (Title 17 1910-1990) and Super Corporate Farms, as well as Executive orders 11647, 11731 (ten regions) and Public "law" 89-136.
10. Free education for all children in government schools. Abolition of children's factory labor in its present form. Combination of education with industrial production, etc. etc.
People are being taxed to support what we call 'public' schools, which train the young to work for the communal debt system. We also call it the Department of Education, the NEA and Outcome Based "Education" . "
I agree that this is critical--at least, as soon as we stop trying to maim and kill them with vaccines they do not need. OTOH, the "Suburban Moms" (read "single parent children, 'college-educated' women") voted for Biden in large numbers. THAT'S the prerequisite problem that needs to be solved. As long as young women give birth to and raise 40% of their children outside of wedlock, the cultural Marxist brainwashing they received in college will keep them firmly in the NEA/AFT camp (how many of them are teachers themselves?).
John Muir said, "When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe." Government school indoctrination is huge, self-reinforcing problem that has roots in the coarsening of culture and the perversion of morality. There exists a large block of parents who think that the education of their children by experts is just fine.
James Lindsey's latest podcast is an excellent recap of what they are up to: https://youtu.be/P8pHloB5qb4 These are groomer schools.
’Twas always thus with totalitarian regimes. From Plato advocating abducting children from their parents for inculcation to Hitler Youth to cult leaders, authoritarians always want to sink their fangs into those tender, malleable developing brains for maximum indoctrination potential:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgL2XvqhX-Y
The US has been no better than 30th in world education rankings for at least 40 years. Yet, policy seems to make things worse. The thought that everyone should go to college is also some utopian nightmare. I'm all for getting the government out of education.
“make school choice THE issue of our time”….YES! Now is our best chance in decades.
I don’t have kids but as I like to say ‘ I don’t have to know how to lay an egg to smell a rotten one’. We are a failing children terribly.
I so admire parents that take on school boards, that home school. If I could help with that - I would. My main assistance seems to come from voting for school choice and voting to defund any education initiatives - government education doesn’t deserve one dime more. The teachers unions are the top of the heap of systemic racism - past time to abolish the unions, the idea of tenure and the National school Board. Get rid of the Department of Education and you’ve got Yahtze!!!
You left out an important part, el gato. The self- serving teachers unions will have to be abolished before school choice, especially in blue states, becomes widely available. Right now, they're willing to fight a cage death match at the first whiff of parents' ability to take their kids out of their terrible schools.
No accountability and brainwashing the public into thinking they're invariably hard working heroes has served them well the last few generations. Kids and families, not so much. Now we have kids who graduate high school illiterate and innumerate, not to mention unable to think for themselves.
Public schools are just like any other government program. A grift to steal taxpayer money.
The Great Reset is about blowing up society and rebuilding it in the Fourth Reich's image..
I'm ok with the blowing up part but let's rebuild it our way, not Schwab's way.
These shots are another way of getting to them. They're calling kids "new customers." 😠
Even our Governor Kelly of Kansas has said that parents should NOT have any influence over curriculum.Kelly has been told by the legislature that her days are numbered by virtue of her handling of the Covid crises over the past two years. She will probably be the last democrat governor for a while in a predominately red state.
Changing modes here. Our local schools are intimately scrutinized by the parents. We know for a fact that there are two districts near KC that teach crap to kids. They are slowly being pressured to stop by parents. No one in Kansas that I know of, except for the minority schools in KC, want crap taught to their children. Our legislators this next year will pass educational reform to get rid of commies on the boards of schools.There is an overwhelming interest of parents of kids to rid the systems of socialist BS.
I'm 64 and they were "reforming" education when I was in elementary school. They never get it reformed and I think it is time to start over with a different approach. How worse could it possibly get? It is the state monopoly on credentialing that has perverted what an educated individual means.
The greatest thing in the 'crisis' was parents realizing that they could simply pool their money and hire a pod teacher. And then, the teacher realizing they could get paid more for actually teaching instead of going through the system.
The problem has been, unfortunately, that until recently parents didn’t give a damn about what their kids were or were not learning in school. The kids, by and large, were out of sight and out of mind while both parents worked so they could live the lifestyle to which they thought they were entitled. Oh, sure, they would say that they “couldn’t afford to live on one income” but they leave out the bit about their lifestyle expectations. It’s been a similar story with government: ignore it completely and then vote for “your party” just like you cheer for “your team” in the Super Bowl. The front line could all be child killers, but hey, they are MY child killers.
