Education Reform!

[zacherydtaylor]

As long as the current people in power continue to control the education system I agree that "throwing more tax money at it has never worked, nor ever will work;" however choking the funds out of it won't work either. If we can get the proper reform through and encourage more people to participate based on informed decisions and present the most credible material on any given subject then we could go a long way to improving the system. this will require appropriate funding to all schools not just the rich ones and the corporate ideologues shouldn't be allowed to continue controlling the curriculum with little or no scrutiny.

One of the most important things we should do is find state wide or national funding of them so the best education won't be reserved for the richest. Also, perhaps even more important copyright laws should be reformed so that those in power can't use government regulations to give the few monopolies on educational "intellectual property" which they use to drive the cost of education through the roof.

I'll have to get back to this topic and read more on it here; I'm sure I can come up with more to say although I don't know if everyone will agree.

[egypt]

Just like the FDA, what good is our Education Department?  I say scrap it entirely.  We need to teach our children how to read/write, arithmatic, art, history and how to think critically.  I don't see how this couldn't be accomplished without government interference.  oh, and WITH school supplies being readily available at the school like when I was a kid attending.  This includes truthful textbooks that don't change every single year.

Love, e

[pac522]

I am gobsmacked that penmenship would be excluded in state schools.
It teaches eye-hand coordination,
visual recognition,
visual and tactile memory,
pattern recognition
and so many other skills.
*******************************************************

I reviewed the above curriculum
and found it quite exciting !
Your children are very lucky.

; )
 

I told you guys that they weren't teaching my children cursive but I forgot to tell you that when they taught them to print everything was ass backwards. If the line was supposed to start at the top, they were taught to start it on the bottom, if you're supposed to draw a line first and then a circle, say in the letter P, they did the circle first and then the line. I had such a hard time reteaching my kids the right way to write because they were so afraid that the teachers were going to get mad at them for doing it wrong.

[Freeski]

As long as the current people in power continue to control the education system I agree that "throwing more tax money at it has never worked, nor ever will work;" however choking the funds out of it won't work either. If we can get the proper reform through and encourage more people to participate based on informed decisions and present the most credible material on any given subject then we could go a long way to improving the system. this will require appropriate funding to all schools not just the rich ones and the corporate ideologues shouldn't be allowed to continue controlling the curriculum with little or no scrutiny.

One of the most important things we should do is find state wide or national funding of them so the best education won't be reserved for the richest. Also, perhaps even more important copyright laws should be reformed so that those in power can't use government regulations to give the few monopolies on educational "intellectual property" which they use to drive the cost of education through the roof.

I'll have to get back to this topic and read more on it here; I'm sure I can come up with more to say although I don't know if everyone will agree.

There is no role whatsoever for government in education, none at all. The free marketplace can handle the job just fine, thank you very much.

[zacherydtaylor]

Freeski, if the government or the "free market place" winds up giving the power to the demagogues and or corporations then I would oppose it; if on the other hand the education was controlled by either non-government organizations or a government that was controlled by the public and academics then it would be another story. The more important thing may be who controls the government,  non-government organizations or the free market place that control the education system and to ensure that it allows a free exchange of ideas.

Egypt, determining which version is true is the difficult part; more open source or open domain material that could be available either on computers or in the texts would be the way to go. Allowing someone to virtually own the rights to educate children is absurd. And by using computers they make much more information available without extra costs once you throw the corrupt copyright laws in the dumpster.

[Geolibertarian]

http://www.prisonplanet.com/28-signs-that-u-s-public-schools-are-rapidly-being-turned-into-indoctrination-centers-and-prison-camps.html

28 Signs That US Public Schools Are Rapidly Being Turned Into Indoctrination Centers And Prison Camps

The American Dream
December 30, 2011

It has been said that children are our future, and right now the vast majority of our children are being “educated” in public schools that are rapidly being turned into indoctrination centers and prison camps.  Our children desperately need to focus on the basics such as reading, writing and math, but instead a whole host of politicians, “education officials” and teachers are constantly injecting as much propaganda as they possibly can into classroom instruction.  Instead of learning how to think, our children are continually being told what to think.  Not only that, our children are also being trained how to live as subservient slaves in a Big Brother police state.  Today, nearly everything that children do in public schools is watched, monitored, recorded and tracked.  Independent thought and free expression are greatly discouraged and are often cracked down upon harshly.  If students get “out of line”, instead of being sent to see the principal they are often handcuffed, arrested and taken to the police station.  In addition, law enforcement authorities are using weapons such as pepper spray and tasers against young students in our public schools more than ever before.  Children in U.S. public schools are not learning how to live as strong individuals in the “land of the free and the home of the brave”.  Rather, they are being trained how to serve a Big Brother police state where control freaks run their entire lives.  If we continue to allow all of the liberty and freedom to be systematically drained out of our school children, then there is not going to be much hope for the future of this nation.

The following are 28 signs that U.S public schools are being turned into indoctrination centers and prison camps….

[Continued...]

[decemberfellow]

Guilty of number18

[oyashango]

Elementary School Accused Of Making Children Sing Pro-Occupy Song

January 4, 2012

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (CBS Washington) – A Charlottesville-area elementary school has been accused of making students sing a pro-Occupy Wall Street movement song.

Written and performed in October as part of the Kid Pan Alley group at Albemarle County schools, “Part of the 99” has resulted in a backlash from parents nationwide, and has given the foundation reason to train its facilitators to steer students away from controversial subject matter in their songs.

As part of the regular Kid Pan Alley activities, children are asked about the topics of songs they want to write and sing about. In October, one of the children participating in the activities at Woodbrook Elementary School mentioned that he wanted to write about “having it all and losing it all,”Albemarle County schools spokesman Phil Giaramita told CBS Washington.

“The words ‘Occupy’ or ‘Wall Street’ were not mentioned in the classroom,” Giaramita said.

In the past couple of days, the song from the October performance has been resurrected, with parents from Tennessee, Texas, and California accusing the third-graders of not being capable to come up with an idea so closely related to the Occupy Wall Street movement. There haven’t been any complaints from the parents of the children involved in the performance, Giaramita said.

Blogs such as Big Government have criticized the song as being “Marxist rhetoric.”

“The simplistic left wing economic nonsense of this ditty boggles the mind. But to an impressionistic third grader, it plants poisonous seeds at odds with long egalitarian American traditions that disdain class hatred,” the blog states.

Officials with Kid Pan Alley, a foundation that works with elementary school children through songwriting workshops, has emphasized that the group has restated its guidelines concerning the lyrical content of the songs.

“Kid Pan Alley does not promote nor condone any personal or political agenda. As a result, our programming over the years has consistently received high praise and commendation from children, parents and schools,” the statement said. “Our sole mission has been and continues to be to inspire and empower children to work together to become creators of their own music and to rekindle creativity as a core value in education.”

Giaramita said that a Kid Pan Alley official told him that in the 1,800-plus songs that Kid Pan Alley has produced and performed, none of them have come across the issue like this one with its alleged Occupy link. He added that the song itself came in October when the movement was first starting up and maybe meant something different in October than it does now.

“There’s been a lot of sensitivity raised over this in the last couple days,” Giaramita said, adding that greater oversight will be put into the lyrical content of the songs before they are performed. “If you’re writing about pets or a holiday, those kinds of things are very enjoyable and not controversial. If you’re writing about an issue such as a family that has it all and loses it, we need to be very sensitive about the circumstances around it.”

http://washington.cbslocal.com/2012/01/04/virginia-elementary-students-accused-of-performing-pro-occupy-song/

[Geolibertarian]

http://www.prisonplanet.com/dumb-as-a-rock-you-will-be-absolutely-amazed-at-the-things-that-u-s-high-school-students-do-not-know.html

Dumb As A Rock: You Will Be Absolutely Amazed At The Things That U.S. High School Students Do Not Know

The American Dream
January 11, 2012

Are we raising the stupidest generation in American history?  The statistics that you are about to read below are incredibly shocking.  They indicate that U.S. high school students are basically as dumb as a rock.  As you read the rest of this article, you will be absolutely amazed at the things that U.S. high school students do not know.  At this point, it is really hard to argue that the U.S. education system is a success.  Our children are spoiled and lazy, our schools do not challenge them and students in Europe and in Asia routinely outperform our students very badly on standardized tests.  In particular, schools in America do an incredibly poor job of teaching our students subjects such as history, economics and geography that are necessary for understanding the things that are taking place in our world today.  For example, according to a survey conducted by the National Geographic Society, only 37 percent of Americans between the ages of 18 and 24 can find Iraq on a map of the world.  According to that same survey, 50 percent of Americans between the ages of 18 and 24 can’t even find the state of New York on a map.  If our students cannot even find Iraq and New York on a map, what hope is there that they will be able to think critically about the important world events of our day?

Sadly, almost every survey or study about high school students that gets done shows that most of our students are not even receiving a basic education.

For example, the following comes from an article posted on MSNBC….

Just 13 percent of high school seniors who took the 2010 National Assessment of Educational Progress — called the Nation’s Report Card — showed solid academic performance in American history.

So only 13 percent of our high school seniors are proficient in history?

That doesn’t sound good.

So what does that mean exactly?

Well, there have been some other surveys and studies that have quizzed U.S. high school students about specific historical facts.

The following are some of the absolutely amazing results of a study conducted a few years ago by Common Core….

[Continued...]

[TahoeBlue]

http://www.prisonplanet.com/dumb-as-a-rock-you-will-be-absolutely-amazed-at-the-things-that-u-s-high-school-students-do-not-know.html

Who the first President was: When Oklahoma high school students were given the same citizenship test that immigrants are given, they fared way worse.

In fact, three-fourths of students couldn’t name the first President of the United States.

How is that possible? Have they not seen a one dollar bill? Can they read?

[Geolibertarian]

How is that possible? Have they not seen a one dollar bill? Can they read?

I'm sure they "can," but in case you haven't noticed, they're usually too busy fondling their cell phones.





Health: Teens & Text Addiction

by Stephanie Stahl
CBS Philly
Aug 24, 2010

PHILADELPHIA (CBS 3) ― Teenagers are becoming addicted to texting, according to a new study. In fact experts are saying being hooked on texting can be like being addicted to drugs.



Walking, sitting, it doesn't matter where it happens, teenagers seem to need to text. Statistics show 80 percent of all 15 to 18-year-olds own a cell phone. And the rate of texting has sky rocketed 600 percent in three years. The average teen sends 3,000 texts a month.

"I think that it's just like a drug, once you get hooked on to it, you can't let go. It's like whenever I open my eyes the first thing I look at is my phone," said Hermine Vardanian, a texter.

"It clearly fits the criteria of an addiction," said Dr. Gary Small, a Psychiatrist.

Neuroimaging studies show the same brain areas are stimulated with both texting and using heroin.

"In a very primitive part of the brain, the dopamine system gets triggered. That's the general reward system in our brain," said Dr. Small.

Some texting addiction warning signs include losing track of time because of excessive texting, neglecting eating and sleeping, having a constant need for more, and suffering negative repercussions, like ignoring others or lying because of texting.

Chronic texters actually say they feel bad when they don't get a text. All the more reason to text even more people.

[Continued...]

[Geolibertarian]

http://www.prisonplanet.com/19-crazy-things-that-school-children-are-being-arrested-for-in-america.html

19 Crazy Things That School Children Are Being Arrested For In America

The American Dream
February 1, 2012

With each passing year, the difference between America’s prisons and America’s public schools becomes smaller and smaller.  As you read the rest of this article, you will be absolutely amazed at some of the crazy things that school children in America are being arrested for.  When I was growing up, I don’t remember a single police officer ever coming to my school.  Discipline was always handled by the teachers and by the principals.  But today, there are schools all over the country that have police officers permanently stationed in the halls.  Many other schools will call out police officers at the drop of a hat.  In the classrooms of America today, if you burp in class, if you spray yourself with perfume or if you doodle on your desk, there is a chance that you will be arrested by the police and hauled out of your school in handcuffs.  Unfortunately, we live in a country where paranoia has become standard operating procedure.  The American people have become convinced that the only way that we can all be “safe” is for this country to be run like a militarized totalitarian police state.  So our public schools are run like prisons and our public school students are treated like prisoners.  The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world by far, and our schools are preparing the next generation to either “do time” in the prison system or to live as good little slaves in the Big Brother prison grid that is being constructed all around us.  But what our schools are not doing is giving these children the critical thinking skills that they need to live as free citizens in a nation that used to be “the land of the free and the home of the brave”.

Of course very few people would deny that the character of American schoolchildren has changed dramatically over the decades.  Back in the 1950s, some of the biggest school discipline problems were gum chewing and hair pulling.  Today, kids bring knives, guns and drugs with them to school.  Gang activity is rampant in many of our schools and in some schools kids are even having sex in the school bathrooms.

So there is definitely a discipline problem in our schools.

But what is going on in many areas of the country is absolutely ridiculous.  For example, in 2010 alone police down in Texas issued an astounding 300,000 tickets to school children.

Yes, if a kid pulls a knife on someone the police should get involved, but teachers and administrators should be able to use some common sense and handle the vast majority of discipline problems that happen themselves.

What you are about to read is absolutely going to amaze you.  The following are 19 really crazy things that school children are being arrested for in America….

[Continued...]

[Geolibertarian]

John Taylor Gatto: Education Engineering - Coast to Coast Interview (2005) FULL!

       http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ck_3JHvRQ8w

[Geolibertarian]

http://www.prisonplanet.com/food-police-reject-homemade-lunch-force-preschooler-to-eat-cafeteria-nuggets.html

Food Police Reject Homemade Lunch; Force Preschooler to Eat Cafeteria Nuggets

Ryan Sullivan
MyFox8.com
Tuesday, February 14, 2012

RAEFORD, N.C. — A Hoke County preschooler was fed chicken nuggets for lunch because a state worker felt that her homemade lunch did not have enough nutritional value, according to a report by the Carolina Journal.

