This post states exactly why I am planning on homeschooling my 3 month old daughter. Schools only teach kids how to follow orders and forces them to become computer addicts in order to “learn”. There are zero critical thought skills being taught, schools are nothing but gladiator academies who cause life long mental health issues in the majority of the students. why parents ever decided to allow the raising of their children to be done by government employees has to be one of the most disturbing lapses in judgement in modern times. I say these things and I come from a family who has generations of teachers in its history, including my mother who taught for 53 years in the Chicago Archdiocese. The state of education in the US truly disgusts me and am glad that people are starting to awaken to this nightmare.
"the true education teaches HOW to think, not WHAT to think."
Told my kids this for their entire schooling days - Catholic school, Episcopalian school, private and public college.
Finally one time during my son's private college days, after he told this to yet another professor, that professor actually said, "You know, Nick, you're right!"
Thank you Gato for continuing to tackle the incredible cowardice that rocked society for two years. This is the Number One issue in my opinion... the 'go along to get along' gang also snitched on Jewish neighbors and hoped for a nicer Nazi uniform. Everyone who participated in the insanity any level, including masking, is responsible. I sense people just want to have a fun summer and not think about it but I do hope at some point there is some self reflection.
I didn't stay silent. I spoke out and was greeted with blank stares of disbelief and denial. And now, aside from my wife, I am essentially alone. I chose solitude over the company of the weak and obedient . . . and I'm good with that choice.
The problem is that credentials are meant to serve an important function: enabling employers and customers to verify that a prospective service provider has mastered the necessary skills and knowledge base. That's been subverted so heavily that we all kind of know that credentials are frequently meaningless aside from being an indicator of successful indoctrination. Which of course contributes to the incompetocracy that's causing everything to break down.
Just setting up alternative elementary and high schools isn't enough. Useful, yes, but I suspect that universities would happily erect even more explicit ideological loyalty tests if they became more common. The monopoly of the universities on higher education needs to be shattered; doing that requires a parallel, and superior, credentialing system.
I went to a protest in summer 2020 to keep schools open. There were a lot of other parents there. I recall older people driving past, reading our signs, then shaking their heads and yelling at us--why in the world would you be mad about parents wanting what's best for their kids?! Some people are just lost. My favorite moment was when one of the School Board members showed up to be the sole member of the counter-protest, yelling at us about racism or something. As if public schools closing wasn't going to disproportionately affect minorities.
The silver lining is all of this exposed the rot in the school systems. The public schools won't be able to recover from this. And my kid is already expressing an interest in foregoing college!
My wife went to Harvard. She didn't have perfect grades (she got a C in typing and a C in a required "consumer education" class). She didn't have perfect SATs. She didn't have all 5s for her AP scores. She cut almost all of her classes in her high school senior year. She handed in all her assignments and showed up for tests and for some reason her teachers let her slide.
She says she got into Harvard on a good line of bullshit. And I can confirm it was a great line of bullshit. But if she hadn't gotten in, she wouldn't have cared. Harvard was the only school she applied to because she didn't really want to go to college. She wanted to read, on her own, exactly what she wanted to read. She wanted to follow her own thoughts for a while. She knew she was good at finding mentors when she needed them. You can always find professors who will work with you, even if you're not a student at their institution.
But she got into Harvard, full scholarship, all costs covered. So she kind of felt she had to go. She said the students were mostly rich kids who had average IQs or a bit lower (roughly 10% seemed retarded to her). Their chief talent was wearing the right clothes. Some of them were foreign royalty. Their IQs dropped during their years at Harvard and they are the people ruining the world now.
There were a few middle class geniuses, always awkward and unpopular. There were some middle class grade grubbers. And there were the smart affirmative action cases, who usually dropped out fast. One of her roommates freshman year was from a Mohawk reservation. She had come to Harvard hoping to avoid working in the reservation sweat shop. By Christmas break, even the sweat shop looked better than Harvard, and she didn't return to finish her freshman year.
I dropped out of college after my freshman year, made a major discovery in a math-related field not long after, and went on to have a great life in that field, with more important discoveries.
My son stopped going to school at age 13. He hung out all day on the streets of Berkeley, getting into trouble. His only degree is a GED. Now he's a devoted husband and father making an upper-middle-class income in a technical field he learned on his own.
If I were raising a child now, I'd let him be raised by wolves in the forest before I would send him to these schools.
We are the ones who empower these horrid institutions. And once you submit to them, they've got you by the b*lls for life. Look at what happened with the vax mandates. Everyone I know who capitulated to keep his job went through the grind you describe. They don't know how to live outside that system. They're hothouse flowers.
Better to be free. Better to go on strike. Just turn your back on them and ignore them and follow your interests in life. There is literally nothing you need them for.
As a college teacher, whenever I saw a student with a 4.0 GPA, I always wanted to cry. They usually risked nothing and always took the safe route to protect the GPA. How many missed opportunities to actually learn something?
"evil may or may not be banal, but banality is always the carpet upon which evil strides."
Puurrrrrrrfect.
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." -Edmund Burke
This post states exactly why I am planning on homeschooling my 3 month old daughter. Schools only teach kids how to follow orders and forces them to become computer addicts in order to “learn”. There are zero critical thought skills being taught, schools are nothing but gladiator academies who cause life long mental health issues in the majority of the students. why parents ever decided to allow the raising of their children to be done by government employees has to be one of the most disturbing lapses in judgement in modern times. I say these things and I come from a family who has generations of teachers in its history, including my mother who taught for 53 years in the Chicago Archdiocese. The state of education in the US truly disgusts me and am glad that people are starting to awaken to this nightmare.