Sadly a couple of generations have been stupefied by beer and football/spritzers and fancy handbags and consequently the nation sleep-walked into this nightmare. The vicious, power-hungry sociopaths weren’t, however, quite as sleepy. It’s our own doing. Time to wake up and take the country back.
And no, you’re not going to get it done at the ballot box. Voting is the last step — the culmination of the hard work that goes into selecting worthy candidates and disciplining them for deviating from well-considered policy platforms of which the constituents themselves have played a major role in developing. Government is NOT to be outsourced.
Top down anything is crap. Easy to tell this is so because the fruitcakes want it so desperately. Too many sentient adults can see through the BS, so time to indoctrinate the kids. Old enough to remember that Pink Floyd had something to say about this in 1979. Hey! (Globalists) Leave us kids alone!
In the meantime...vote the commies off the school boards...and make noise about commie teachers.
This nation grew to greatness when schools were single rooms and one teacher taught everything to all students of every age.
Good article, but I'm going to have a hard time caring about anything but covid biofascism until it stop dictating every move made including where, how, and whether our children go to school and whether they're killed by experimental, shitty vaccines.
Aww, but it's so cute to hear my son's stories when he comes home from school! Kids vandalized the bathrooms using screw drivers, all the girls are changing their names and turning to boys and now use the boys locker room, I can't call people "he" and "she" I have to say "they" and "them", we learned about George Washington's gay commander who got kicked out of the army because he was gay
(Thanks History Channel!), my teacher hasn't graded my writing for a month and when I emailed her she didn't respond, I can't go back and see what mistakes I made on my math because it's an online form so once it's graded it disappears, duh Mom, I don't have a textbook to study from!
School was like this 50 years ago, just different indoctrination. It was BS then, still is BS, just different BS. "Mass schooling of a compulsory nature really got its teeth into the United States between 1905 and 1915, though it was conceived of much earlier and pushed for throughout most of the nineteenth century. The reason given for this enormous upheaval of family life and cultural traditions was, roughly speaking, threefold:
1) To make good people.
2) To make good citizens.
3) To make each person his or her personal best.
These goals are still trotted out today on a regular basis, and most of us accept them in one form or another as a decent definition of public education's mission, however short schools actually fall in achieving them. But we are dead wrong. Compounding our error is the fact that the national literature holds numerous and surprisingly consistent statements of compulsory schooling's true purpose. We have, for example, the great H. L. Mencken, who wrote in The American Mercury for April 1924 that the aim of public education is not
to fill the young of the species with knowledge and awaken their intelligence. . . . Nothing could be further from the truth. The aim.. . is simply to reduce as many individuals as possible to the same safe level, to breed and train a standardized citizenry, to put down dissent and originality. That is its aim in the United States . . . and that is its aim everywhere else." https://wesjones.com/gatto1.htm - "Against School: How public education cripples our kids, and why, by John Taylor Gatto
Having created a charter school and fighting a system that did not want alternative education I wonder how many parents will actively take on their childrens education. My experience is damn few.
I don't believe that the 'schools' will change until there is serious competition... AKA: successful Home Schooling groups. What's better... tuning in to a world class teacher of a subject via a Home School Group... or sitting in a classroom with someone who has a degree, but is not so talented ?
I'll second the notion that the schools are broken. The school is a system, and the heart of the system is the people. Administrators and teachers. That is what is broken beyond repair. They are by and large is not very smart. They do not by and large share the values of the people who put public education in place. They are owned by the Democrat party.
This is true of the Department of Education, the state education associations, every College of Education of which I am aware, and a great number of local school boards and parent-teacher associations. Public and most private as well - see the Brearley brouhaha. Get rid of it all.
I write this as a former parent of private and public school children, trustee of elite private schools, substitute teacher and classroom teacher in Washington area private and public schools, And sometime student of the University of Maryland College of Education.
It cannot be fixed. I do not trust most parents to handle home schooling. I think the best of bad alternatives is school choice among tuition charging institutions, with government money going toward that tuition. Any system will be corrupt – this says the possibility of being somewhat less so.