The West Hoke Elementary School student was in her More at Four classroom when a U.S. Department of Agriculture agent who was inspecting lunch boxes decided that her packed lunch — which consisted of a turkey and cheese sandwich, a banana, apple juice and potato chips — “did not meet USDA guidelines,” the Journal reports.

The decision was made under consideration of a regulation put in place by the the Division of Child Development and Early Education at the Department of Health and Human Services, which requires all lunches served in pre-kindergarten programs to meet USDA guidelines.

“When home-packed lunches do not include all of the required items, child care providers must supplement them with the missing ones,” the Journal reports.

Full story here.

[Geolibertarian]

http://www.globalresearch.ca/americans-abandon-international-law-70-approve-guantanamo/29460

Americans Abandon International Law: 70% Approve Guantanamo

by Nat Parry



Global Research, February 23, 2012
Consortiumnews - 2012-02-22

After a decade of “war on terror” rhetoric – and President Obama’s failure to reverse many of George W. Bush’s extrajudicial policies – the U.S. public has come to accept that American “exceptionalism” puts the nation beyond the reach of international law, as Nat Parry explains.

Whether they realize it or not, Americans are increasingly embracing policies that undermine the international rule of law, with self-identified liberals, in particular, seemingly reversing their positions on matters such as the Guantanamo prison camp, extrajudicial assassinations and arbitrary detention.
 
While just six years ago [.pdf] the U.S. public ranked among the world’s most enthusiastic supporters of international law (falling just behind the Germans and the Chinese in global surveys), it now appears that vast majorities of Americans reject the applicability of international law when it comes to the actions of the U.S. government in the “global war on terror.”


President Barack Obama and his national security
team [allegedly] monitor the Special Operations raid
into Pakistan that killed Osama bin Laden. (White
House photo by Pete Souza)

A recent Washington Post-ABC News poll, for example, found that 70 percent of the American public approves of the U.S. government’s decision to indefinitely keep the Guantanamo prison open, despite widespread international condemnation of this policy.
 
This figure includes 53 percent of self-identified liberal Democrats and 67 percent of moderate or conservative Democrats, “even though it emerged as a symbol of the post-Sept. 11 national security policies of President George W. Bush, which many liberals bitterly opposed,” noted the Washington Post.
 
In fact, the Post-ABC findings indicate an almost complete reversal of American attitudes on this subject across the political spectrum since the years of the Bush administration. The most pronounced difference has become noticeable in just the past couple years.
 
In a 2006 poll, for example, 63 percent of respondents said the United States should follow international conventions regarding Guantanamo Bay, while just 30 percent said the U.S. should not be bound by these obligations. The survey also found that Americans generally support giving international courts broad authority to judge U.S. compliance with treaties, with 70 percent rejecting the idea that the United States should receive exceptional treatment under such treaties.
 
A 2009 survey reconfirmed the strong public support in the U.S. for these principles, finding that 69 percent of Americans agreed with the statement: “Our nation should consistently follow international laws. It is wrong to violate international laws, just as it is wrong to violate laws within a country.” Only 29 percent chose the converse position, “If our government thinks it is not in our nation’s interest, it should not feel obliged to abide by international laws.”
 
Yet, this is precisely what the U.S. has been doing for over a decade at Guantanamo Bay. On last month’s ten-year anniversary of the prison camp opening, there was a flurry of renewed criticism over the continuing violations of international law by the United States.
 
On the eve of the anniversary, Human Rights Watch reminded the U.S. of its international obligations: “The practice [of indefinite detention] violates US obligations under international law. Human Rights Watch has strongly urged the US government to either promptly prosecute the remaining Guantanamo detainees according to international fair trial standards, or safely repatriate them to home or third countries.

“We have also called for investigations of US officials implicated in torture of terrorism suspects and for adequate compensation for detainees who were mistreated. Human Rights Watch will continue to press for compliance with these obligations. Failure to do so does enormous damage to the rule of law both in the US and abroad.”

Arbitrary detention, however, isn’t the only area in which Americans are increasingly willing to disregard principles of international law. Regarding torture, a survey conducted last year by the American Red Cross found that 59 percent of American teenagers and 51 percent of adults believe that it is acceptable to torture enemy fighters in order to attain important military information.
 
Further, 37 percent of youth support “Depriving civilians in combat areas of food, medicine, or water in order to weaken the enemy,” a war crime that is also supported by 29 percent of adults. A whopping 71 percent of youth and 55 percent of adults support “Refusing to allow prisoners to be visited by a representative from a neutral organization to confirm that they are being treated well.”
 
Extrajudicial assassinations are supported by an even broader majority, with the new Washington Post-ABC News poll finding that 83 percent of Americans approve of the use of unmanned aerial drones to carry out targeted killings of terrorist suspects without due process.

