Don\u2019t you love it when a member of the ruling class slips up and admits to the peasants what they\u2019re really up to?<\/p>\n
For years, I\u2019ve called for the complete shutdown of America\u2019s massive archipelago of mandatory government youth propaganda camps. The defenders of this Largest Jobs Program in History shriek and bellow that I must be \u201cagainst education,\u201d which is sort of like charging those who opposed slave galleys with being against ocean navigation, or branding those who called for the end of chattel slavery with \u201chaving something against growing cotton.\u201d<\/p>\n
Read de Tocqueville for his amazement at the high level of literacy — including an ability to discuss complex political issues of the day — found among American workingmen of the 1830s — 20 years before Dewey and Mann launched today\u2019s government-run youth camps on the Prussian model in Massachusetts in 1852.<\/p>\n
The average eighth grader in 1870 (when the current coercion regime was just getting started in most states) was far better versed in this nation\u2019s history, far better prepared to articulate a defense of free markets and limited government and sound money — heck, better able to craft a simple grammatical sentence — than today\u2019s typical high school senior, despite today\u2019s per-pupil allocations shooting through the roof.<\/p>\n
Math? My friend Bill Hanlon, who tutors government-school math TEACHERS, says of today\u2019s young inmates: \u201cAt this point we\u2019re lucky to get three years of algebra into \u2019em before they graduate. And Vin, they only did that by creating two classes that you and I would call \u2018Playing with Blocks,\u2019 and re-naming them \u2018Algebra One\u2019 and \u2018Algebra Two.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n
When they find they can\u2019t shriek us into silence, the defenders of the government lock-down camps deftly switch to Option B: \u201cIf not for the government schools these kids would be out roaming the streets, breaking into your house and stealing your stuff,\u201d which may be my favorite. At least it tacitly admits this is at heart little more than a massively expensive incarceration operation, sweetened up with some colorful holiday cutouts on the bulletin board.<\/p>\n
When that fails, they pirouette just as gracefully into Option C, pursing their lips into a pout and whining, \u201cOf course we acknowledge our public schools currently have some problems. But instead of being so destructive, won\u2019t you work constructively with us to try and institute some reforms?\u201d<\/p>\n
No. No amount of new paint and crepe paper can \u201creform\u201d an institution that\u2019s doing precisely what it was intended to do, purposely fragmenting learning into isolated little factoids that — never being integrated into a cohesive whole — are forgotten as quickly as they\u2019re memorized.<\/p>\n
The New York Times reported Feb. 27 fewer than half of American teenagers know when the Civil War was fought, and one in four believe Columbus sailed to the New World some time after 1750. About a quarter of the teenagers were unable to correctly identify Hitler as Germany\u2019s chancellor in World War II, instead identifying him in a multiple-choice test as a munitions maker or premier of Austria.<\/p>\n
Why is anyone surprised? The academic curriculum is the \u201ccover,\u201d the \u201cfront.\u201d The real goal is not to ensure, but rather to insure AGAINST successive generations developing a cohesive philosophy of self-sufficiency, a code of ethics appropriate to a free people living under a government of limited powers. The goal is to make sure successive generations are powerless to muster the historical and economic context, logic, and critical thinking skills necessary to see through the latest scheme to seize yet more of our wealth and use the loot to hire more bureaucrats to regulate yet another portion of our lives, our industry, our commerce.<\/p>\n
California\u2019s Second District Court of Appeal on Feb. 28 declared the parents of most of that state\u2019s 166,000 home-schooled children to be outlaws, ruling California law requires parents to send their children to full-time state-certified public or private schools or else have them taught at home by \u201ccredentialed\u201d tutors — which most home-school parents, presumably, aren\u2019t.<\/p>\n
\u201cCalifornia courts have held that … parents do not have a constitutional right to homeschool their children,\u201d Justice H. Walter Croskey said in the 3-0 ruling, which makes it clear those parents can be criminally prosecuted for failing to comply.<\/p>\n
And did Judge Croskey and his black-robed ruling-class pals say this was because the home-schoolers weren\u2019t doing as well at teaching reading, writing, and \u2019rithmetic?<\/p>\n
