Public schools make children into dumb slaves.

[Phantom]

http://linkstofreedom.blogspot.com/2006/12/public-schools-make-children-into-dumb.html

Heres another good one.

http://www.thememoryhole.org/edu/school-mission.htm

Here's an excerpt:

"With the extinction of political history the educational oligarchy has finally resolved the grand crisis of twentieth-century education: how to prevent the masses from learning what is fit only for their leaders. From the new textbooks, the children of the American republic will never gain knowledge of, or the slightest incentive to participate in, public affairs. Nor will they ever learn from their sociologized texts how to detect 'ambition under all its shapes.' What the new textbooks teach on every page and with every passive verb is that, for all practical purposes, there is no such human activity as public affairs and no such human motive as political ambition. How can there be when 'faceless social forces' make our history and the high and the mighty appear only as the victims of fate? No reader of these degraded texts will ever learn from them how to 'judge for themselves what will secure or endanger their freedom.' The new textbooks have snuffed out the very idea of human freedom, for that freedom at bottom is precisely the human capacity for action that political history records and that the textbooks are at such pains to conceal. In the 'multiracial, multicultural' America of the textbooks every citizen is a tribesman and every tribesman the hapless subject of powers and dominions he does not even know exist. Such is "good citizenship" in the corrupted common schools of contemporary America."

Discuss.

[Hyper]

Hmm

Propaganda and brainwashing is always going on in small or large ways, it's your own choice to not think for yourself or do think for yourself

[thesphinx]

thats why i home school ;)

[0=]

The public school system is broken beyond repair and needs total reform. The current state test standards must be eliminated, children should be classified on 3 levels of ability and special ed, they should all be in the same school. 3 separate wings would be at each school, one would be k-5, one 6-8, and one 9-12. Each wing containing sub-sections, for example, the below average wing of an elementary school would contain grades 1-5(kindergarten would be in its own section within the elementary wing, as it would be used to determine the basic levels at which the students would be put in). The students would be able to transfer easily between the sections if they show strengths in a certain area where they don't in others, there would be a separate room for each grade level in each section for things such as science, history, math, etc. Wings would be built around a central break area, after each class ended the children would receive a 15-minute break. They would be given a flexible block schedule their parents, or for the kids in middle and high school, would be able to decide on, like they want math at 10:00 and science at 11:30, etc. There would be a middle break during the day that gives a full half hour, these breaks would be every grade mixed, or for elementary, two 30 minute breaks at different times, one for k-2 and one for 3-5. One library consisting of books for pre-k to college level would be at the center of all 3 wings, along with a cafeteria. Every section of each wing would contain its own computer lab. The classes would not exceed 20 children in size, pan this out you have 20 children in science for 1st grade below average, 20 for average, 20 for above average, making that 60, so you accommodate 60 first grade students just in science at one time. This structure obviously requires a hell of a lot of teachers, well that’s the point, the reason we have so many dumbasses is because we don’t have enough teachers and the classes are too large. These mega-schools would obviously cost a lot, but let’s do a little equation to figure how many can fit in one. Let’s say you have general science, math, language arts and reading, art, history, writing, and drama, I won’t go in depth about physical education. That’s 60 students for each grade level for each class times 7 classes, this won’t count kindergarten, that’s 420 students for each grade, and yes, don’t give me a funny look, 21 teachers for each grade. Let’s take the whole school not counting kindergarten, 12 times 420 is 5,040 students per school, and 252 teachers, if you want to check my math just divide 5,040 by 252, that’s 20 students per teacher. Please, tear holes in this as much as you like.

Edit: I did not account for special ed and genius classes in those numbers as well as kindergarten.

[*Dissident*]

sounds good, but why not just have smaller SCHOOLs? i go to a private school with 300 students, plenty of teachers, small class sizes, and honors/regular of math, and in the upper grades, english too. its a 6-12 school, and its ranked really high in the academic world. although it is private, and thus expensive. but, you could just make a lot of smaller schools public...

[0=]

The problem is not size of the schools, it's size of the classes.

[*Dissident*]

the average class size at my school is 12 students

[Rogue 4]

I'm from a Louisiana school, and I turned out fairly intelligent. I'd say it's more a willingness-to-learn issue rather than an issue of teacher/student ratio. Our culture seems to discourage many people from taking their education to the next level (no, I'm not talking about college, I'm talking about stepping up one's education in general). I remember how weird it was to look around my highschool and realize that some of my fellow students would never graduate. Now in college, only about a third of the people that apply ever earn their degree (4 year university, of course, so bachelor's). I'd say there's an education crisis, but from lack of available facilities. Our culture glorifies those who made it to the top without education: Singers, actors, the odd inventor (Steve Jobs or Bill Gates, anyone?), etc. Short of more-constriciting laws, this will not change. Even with more teachers, willingness to go to school won't see a huge increase. It will help a little, sure, but when culture is what you're up against, bet on culture.

[0=]

Bill Gates is a genius, that's not a very good example :/

[Rogue 4]

Bill Gates is a genius, that's not a very good example :/

Regardless of his actual intellect, he didn't have any higher education (as the state defines it) when he created Windows (he may have a degree or multiple degrees now, I'm not sure). As for him being an icon of American business, there is no denying it.

And, even if you were to insist that he is a bad example, it does nothing to invalidate the point of the post as a whole.

My argument stands. :D