[Continued...]

[Catalina]

PHOENIX (CBS5) -

It's a punishment with many names: cool down rooms, time out rooms, even scream rooms.

You'll find them in many Valley schools and chances are you don't even know they exist.

They're essentially boxes where rowdy kids are sent to calm down.

But do they even work?

And is this a punishment that some schools are using a little too much?

"They never really told me why or when they put him in there, just that he was, quote, 'out of control,'" said mother Leslie Noyes.

Leslie and Eric Noyes are the proud parents of a 7-year-old boy.

"He's just a great kid, you know?" Eric Noyes said.

The second-grader has some special needs, so he was placed in the special education class at Desert Sage Elementary School in the Deer Valley Unified School District.

One day he came home with a disturbing story.

"He has been complaining about being restrained -- he uses that word, restrained. And being put into cool down," Leslie Noyes said.

"I was thinking there's probably some bean bag chairs, maybe some books and just a room to get away from his general class. I had no idea it was literally almost a padded cell," Eric Noyes said.

Leslie went to school armed with a camera and took pictures as proof.

They show a 5-foot by 5-foot padded box placed inside an empty classroom.

"My son has said he's been there anywhere from a few minutes to almost all day," Leslie Noyes said.

CBS 5 News went to Deer Valley with the accusations that a young boy saying he wasn't even let out to use the bathroom, and that he had to eat lunch in there.

They refused to speak with us on camera, but released a statement that reads in part, "If a child requires the use of seclusion/physical intervention, parents are notified as soon as possible within the same school day.  Two adults always accompany the child when secluded.  This is the last method of behavior management schools use with a student."

Deer Valley's spokesperson also said Eric and Leslie's son has been in the room 17 times since October, but they deny he was left there any longer than 15 minutes at a time.

Eric doesn't buy it.

"I think it probably happens quite a bit, and I think it's happening more often than it's being reported and recorded," he said.

"The state board of education and the Legislature have recommended some guidelines for school districts," said State Department of Education spokesman Andrew LeFevre.

CBS 5 News went straight to the state to find out what rules school districts have to play by when it comes to restraining our kids or sticking them in these cool down rooms.

It turns out Arizona is one of just six states that doesn't have any laws regulating seclusion and restraint.

Why isn't there a state law?

"I think that's just part of Arizona history and the way they want to do it," LeFevre said.

Lefevre said Arizona chooses to let school districts decide what they'd like to do.

CBS 5 News went to a psychologist to find out what schools should be doing.

"You know, we call it putting more fuel on the fire," said Dr. Joseph Gentry

Gentry doesn't believe in seclusion, period.

"I mean, imagine how it would feel for us," he questioned.

Gentry said positive reinforcement should be used rather than scare tactics to teach students.

"Instead of reacting to and punishing a child for doing something wrong we catch them doing something good or teach them what they should be doing and reinforce them," Gentry said.

One method Arizona does have is a task force that was made to come up with some suggestions for school districts about seclusion and restraint.

The No. 1 recommendation was to create a positive school climate to help change disruptive behavior.

Again that's just a recommendation, schools in our state aren't required to do anything at all.

Video here: http://www.kpho.com/story/17007347/so-called-scream-rooms-used-in-valley-schools

[chris jones]

 Parents must get involved, PTA's etc. its never been a walk in the park raising kids especialy for moms and dads that are working their arses off paying the bills and keeping food on the table, I get it..
The kids go off to school in the care of Public School systems, tell me what choice do parents have that are sweating to keep the bills paid, home schooling is great if available,but not everyone has this opportunity. Now what, mom and dad have to march off to the school and register complaints and raise hell, they need to become active in their kids education and treatment received.
 Tell me, is there a division in the treatment of children, the haves and have nots. I beleive so, does anyone think that the child of some high powered muker is about to be locked in a box,- doubtfull to say the muken least.
 

[Geolibertarian]

http://www.prisonplanet.com/11-reasons-to-get-your-kids-out-of-the-government-schools.html

11 Reasons To Get Your Kids Out Of The Government Schools

The American Dream
Tuesday, February 28, 2012

It should be painfully obvious to everyone by now that it is time to get all of our kids out of the government schools.  The public school system in the United States has been dramatically declining for a long time, and in most areas of the country the public schools are open sewers at this point.  Yes, there are some U.S. public schools that are still very good and that do a decent job of preparing our young people for their adult lives.  But those good schools are the exception to the rule.  Hopefully the school shooting that just happened in Ohio will be a wake up call to millions of parents out there.  Drugs, sex and violence are rampant in American public schools today.  The “teachers” are endlessly pushing specific political and social agendas down the throats of our kids, and the skills that our children really need such as reading, writing and mathematics are often badly neglected.  Hopefully we can get more parents educated about what is really going on in these schools.  After all, why would any parents want to send their children into an environment that is going to be highly destructive for them for six to eight hours a day?