Of course not. They couldn\u2019t say that, because tests consistently shows home-school kids, taught by parents without state \u201ccertificates\u201d or licenses, score 30 to 37 percentile points higher than their public school peers across all subjects.<\/p>\n
So why ban home-schooling, if the academic results are far better?<\/p>\n
Judge Croskey obligingly explained: \u201cA primary purpose of the educational system is to train school children in good citizenship, patriotism and loyalty to the state and the nation as a means of protecting the public welfare.\u201d<\/p>\n
Imagine that. \u201cLoyalty to the state.\u201d Almost as if what they\u2019re running are, I don\u2019t know … mandatory government youth propaganda camps, or something.<\/p>\n
# # #<\/p>\n
K.G. writes in: \u201cDear Mr Suprynowicz, I\u2019m a homeschooling mom who thoroughly enjoys your columns on government schooling. I wasn\u2019t always a homeschooler. I stumbled upon J.T. Gatto while researching school reform after dealing with my local school district and getting nowhere but Delphi\u2019d and a SLAPP letter.<\/p>\n
\u201cI read \u2018Underground History\u2019 — in fact, I was unable to put it down. It explained HOW IT HAS BEEN DONE, how Americans have been turned into stupid, apathetic, self-absorbed, toadying sheep. … At this stage of the game the social engineers no longer even pretend to educate. They \u2018socialize\u2019, they \u2018mold minds\u2019, they decide who will go to college and \u2018lead\u2019 and who will dig ditches for the local business-government or the national corporate state.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter finishing that book I had to get my kids out, pronto. I regret that they spent their most formative years in the govschool gulag learning to take orders and stand in line, raising their hands to go to the toilet. In fact, when I told my youngest daughter, starting \u20183rd grade\u2019, that we would be homeschooling, she asked me if she would be allowed to go to the toilet whenever she wanted. I almost cried.<\/p>\n
\u201cClosing down these indoctrination camps is the only way to save our liberty.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnother \u2018source\u2019, if you haven\u2019t already read it: Samuel Blumenfeld\u2019s book \u2018N.E.A.: Trojan Horse in American Education\u2019. This book has a lot of information on the early designers of this Prussian school system, the animal training incorporated into it, and of course the NRA stranglehold and Marxist platforms.\u201d<\/p>\n
# # #<\/p>\n
A local attorney writes in: \u201cMr. Suprynowicz — I do enjoy your columns and am a disciple. Each Sunday I clip out your column and tape it on the door of my office and spend the next five days arguing your positions with my staff. I do the same with Ann Coulter. I include her picture; she is better looking than you.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven though it is still technically \u2018Sunday\u2019 one of my paralegals is jabber-jawing about how home school kids are socially \u2018backwards\u2019 and that they can\u2019t fit into the world because they are too sheltered. She did concede that home schooled children excel academically.<\/p>\n
\u201cClark County School District has between 7,000 and 10,000 gang members. I guess it is important that children socialize with gang members in the name of diversity so they can understand that kids who wear blue shoot at kids who wear red and vice versa. This is more important than understanding science or being able to put sentences together. Driving by a public school and seeing kids who can\u2019t cover their underwear with their jeans and slouching around smoking makes me think that social activity is far more important than achievement.<\/p>\n
\u201cGovernment schools are liberal indoctrination camps, nothing more. My son was shown \u2018An Inconvenient Truth\u2019 during 4th grade and now berates my wife for using plastic bags. He is a GATE student (gifted) but curiously received a \u201cC\u201d after he disagreed with his teacher that global warming was caused by human activity. He said no humans were around when the last ice age melted and for that he was punished.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis teacher went on to teach the class that President Bush used cocaine and that the moon landing was staged. She had white students apologize to black students for slavery and (said) that taxpayers should pay reparations because slavery destroyed the black family. He was also taught that a perfect electric car was made many years ago but the oil companies killed those responsible.