Socialism & Government Schools

About a decade and a half ago I wrote a Master's thesis on "Why Parent's Homeschool Their Children." My lit review focused on the history of education in America. Here's the 30 second run-down. The educational system in America prior to the late 19th century consisted almost completely of private education with an astonishing rate of literacy. Astonishing. During the late 19th century social reformers such as Howard Mann and John Dewey imported educational philosophy from Prussia in order to contain the masses (recent immigrants) by getting unsupervised (their parents were slaving away in factories) immigrant children off the streets where they were using drugs and causing bedlam and assimilate them into the American culture through a common language (English) and "education" (I put the word in quotes because what took place wasn't about actual learning but about social manipulation) and get them ready to be good worker bees (i.e. factory workers) for the rich and famous of the day (think the Rockefellers, Vanderbilts, etc). Public (think Government) education was never intended to educate the masses by providing them with thinking skills, logic or reasoning. Rather it was a method by which the wealthy and entitled kept the masses mainly ignorant and content with their lot in life. Meanwhile those who were wealthy and educated provided private education meant to educate using tools of education such as Latin, logic, math and music for their own progeny. In other words, government schools are intended to create a working class that continues to work (versus envision and create), doesn't demand much and is easily pacified. Honestly, government education does a good job at what it's supposed to do. To find out more, start with John Taylor Gatto's book, "Dumbing Us Down," and go from there.

It's really no wonder that so many of my fellow American's are falling for Senator Obama though he clearly spouts socialist rhetoric and has a clear and chilling socialist agenda, from disarming America to universal health care. 12 years (or more for those with a college degree) of brainwashing in a government school that is built upon socialist ideals has set up millions of Americans to believe the left's socialist tripe hook line and sinker.

While I read articles weekly about the continued dumbing down of America, including those that talk about school systems guaranteeing 50% grades to each and every child regardless of ability or work produced to the millions now being spent on remedial skill building for entering college freshmen, it creates a deep sense of gratitude for the years we've spent homeschooling.

The current educational system as provided by government schools in America at this point is a clear faith system. Christian families who send their kids to government schools and wonder why their kids don't embrace their values don't have very far to look. Government schools are imparting their faith system each and every day. It is a faith system that is anti-God, anti-home, anti-family and anti-thought. I say this blatantly and without apology. Socialism is "that stage of society coming between the capitalist stage and the communist stage, in which private ownership of the means of production and distribution has been eliminated, as in the Soviet Union, and the production of goods is sufficient to permit realization of the slogan from each according to his ability, to each according to his work." Explain to me what 50% to every child is if not socialistic? When achievement and failure end up meaning the same thing you have simply failure.

Education has always been the means of imparting the beliefs and morays of a culture. High time the church started looking at the systems by which we are educating our own and make some radical changes. Short term solutions like an hour of Sunday School once or twice a week or seminars such as the Truth Project in light of 12 years of indoctrination are like putting a band-aid on someone who needs a tourniquet. Frankly, my high hope is that the church gets a clue and pulls their kids out of government schools in such great numbers that we cause the NEA monopoly to fail as fast as Freddie and Fannie have of late.

As a social reformer, visionary and educator myself, if you need ideas about where start, drop me a line. I have some thoughts about that as well.