Sadly, “destructive” is not too hard a word to use for the environment in these public schools.  I went to public schools all my life, and they were absolutely horrible.  Unfortunately, they have gotten even worse since the time that I left them.

The following are 11 reasons to get your kids out of the government schools....

[Continued...]

[Geolibertarian]

http://www.prisonplanet.com/the-high-cost-of-dumbing-us-down.html

The High Cost of Dumbing Us Down

The New American
Thursday, March 8, 2012

It now costs over $10,000 a year to “educate,” or brainwash, a child in a public school, whereas it costs about $550 to $1,000 a year to homeschool a child. The taxpayer pays nothing for the education of a child at home. Yet, the homeschooling parent must continue to pay the taxes for the public schools. This is just one of the minor injustices that exist in our society in the interest of education.

And the reason why it now costs so much to educate a child in the public schools is that the dumbing-down process is not cheap. It requires costly programs that need frequent upgrading and revision, and it also requires specially trained teachers who are constantly attending expensive conferences and seminars in order to learn how better to dumb down the children.

Let’s just take the subject of teaching a child to read. Back in the old days, before the introduction of the Dick and Jane program, teaching reading was not all that expensive. Teachers taught the alphabet and the letter sounds mainly by using a chalk board, much in the way it was done in the 19th century with Noah Webster’s blue-backed spelling books. Student readers were cheap, and cursive writing helped a child learn to read. But when the progressives created the new look-say, whole-word Dick and Jane books, with their many colorful pictures of Dick, Jane, Sally, and Spot, the new dumbed-down version of reading instruction became expensive. In the old, traditional way, pictures played a very minor part, but with the new look-say method, pictures were indispensable in teaching children how to guess the words by looking at the pictures on the page.

Indeed, when the new Dick and Jane program was introduced in the schools in 1933, during the Great Depression, many schools could not afford it. That was the case in New York City, where the traditional alphabetic-phonics method was used until World War II when the economy revived and the schools now had the resources needed to pay for the new look-say books.

But the new method of teaching reading was just the start of the dumbing-down process. The entire K-12 curriculum had to be revised at enormous cost. And that is why the progressive educators were anxious to get the federal government to pay for all of this. The Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, enacted under President Johnson, provided the billions of dollars the progressives needed. And when the U.S. Department of Education was created in 1979 by President Carter, with its enhanced power to makes grants for everything the educators wanted, the dumbing-down process became one of the richest government gravy trains in American history.

It took Charlotte Iserbyt, a Senior Policy Advisor in the Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI) in the Department of Education during the first Reagan administration to blow the whistle on the whole dumbing-down process being financed by grants from the federal government. Before being fired from the department, she was able to fill a U-Haul with documents copied from the department’s files, which she then used in compiling her mammoth book, The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America: A Chronological Paper Trail, first published in 1999.

Iserbyt writes in her Preface that the United States is engaged in a war: not the traditional kind of war, but a new kind that is using psychological methods. This war — about which the average American hasn’t the foggiest idea — has been waged for over a hundred years. She writes:

[Continued...]

[Geolibertarian]

http://www.prisonplanet.com/school-choice-is-cover-for-communist-indoctrination-charlotte-iserbyt-reports.html

School Choice is Cover for Communist Indoctrination: Charlotte Iserbyt Reports

PrisonPlanet.com
Friday, April 27, 2012

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hytw17m2KV8

Charlotte Iserbyt exposes the dumbing down of American schoolchildren.

[Captain Reject]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jZHNjc4Xk0&feature=related

[The_Chiropractor]

Hey everyone, and thank you for this great thread.

One suggestion that I think is critical for any education system involves two things: uncertainty and failure.

A very bad education system emphasizes a paradigm of trying to force a sense of 'absolute truth' in what has been taught, and when students of any class grow up to think that they what they have taught is 'absolute', then it means that they end up becoming brainwashed.

Students need to be told that they like everyone else lives under uncertainty. It doesn't mean that they can just say 'well under uncertainty anything can happen, so what's the point', but more-so to always leave the opening to question what they know and even to question themselves which is what many of us are trying to do in this info-war.

The failure part is something that is the most critical point of learning IMO because the failure gives people a real reference point for acquiring knowledge and it also encourages people to actually 'do things' to learn instead of just taking everybodies word for something, which is what a lot of the textbook based learning currently does right now.

Both the uncertainty and the failure are things that are left out of many educational paradigms, and it's not too surprising to see why when some desire a population devoid of critical thinking, wanting to always not look stupid (as a social mechanism to keep everyone keep everyone else in line), and to actually discover what is out there that would otherwise create a society that thrived on the acquisition of knowledge from experience and using sound analysis (like what is done in mathematics).

