Here’s the Real Reason Why Public Education Will Never Get Better….

Have you ever had an issue you were really passionate about but felt like you had to tiptoe around, so as not to upset a bunch of people?

For me, that issue is public education.

To be sure, I’ve certainly tackled the issue more than a few times here on my blog, but I’ve always held back just a bit because I didn’t want to make anyone mad. (Although a few people always seem to get irritated, anyway.)

Well, I’ve decided that I’m not going to hold back any longer. 

Several times a year, several times a month, perhaps, I’ll come across an article somewhere, or a letter to the editor, or even enter into a conversation about what needs to be done to fix our nation’s schools. The problem is that most people don’t realize the real root of this problem, and that is…

Our schools are never going to be fixed because they’re already doing what they were intended to from the beginning.

And therein lies the problem.

Schooling vs Education

You see, most people don’t realize that the public education system was never designed to educate in the first place. It was set in place as a means to train obedient citizens (think of it as a giant social engineering experiment) and future factory workers.

Consider this quote by John D. Rockefeller, philanthropist and one of the masterminds behind compulsory schooling:

“I don’t want a nation of thinkers, I want a nation of workers.”

Or this quote by John T. Gates, advisor to John Rockefeller and founder of Rockefeller Foundation, Rockefeller University, General Education Board:

“We shall not try to make these people or any of their children into philosophers or men of learning or of science. We are not to raise up among them authors, orators, poets, or men of letters. We shall not search for embryo great artists, painters, musicians. Nor will we cherish even the humbler ambition to raise up from among them lawyers, doctors, preachers, statesmen, of whom we now have ample supply.”

Truth be told, I could go on and on with quotes like these, but here’s the gist of it:

Schooling and education are two different things.

Education is about exploration and learning how to think.

Schooling (which is what our public schools are a part of) is about training and teaching children what to think.

Someone who is being educated will be told, “Do some research on this topic. Study the evidence, weigh both sides, and make an informed conclusion.”

Someone who is being schooled is told, “This is how it is because scientists, historians, and other people who are smarter than you have already figured it out. There’s no need to look into it further.”

Now before I feel the wrath of teachers everywhere, let me just say that I am not suggesting for one minute that teachers are knowingly a part of this. I have nothing but respect for the teachers who are out there “in the trenches” every day. I am fully aware that, in essence, they are doing what they were trained to do, that many of them genuinely love their students, and that even if they sense that something is wrong with all this, their hands are tied.

I get it. So this isn’t directed at educators – at all.

I’m just trying to open your eyes.

Indoctrination

Make no mistake about it, public school students are being indoctrinated every single day. You may assume a child’s lessons and assignments are about academics, and they are on the surface, but that isn’t all.

One of the goals of the public education system is to shape a child’s morals and character, and those views are built in to every worksheet, every quiz, every textbook, and you can bet it’s a major part of Common Core.

(Warning: Graphic example…Last week a friend from my church called the superintendent of her grandson’s school district because he came home with a psychology quiz which included a question about whether or not beverages will affect the taste of semen. When she confronted the superintendent, he actually had the nerve to say that that textbook was approved by the school board, and he didn’t have time to read every page of every textbook.)

It’s about politics. It’s about political correctness. It’s about teaching children to submit to authority in all circumstances.

Separation of Families

In the past, I’ve written about the possibility that compulsory schooling has contributed to the breakdown of the family, and I still feel firmly that this is the case.

I find it ironic that one of the “reasons” compulsory schooling was instituted was because of child labor laws. So…they took children out of factories and put them in a different kind of factory, only now they’re forced to do it by law, and they don’t get paid for it.

Huh??

Then, after children are in this factory school setting all day, very possibly followed by “voluntary” after-school programs, they are expected to come home and complete two hours of homework and often help with household chores.

And we wonder why the family unit is weak??

Wrapping It Up

Suffice it to say, all of these things are done by government-run schools on purpose. Their main goals are to train a populace that is unable to think on its own, is easily influenced, is willing to work for very little, embraces a moral code that makes it easiest for them to control, and has no real ties to their families.

Looking around me today, I think our schools are without a doubt doing what they were intended to do. Worrying about how to save them won’t get us anywhere because, let’s face it –

Schools aren’t broken. We are. And it’s because of them.

“School is a twelve-year jail sentence where bad habits are the only curriculum truly learned. I teach school and win awards doing it. I should know.”
― John Taylor Gatto, Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling