The High Velocity Handbasket: "Hey, Teacher, Leave Those Kids Alone!"

Is it just me, or are we really dumbing down America?
And what ever happened to Reading, Writing, and 'Rithmetic?

My father is a college professor and I've helped him grade a few papers. What I've seen is appalling. High school graduates who have gained entrance to a college seem incapable of formulating a complete sentence. They demonstrate a fundamental lack of understanding of the concepts of subject, verb and object. They can't spell. This was once referred to as illiteracy. Their arguments demonstrate even less comprehension of the rules of logic, cause and effect. It's no wonder our voting block is making the choices it is. The United States lags behind nearly every other western industrialized nation in math and science scores. What happened? Public education.

And it happened on purpose. Take a lot at this excerpt from an article published on World Net Daily by Devvy Kiddd:
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Most Americans believe "communism is dead," but nothing could be further from the truth and one of the major goals of the propagators of global communist tyranny has always been to get control of America's education system. What better way to reach "the unwashed masses" than through a federal department of education? The tenth plank of the "Communist Manifesto" reads: "Free education for all children in public schools," and this is one of the highest goals of communitarians. Jeri Lynn Ball, author of "Masters of Seduction" explains:

The communitarian efforts to take over the American education system began in 1918 after World War I. Early in the 20th century, John Dewey, "the father of Progressive Education," worked with internationalists to transform America into a communitarian society.

Dewey held that the basic goal of education is the eradication of the child's individualistic traits and "the development of a spirit of social cooperation and community life." Dewey did not want the child to think at all, but to learn to live and work within the narrow, primitive bounds of communitarian vocabulary and thought patterns.

According to the testimony of Norman Dodd, the staff director of the 1953 Congressional Special Committee to Investigate the Tax-Exempt Foundations, the minutes of the Carnegie Foundation revealed that the trustees of the Foundation decided right after World War I that they "must control education in the United States."

They joined together with the Rockefeller Foundation and created a plan to take control of domestic and international education. Dodd interviewed and Rowan Gaither, president of the Ford Foundation and discovered how he operated the foundation under strict instructions and orders "to the effect that we should make every effort to so alter life in the United States that we can be comfortably merged with the Soviet Union."
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An ignorant populace is easier to control. Karl Marx wrote that religion was the opiate of the masses. In America, however, it seems that "entertainment" is a more powerful narcotic. We've allowed ourselves to become anesthetized with R-rated sit-coms, reality TV full of the worst kinds of obscenity and personal destruction, high-tech video gaming systems, professional sports prima donnas and internet pornography.

I read a study somewhere that a 1940's high school diploma has the educational equivalence of a 21st-Century American Master's Degree. I can't really argue with that assessment. In highschool, my grandfather read Homer in the classical language. Most folks I've met with Master's degrees today can barely spell. A college education has become an entitlement. B.A.s are handed out like candy. I've talked to a lot of guys who can't remember a thing from college because they spent most of their days drinking and fornicating. They crammed for tests and downloaded their term papers from the internet.

The obvious solution (to me, at least) is to cut off federal funding and involvement in education. Under Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution, the Department of Education is forbidden. If any power for this sort of involvement exists, it is limited to the sovereign states. Additionally, as a nation, we should exercise our right that has been repeatedly affirmed in at least 8 separate rulings by the Supreme Court to educate our own children.

The National Education Association (the nation's largest teacher's union) is, of course, against this. In addition to their wholesale subscription to the Humanist Manifesto, they have become an action arm of the most extreme left-wing political machine. Take a look at the reasons they give for wanting to outlaw homeschooling:

1. Inadequate standards of academic quality and comprehensiveness.

Translation: Even though homeschoolers outperformed their public school counterparts by 30-37% on standardized tests, the government wasn't in control of what was taught.

2. Reduced support by their parents of funding for public schools.

Translation: We want your money. Unbelievable!

3. Lack of socialization with peers of different ethnic and religious backgrounds; the potential for development of religious or social extremism.

Translation: If students don't attend public schools we can no longer force them to dress up in traditional Arab garb and recite Muslim prayers. We can no longer force them to attend GLBT rallies. We can no longer teach them they were derived from a cosmic accident and are merely clever monkeys, obliged to masticate, defecate and copulate as they please. And of course all those Christians out there learning about our founding fathers' Judeo-Christian values runs counter to our Marxist indoctrination.


4. Curricula that often exclude or inadequately cover critical subjects.

Translation: We don't care if they score higher on reading, writing, math, science and history. We really want to be able to teach them our political views with humanities, social studies, and entertainment survey courses.


5. Children sheltered from mainstream society, or denied opportunities that are their right, such as social development.

Translation: "Mainstream" society is such a bastion of flowing culture that we want to cram it down your kids throats. You don't have enough of a battle to fight with television, movies and the internet. We want to steep them in this great society for another six to eight hours a day. It's unthinkable that they stay at home in stable, caring, educational family environments that are 21% more likely to be non-divorced, married parents. It would be horrible if 70% of them were involved in community service (as opposed to 30% of public school students). It's especially troubling that almost 80% of these students should become active voters (as opposed to the public school graduates' 29%). And the worst part is, 60% of those homeschooled report that they are "very happy" (the highest category offered) with their life as opposed to 27.6% of the general public. And obviously they are socially undeveloped, as 73.2% of them find life to be "exciting", compared to 47.3%.

6. Potential for development of parallel societies that do not fit into standards of citizenship and the community.

Translation: Over 90% of homeschoolers identify themselves as Christians, and are twice as likely as others to identify themselves as "Evangelical" (15% vs. 8%). They were 500% more likely to identify themselves as "conservative". And they tend to hold a high view of the Bible and hold orthodox Christian beliefs. This, of course, does not fit into their standards of citizenship and the community. Because our citizenry is devolving into a mass of socialized, intellectually stunted hedonists.

At this point, I feel like I should make some astounding conclusion, but really, after an afternoon's research, I just want to throw up. And then put on some Pink Floyd.