[Geolibertarian]

[Geolibertarian]

http://www.prisonplanet.com/gallup-americans-rate-public-schools-the-worst-place-to-educate-children.html

Gallup: Americans Rate Public Schools the Worst Place to Educate Children

Terence P. Jeffrey
CNS News
Aug 30, 2012

A new Gallup poll released today indicates that Americans rate public schools the worst place to educate children.

In the national survey conducted Aug. 9-12, private independent schools, parochial and church-related schools, charter schools and home-schooling all rated higher than public schools.

Gallup interviewers asked respondents: “I’m going to read a list of ways in which children are educated in the U.S. today. As I read each one, please indicate–based on what you know or have read and heard–how good an education each provides children–excellent, good, only fair, or poor. How about: public schools, parochial or church-related schools, independent private schools, charter schools, or home-schooling?”

Only 5 percent said they believe public schools give children an excellent eduction.

Another 32 percent said they believe public schools give children a good education. But this combined 37 percent who said public schools give children an excellent or good education was the lowest among the different types of schools Gallup included in its survey.

Full article here

[Geolibertarian]

[Geolibertarian]

http://www.prisonplanet.com/facing-the-hardest-truth-on-public-education.html

Facing the Hardest Truth on Public Education

Daren Jonescu
American Thinker
April 3, 2013

There are several major obstacles to overcome if there is to be any hope of saving civilization from the grip of the authoritarian pre-education camps we call “public schools.”  The most stubborn obstacle of all, however, is perhaps the one embedded in our own hearts, namely the all too human instinct to comfort ourselves with the thought that the soul-deforming corruptions of public education began in earnest only after our own school days, and hence that we ourselves escaped the harm we so easily recognize in others.

This instinct forms the rationale for the many objections I get to my calls for the complete abolition of public schooling, from people who claim that if the schools just got back to the methods of the good old days, all would be well.  In other words, these people are unwilling to see the problem as anything deeper than the superimposition of some bad textbooks or teaching methods on an essentially noble system, because to admit that the problem is more fundamental than this is to admit that one’s own education was harmful, which is to concede that one was indeed harmed — that you are less than you might have been.

A few days ago, preparing a class of Korean undergraduates for a reading of Plato’s Apology, I asked them to think back over all their years of schooling, and to tell me what percentage of their teachers did not deserve their pay.  At first, the students just smiled — Korea’s Confucian heritage demands unreflective respect for all teachers.  Finally, one young woman bravely volunteered that perhaps thirty percent of her teachers had not deserved their pay — a much higher number than I had expected from a Korean student.  This opened the floodgates: almost all the students in the room subsequently condemned a significant portion of their educators — one as high as sixty percent — as unworthy of being paid given what they had actually provided for their students.

Next, I asked them whether their own education had been worth all the money that had been spent on it over the years.  With only one exception, everyone said unequivocally that his or her own schooling had been worth every penny (or won, in this case).  When I noted that this question was, in a sense, just a variation on my previous question about the teachers, a few students grinned sheepishly, and then a few more, as they gradually got the point: they were perfectly willing to declare that much of their education had been ineffectual or counterproductive — but unwilling to accept the logical result of this, namely that their own development had been slowed or stunted.

These were students currently in school, which is why the contradiction in their answers was so apparent, and pitiable.  For those of us who have long since finished our formal education, this natural tendency to self-protection is greatly exacerbated.  We easily see the damage done to today’s young people, but draw the line at admitting that we too are damaged goods.  To defend our egos, we must deny that our own education was compromised.  And this is the major obstacle of which I spoke, for this denial implicitly detaches the current evils of public education from the institution itself.  We hesitate to condemn the institution outright, because this would mean questioning the conditions and success of our own intellectual and moral development.  We thereby vindicate the most powerful means to permanent tyranny, in order to protect our tender pride.

[Continued...]

[Geolibertarian]

http://www.prisonplanet.com/experiencing-an-erection-of-collectivism-lasting-4-hours-stop-watching-msnbc.html

Experiencing an erection of collectivism lasting 4 hours? Stop watching MSNBC

Jon Rappoport
Prison Planet.com
April 8, 2013

Bye-bye daddy, bye-bye mommy: MSNBC discovers who children really belong to. Finally. This burning question has been answered. What a relief.

Melissa Harris-Perry, a university professor and weekend host at MSNBC shares the wisdom:

“We have never invested as much in public education as we should have, because we’ve always had a kind of private notion of children—’your kid is yours and totally your responsibility.’ We haven’t had a very collective notion of ‘these are our children.’ So part of it is we have to break through our kind of private idea that kids belong to their parents or kids belong to their families and recognize that kids belong to whole communities. Once it’s everybody’s responsibility and not just the household’s, then we start making better investments.”