I write this as the parent a second family of three young children in a country with a fairly honest system of education, Ukraine, where I have nonetheless decided to homeschool.
True education and the ability to develop and use of critical thinking skills are one of keys to most of our problems. In modern societies we do not have education but many forms of indoctrination, brainwashing and social conditioning techniques, which in return it then breads weakness, delusions and ignorance. All to create the obedient and conforming masses.
"When you want to teach children to think, you begin by treating them seriously when they are little, giving them responsibilities, talking to them candidly, providing privacy and solitude for them, and making them readers and thinkers of significant thoughts from the beginning. That’s if you want to teach them to think." - Bertrand Russell
Just saw a school teacher friend of mine on FB worrying that her elementary school students are going to give her COVID and kill her and her family. I'm thinking, "And they let you around these kids at all, you nut?"
Ugh, shut the whole system down and start from scratch.
Just one thing, please try not to use the "R" word or any memes containing this word. It is extremely offensive to people with intellectual disabilities and their families. Using this word encourages people to mistreat those who have these kinds of disabilities. Furthermore, there is a silent genocide going on against people with Down's Syndrome and similar conditions--in Iceland, for example, the government announced the abortion rate of fetuses with Down's is now 100%, which they see as a good thing. Should a couple decide to defy the government and bring such a child to term, I doubt they will see much, if anything, in the way of social services. In the US it isn't much better. Maybe some people don't have a problem with targeting such children for extinction using prenatal search and destroy methods. After all, they are just "retards" and not worth anything, right?
The free market model won't be much better if it's anything like real estate and other markets...
There will be a huge chasm... Run by corporate charter schools...
Leftists encroachment in the educational system have turned Schools and Universities into corrupting indoctrination camps.
Any place where leftists have majority is not only the end result of a constant political purge in hirings and workplace practices that filter out dissenting voices, but these places use their services as a political tool to promote leftists agenda or to undermine their political opponents.
Places where leftists have overwhelming majority are already defacto totalitarian enclaves where wrongthink can get you fired: Universities, scientific institutions, Big Tech companies, Media companies, even government agencies are already under this social dynamics.
Leftism is totalitarianism/fascism with a neverending political purge.
One of the benefits of the past two years is the proliferation of home schooling and homeschooling materials AND people seeing that it isn't as hard as it seemed to educate their kids AND that they might be able to make things stretch well enough to be home. For some.
I'd love for the DOE to go away and money to be assigned to individual. Charter schools with a well laid out vision and detailed plan. Some of those pissed off mamas might be the start of a revolution.
I'm thinking about starting a homeschool resource center. I work in public ed and have loved it until the last 2 years. I work in special education so I have a wonderful and satisfying job. My district has been more conservative but that is changing. It's sad. I want better for students.
Another great post. I know the reasons/excuses for not fixing this system are many. But how can we not see by now just how important this issue is? We may never personally benefit from fixing this system, but future generations *will* benefit. To me, sacrificing my children to this despicable school system in the name of materialism or convenience is almost exactly the same as marching them down to get a "shot" because "they are dirty little kids that infect people." It's selfish and abusive as hell. I'm not being mean here. I'm just stating the facts as I see them/live them. It's difficult to make the sacrifices necessary to provide *real* education to our children. But the future we are creating by not making those sacrifices is going to be *much* more difficult and won't be fixed for generations if education isn't fixed as soon as possible. IMHO.
The Fabian Society always understood this... They applied this principle--indoctrination of children--through gradualism and subversion, always stealthily, progressively, and through many generations.
Your post is also very timely, as my friend Alison just published a guest post on her blog, addressing the seemingly unbridgeable chasm between those that get it, and those that don't... A chasm, sadly, that often yawns wider and wider between members of the same family :(
Pertinent excerpt:
..."the fact is, we are at war. Your parents are defending humanity. You should be very proud. Don’t worry that you don’t see it now. This is, after all, a war of deception, but later you will understand that you came from parents who stood up to tyranny.