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy older daughter was taken to a cemetery and encouraged not to commit suicide because after all, that is a permanent solution to a temporary problem. I called the school and asked if students were demonstrating suicidal behaviors and was told that there were no reports of such behavior but that all young girl\u2019s will develop feelings of worthlessness and statistically are likely to contemplate suicide, therefore it was necessary health lesson. I told them to knock off the nonsense.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy cousin home schools his children. His son who is 15 tracks the family\u2019s expenses, the time spent with various activities and the return, and he is taking college level classes through independent study. He is showing an affinity for geometry and physics.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis reading skills aren\u2019t that of a typical 15-year-old, but his math skills surpass those of most college students. He is reading books about maritime history because he is interested in it. He reads them non-stop even though his reading \u2018level\u2019 is below what some standardized test says it should be.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen he attended a public school in Belmont, Calif., he was put in special classes for learning disabled children. No doubt his teachers had high hopes he would become a dishwasher. …\u201d<\/p>\n
# # #<\/p>\n
Frances M. writes in from California, in response to my recent comment \u201cOne of the points Mr. Gatto makes about the skills George Washington managed to acquire without benefit of much formal schooling …\u201d:<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen my family and I (husband and two homeschooled children) toured Mount Vernon a few years ago, the tour guide kept talking about how much George Washington loved books and how smart he was. When we got to Washington\u2019s study, a room lined with books, the tour guide told his audience, yet again, how much Washington loved to read, so, \u2018All you kids better stay in school like George Washington.\u2019 My husband very respectfully asked, \u2018Well, wasn\u2019t George Washington homeschooled?\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter the guide sputtered a bit he admitted that Washington was indeed \u2018tutored at home\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
# # #<\/p>\n
Miss Ross writes in:<\/p>\n
\u201cGood Morning: You forget the purpose of education is to create a new \u2018real world.\u2019 In my city, they now have a police officer attached to each and every school. That\u2019s to instruct the children that they are being watched by the police continually, and to obey or suffer a \u2018lockdown\u2019 as in prisons.<\/p>\n
\u201cNext time you write on this issue, you may want to remind your readers that free public education and the suppression of home education is the 10th plank of the Communist Manifesto. These days, most folks act as if free public education is expected, like rain or something. And that homeschooling, which has been the norm for most of history, is an interesting novelty.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I guess it would be fair to say that the Communists have won the Cold War, since they have gotten pretty well all of the planks of the Communist Manifesto inserted into our lives.\u201d<\/p>\n
# # #<\/p>\n
J.B. writes in from upstate New York:<\/p>\n
\u201cThank you Mr. Suprynowicz, for your recent essay about public schooling. I recently finished reading Mr. Gatto\u2019s monumental work, \u2018The Underground History of American Education\u2019, and to say I was blown away would be an understatement.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis book, \u2018Dumbing Us Down\u2019 was instrumental in helping me make my decision to homeschool my two children, and we are in our fourth year of doing so. I am finding history a difficult subject to teach, because so many of the books are very slanted in how they portray the people and events of the past. What am I supposed to do? Teach them what is true, or teach them what the standardized test is going to ask them? (I live in New York, which requires such things from homeschoolers.)<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course, I am learning right along with them, because as a product of the public schools, I got the distorted version. It is very humbling to be 42 years old, and learning the same things as your 10 and 8 year old, I can tell you!<\/p>\n
\u201cAnyway, just wanted to take a moment to thank you for helping to get the word out on the largest crime ever perpetrated on the human race: the locking away and dumbing down of our beautiful, vibrant, smart, loving children. I dream of a day when the parents rise up, en masse, and scream for their release!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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