How many ways to take this hogwash apart?

A “kind of private notion of children.” Yes, how primitive. I mean, only bitter clingers would ascribe to this ancient concept, right? Such parents need re-education, they need to move into the modern age and embrace many mothers and fathers, including I suppose, Melissa Harris-Perry herself, although I’m sure her schedule is already overcrowded. But perhaps she’s good for a nod and a wink between violin practice and soccer games where nobody wins.

Then, precisely what community should own your kids? Your block, neighborhood, town, city, nation? People you know? People you don’t know and never will? A coalition? Perhaps…the government? Ah yes, that would would be it, wouldn’t it?

Because, as any good collectivist knows, the government is the ultimate “expression” of the people. The government creates, manages, and sustains the collective. The government decides, the people comply. The government knows best.

Therefore, all you whacko parents out there; stop thinking your children belong to you. You’re wrong.

Hillary Clinton knew this. That’s why she wrote It Takes a Village, another collectivist manifesto. Except her community happens to be nannies, the Secret Service, the State Department, the Senate, and the White House.

Since Melissa Harris-Perry is discussing public education, you can be sure the collective solution to your kids will involve more vaccines, more psychiatric appointments, more diagnoses of fictitious mental disorders, and more doling out of highly toxic and violence-inducing drugs.

More sex-ed at age five and six, since you parents don’t have a clue about sex and shouldn’t be allowed to approach it. More instruction about “sharing” as the basis of all knowledge.

Essentially, a collective is a group of people teaching others about the primacy of the group. It’s a madhouse from start to finish. It takes the principle of the inviolate individual and burns it to the ground.

It attacks the family precisely because the family resists the collective in any society where a few shreds of freedom remain. The family is a potentially dangerous source of decentralized power.

Harris-Perry is really advocating the sacrifice of your children to the “wider problem of all children.” Don’t raise your kids according to your own best principles. No. Give them over to “the wiser ones.” Let’s all do that.

Her solution also, of course, involves an enormous shift of responsibility. Parents can unload that burden. The “community” will shoulder it. I can’t wait.

This is the strategy of regression to the lowest common denominator. Since there are truly horrible parents out there who can’t handle family life, let’s all give up the primary job of raising children in order to save those parents who are abject failures.

Behind this is the program to destroy families and elevate the State. Make no mistake about it. It’s an op from the ground up, and always has been.

Just as state and county and city governments have been targets for the federal government, so is the family. The idea is to overwhelm all opposition to federal power. Under the mask, that is the naked face of the collective: everybody organized under central dominion.

Going still further, we enter the Globalist plan. Institute a world collective, in which every citizen is directly beholden to Earth’s princes and their bureaucrats, “for the good of all.”

It’s a stage-magic trick. Erase the individual and all he stands for. He was here—and then, poof, he’s gone. A mere trace of a memory remains.

If Melissa Harris-Perry wanted to talk about family, you’d think she would have stressed the greater responsibility of a mother and father. At home. She would have talked about alcoholic parents, inattention toward kids, the need to take home life very seriously. But instead, she went the other way.

She didn’t even offer a tip of the hat to churches, neighbors, clubs, cousins, uncles, grandparents—those people who do, in fact, form communities. Not grist for her mill. No, because she’s talking about money. Spending more money on public education. And for that, you need myth and fairy tale.

You need the disastrous construct of a public institution that will carry the job of bringing up children.

As if that were possible.

Perry rejects Private in favor of Government, which is her bread and butter. Public policy. Abstractions seeking a New World.

Much in the same way, Obama endlessly mouths, “We’re all in this together.”

The “this” turns to be the surrender of fierce freedom and independence.

I would like to see millions more parents deliver the correct response to Perry. Home schooling. That would solve it. That would deliver a profound message:

Babble on as long as you want to about pie-in-the-sky communities; try to melt the citizenry down into one giant glob of goo; fake your way into legends of better and more expensive schools replacing parents.

It’s for nothing. People know you’re a hyping con artist. People know that families and good education begin with real parents and can’t succeed without them.

The “new collective spirit” is very old. As old as the hills. College kids who know as much history as caterpillars out for a stroll after the rain are buying this lunacy, but when they leave the friendly confines of school, they’ll discover the only place they can find a job is with the government.

And that tells us something about who will swell the ranks of the collective. Those who have been rendered disabled by education. This is the public department Perry wants to improve.

We need more money to brainwash more children. That’s the underlying message.

[Continued...]

[Tlion714]

http://www.davidicke.com/forum/showthread.php?t=156104
http://forum.prisonplanet.com/index.php?topic=110550.0
http://www.liveleak.com/c/Heimdall969
http://www.mininova.org/user/Smitty333