Understand that when children, the elderly, along with other people are being attacked, parents cannot sit idly. They are not wired that way. True, a lot of parents don’t fight this fight. For whatever reason, they cannot, or will not decipher this war. It doesn’t mean the war doesn’t exist. We don’t know the answer to why some people see it, and some don’t. I believe this is a spiritual battle. Maybe some of us come with information that other souls don’t have. Once a parent sees it, they CANNOT let it go. It would be to go against our soul’s mission, our deepest truth, and our deepest instinct to protect humanity."
https://wrenchinthegears.com/2021/12/28/guest-post-a-letter-to-our-children/
I see a lot of comments on the school systems and rightly so. I would encourage parents to see tv and social media as the more immediate problem. If you are not in control of this (and most parents are not) it doesn't matter what school your kids attend...they will be indoctrinated into the body of "mass media" and will be unable to think for themselves. First, unplug.
Our 20 month old son will be homeschooled. We’re going to have to form a pod with other parents, but that’s the way it has to be. WA gov has mandated CRT. I think if enough parents pull their kids out school, that’s a big part of the solution. Though I fully expect severe restrictions to come down on homeschools that make it more difficult than it already is.
I calculated my district spends $16k per child per year, k-12. That is more than the $15k the elite private high school charges! Public school is a bloated joke with no accountability.
I agree with funding students not systems. However. I have been struggling the last few years with understanding why the semi free market university system is rotting with indoctrination and falling standards of education quality. There are a ton of options, but all are crap. Why havent high quality institutions that are not full of woke crap come into existence? Is there really no market for a decent school? So, will it be any different for k-12 school choice? If so, why?
The bad cat, as usual, is spot on: Our children’s education is THE issue of our time. Andrew Brietbart famously said that politics is downstream of culture—but both are downstream of education.
For el gato readers in the US, I have a solution that I believe would work very well in many places if tried. If you’re interested in making it happen in your area, let me know and we can connect off line. https://townhall.com/columnists/robjenkins/2021/06/13/a-new-kind-of-private-school-n2590896
I'm NOT on the side of the parents protesting at school boards who are largely idiots and Jesus freaks; however, they are useful idiots because the teachers are always the worse enemy.
Here is full Chuck Todd interview. Why is this Communist even of interest to the legacy media?
Are they both owned by the Chinese Communist Party? Rewriting history is right out of Mao playbook.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PF6wuD9cJOo&t=23s
Enjoying vacation in Florida after the last 3 out of 4 weeks my kid’s school was closed “out of an abundance of caution as several students and faculty were in close contact with ‘cases’”. Chatting around the pool and beach, Rumor has it that our district along with others in urban areas will do another “two weeks to stop the spread” that will likely last all of January. Time to move and help Keep Florida Great - will not forget why I came back.
Random observation: many of our current problems started when women started hyphenating
Here is the entire Chuck Todd interview of the communist Nikole Hannah-Jones committed to destroy our country with her hogwash. Scary that she is considered acceptable to be on the "legacy media".
I wonder does the Chinese Communist Party own them all? Rewriting history to destroy the past and create a new narrative is classic Mao.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PF6wuD9cJOo&t=23s
I remember all the grief given to Betsy DeVos who was pushing school choice. I wonder how school choice could clean up inner city schools.
I agree with all in theory but in practice the marxists already have this one sewn up in the bag. School Choice as the Hegelian Marxist technocrats have enshrined it in the ESSA act 2015 will enslave and not free children. Think about it: what the state pays for ( back pack money -with your taxes) the state controls. That means curriculum . That means ideology . And that includes testing. So whether you attend a school with one state approved ( for credentials) curriculum or home school with a state approved ( credentialed ) online curriculum the kids and their parents are still controlled . Little Johnny MUST show proper habits of mind and” quality” ( collectivist thinking and behaviors ) thinking to pass any or all tests.
The money follows the students in Denmark. But that’s a small country. It’s not a corrupt country.
"the state shall decide their 'consciousness' not their regressive parents and certainly not the children themselves."
The last six words of that sentence point the way to the next two preventive goals after school choice. To raise a thoroughly freedom-loving generation, don't treat children and teenagers as the de facto slaves of adults. How can it not teach submission to arbitrary authority? Every good libertarian should support youth rights and self-directed education. (I admit there are lots of leftists in those movements, but if we ally with them for drug policy reform, why not also for other goals?)
https://www.youthrights.org/about/what-are-youth-rights/
https://www.self-directed.org/sde/