This may not be popular. But here it goes.
90% of the teachers in America can go FUCK themselves.
They should be shamed, shunned and held with the deepest contempt!
I have nothing but disgust for them. Too many knew and sold their souls IMO.
"the true education teaches HOW to think, not WHAT to think."
Told my kids this for their entire schooling days - Catholic school, Episcopalian school, private and public college.
Finally one time during my son's private college days, after he told this to yet another professor, that professor actually said, "You know, Nick, you're right!"
Only one in 33 years' worth of schooling.
One of the best memes, IMO, is the one that says (paraphrasing):
"You comply so this will end
This won't end, because you comply"
#BeUngovernable
#DoNOTComply
#StandYourGround
#Defend2A
#WITCOHE...
#IHateSubstack'sPrimitiveFormatting
Profound. Must. Not. EVER. Happen. Again. Period. Full. Stop.
Thank you Gato for continuing to tackle the incredible cowardice that rocked society for two years. This is the Number One issue in my opinion... the 'go along to get along' gang also snitched on Jewish neighbors and hoped for a nicer Nazi uniform. Everyone who participated in the insanity any level, including masking, is responsible. I sense people just want to have a fun summer and not think about it but I do hope at some point there is some self reflection.
I didn't stay silent. I spoke out and was greeted with blank stares of disbelief and denial. And now, aside from my wife, I am essentially alone. I chose solitude over the company of the weak and obedient . . . and I'm good with that choice.
Some people won't discuss Event 201. Moral cowardice.
The problem is that credentials are meant to serve an important function: enabling employers and customers to verify that a prospective service provider has mastered the necessary skills and knowledge base. That's been subverted so heavily that we all kind of know that credentials are frequently meaningless aside from being an indicator of successful indoctrination. Which of course contributes to the incompetocracy that's causing everything to break down.
Just setting up alternative elementary and high schools isn't enough. Useful, yes, but I suspect that universities would happily erect even more explicit ideological loyalty tests if they became more common. The monopoly of the universities on higher education needs to be shattered; doing that requires a parallel, and superior, credentialing system.
I went to a protest in summer 2020 to keep schools open. There were a lot of other parents there. I recall older people driving past, reading our signs, then shaking their heads and yelling at us--why in the world would you be mad about parents wanting what's best for their kids?! Some people are just lost. My favorite moment was when one of the School Board members showed up to be the sole member of the counter-protest, yelling at us about racism or something. As if public schools closing wasn't going to disproportionately affect minorities.
The silver lining is all of this exposed the rot in the school systems. The public schools won't be able to recover from this. And my kid is already expressing an interest in foregoing college!
My wife went to Harvard. She didn't have perfect grades (she got a C in typing and a C in a required "consumer education" class). She didn't have perfect SATs. She didn't have all 5s for her AP scores. She cut almost all of her classes in her high school senior year. She handed in all her assignments and showed up for tests and for some reason her teachers let her slide.
She says she got into Harvard on a good line of bullshit. And I can confirm it was a great line of bullshit. But if she hadn't gotten in, she wouldn't have cared. Harvard was the only school she applied to because she didn't really want to go to college. She wanted to read, on her own, exactly what she wanted to read. She wanted to follow her own thoughts for a while. She knew she was good at finding mentors when she needed them. You can always find professors who will work with you, even if you're not a student at their institution.
But she got into Harvard, full scholarship, all costs covered. So she kind of felt she had to go. She said the students were mostly rich kids who had average IQs or a bit lower (roughly 10% seemed retarded to her). Their chief talent was wearing the right clothes. Some of them were foreign royalty. Their IQs dropped during their years at Harvard and they are the people ruining the world now.
There were a few middle class geniuses, always awkward and unpopular. There were some middle class grade grubbers. And there were the smart affirmative action cases, who usually dropped out fast. One of her roommates freshman year was from a Mohawk reservation. She had come to Harvard hoping to avoid working in the reservation sweat shop. By Christmas break, even the sweat shop looked better than Harvard, and she didn't return to finish her freshman year.
I dropped out of college after my freshman year, made a major discovery in a math-related field not long after, and went on to have a great life in that field, with more important discoveries.
My son stopped going to school at age 13. He hung out all day on the streets of Berkeley, getting into trouble. His only degree is a GED. Now he's a devoted husband and father making an upper-middle-class income in a technical field he learned on his own.
If I were raising a child now, I'd let him be raised by wolves in the forest before I would send him to these schools.
We are the ones who empower these horrid institutions. And once you submit to them, they've got you by the b*lls for life. Look at what happened with the vax mandates. Everyone I know who capitulated to keep his job went through the grind you describe. They don't know how to live outside that system. They're hothouse flowers.
Better to be free. Better to go on strike. Just turn your back on them and ignore them and follow your interests in life. There is literally nothing you need them for.
Walking on the University of Texas campus I saw a sign that sent a chill down my spine:
"UT's Core Purpose:
To transform lives for the benefit of society."
Took me all the way to fifteen years old to start refusing to say the pledge. Still ashamed of all those years of prior compliance...
Well, the abyss is before us. People who will vaccinate their infants will never fight a school. Betting odds, anyone, on how this goes?
As a college teacher, whenever I saw a student with a 4.0 GPA, I always wanted to cry. They usually risked nothing and always took the safe route to protect the GPA. How many missed opportunities to actually learn something?