Education By Force? Really?
Posted by BradHarrington 9 years, 9 months ago to Politics
Another "local" rant, this time against the legislative buffoons who sought to enslave the minds of our youth for an extra year - to make sure they've been properly indoctrinated, no doubt.
Hah! Too bad, jokers - you missed out on me. And I don't intend on ever letting you forget it...
Brad Harrington
brad@bradandbarbie.com
********************
Education By Force? Really?
By Bradley Harrington
Published in the Wyoming Tribune Eagle on February 6, 2015.
“We who are engaged in the sacred cause of education are entitled to look upon all parents as having given hostages to our cause.” - Horace Mann, “Lectures and Annual Reports on Education,” 1867 -
Prussia, after having been occupied by Napoleon during the Fourth Coalition War of 1806-1807, decided afterwards that flaws in its educational system were the cause of its humiliating defeat.
Consequently, Prussian intellectuals took the country’s compulsory-school model, first implemented decades earlier by Frederick the Great, and revamped it considerably. The stated goal was the production of loyal, socially-compliant citizens who would obediently follow the orders of the nation-state.
Normally, these facts would qualify as little more than historical footnotes. In 1843, however, Massachusetts Board of Education founder Horace Mann toured Prussia’s academic establishments and was so impressed with what he found that he imported those standards back to Massachusetts, where they were adopted in 1852.
From there, it didn’t take long for Mann’s compulsory-school reforms to spread to the rest of America: Mississippi was the final state to adopt them in 1917.
But that was just the beginning of the tragedy. Once Mann’s ideas of social compliance and training had taken firm root, intellectuals such as John Dewey rushed in to further erode individualized instruction, and schooling in the United States has been little more than a series of state-mandated social indoctrinations ever since.
Given such facts, one would think that true advocates of liberty and individualism would be pushing for the abolition of such “educational” methods in favor of more conceptually-based approaches better suited to the actual nature of human beings.
Should you think so, however, you would be seriously underestimating the ability of collectivist legislators and educrats to seek to further cage our kids’ minds:
“A proposal that would require students to wait an extra year before dropping out of school was approved by a legislative committee Friday [Jan.30]... the legislation would require public school students to attend classes until they are 17 or have completed the 11th grade.” (“Proposal would lift dropout age to 17,” WTE, Jan. 31.)
House Bill 198, according to sponsor Rep. Steve Harshman, R-Casper, would “convince more students to stay in school and get their diploma.”
Really, Mr. Harshman? Imagine, if you will, the mindset of a 16-year-old who’s made the decision to drop out of school, whether that be for reasons of employment, seeking to further his or her education by other means - or because they just happen to be bored out of their concept-deprived skull.
And your answer? To lock them up for yet another year? And what will that accomplish, other than to continue to generate income for the school district in question? Do you really believe you can force somebody to “learn” at the point of a gun?
Nor does Mr. Harshman possess a monopoly on foolishness, as this insane idea was quickly lauded by other educrats throughout the state: “The proposal was supported by... the State Board of Education, the Wyoming Education Association and the Wyoming School Boards Association.”
Indeed, local LCSD1 Superintendent John Lyttle had this to say: “Having that extra year would allow the students to ‘see light at the end of the tunnel’... ‘We really want to make the goal to get the graduation rate at an acceptable level.’”
Really, Mr. Lyttle? I guess we’ll just ignore the fact that our schools do little more than pump our kids’ minds full of socially-mandated garbage of no use to anyone in the real world. Has it ever occurred to you that it’s precisely this fact of reality that is motivating such high numbers of students to want to drop out in the first place? That is, as a means of asserting their own minds and choices in their lives? That, in their opinion, your “light at the end of the tunnel” is nothing but a train on its way to further wreck their consciousnesses?
No, like your brain-brothers Mr. Mann, Mr. Dewey and Mr. Harshman, you’ll just point the same gun at our kids’ heads and force them to comply - so you can prattle about “acceptable” graduation rates (and continue to collect the federal dollars paid for your hostages).
Speaking as someone who dropped out of high school at age 15, I can tell you quite clearly what my goal was in that move: to escape the system’s “educational” serfdom with my mind still reasonably intact. Although I didn’t explicitly realize it at the time, I was done being Mr. Mann’s “hostage,” and I’ve been a free-thinker ever since.
Mr. Harshman and Mr. Lyttle: If either of you were truly concerned about your students’ minds, you’d be advocating an end to compulsory education, not seeking to extend it.
House Bill 198 was defeated in the House on Thursday, but it will be back. The whole idea deserves nothing more than to be taken out back behind the Capitol and left there to rot.
Hah! Too bad, jokers - you missed out on me. And I don't intend on ever letting you forget it...
Brad Harrington
brad@bradandbarbie.com
********************
Education By Force? Really?
By Bradley Harrington
Published in the Wyoming Tribune Eagle on February 6, 2015.
“We who are engaged in the sacred cause of education are entitled to look upon all parents as having given hostages to our cause.” - Horace Mann, “Lectures and Annual Reports on Education,” 1867 -
Prussia, after having been occupied by Napoleon during the Fourth Coalition War of 1806-1807, decided afterwards that flaws in its educational system were the cause of its humiliating defeat.
Consequently, Prussian intellectuals took the country’s compulsory-school model, first implemented decades earlier by Frederick the Great, and revamped it considerably. The stated goal was the production of loyal, socially-compliant citizens who would obediently follow the orders of the nation-state.
Normally, these facts would qualify as little more than historical footnotes. In 1843, however, Massachusetts Board of Education founder Horace Mann toured Prussia’s academic establishments and was so impressed with what he found that he imported those standards back to Massachusetts, where they were adopted in 1852.
From there, it didn’t take long for Mann’s compulsory-school reforms to spread to the rest of America: Mississippi was the final state to adopt them in 1917.
But that was just the beginning of the tragedy. Once Mann’s ideas of social compliance and training had taken firm root, intellectuals such as John Dewey rushed in to further erode individualized instruction, and schooling in the United States has been little more than a series of state-mandated social indoctrinations ever since.
Given such facts, one would think that true advocates of liberty and individualism would be pushing for the abolition of such “educational” methods in favor of more conceptually-based approaches better suited to the actual nature of human beings.
Should you think so, however, you would be seriously underestimating the ability of collectivist legislators and educrats to seek to further cage our kids’ minds:
“A proposal that would require students to wait an extra year before dropping out of school was approved by a legislative committee Friday [Jan.30]... the legislation would require public school students to attend classes until they are 17 or have completed the 11th grade.” (“Proposal would lift dropout age to 17,” WTE, Jan. 31.)
House Bill 198, according to sponsor Rep. Steve Harshman, R-Casper, would “convince more students to stay in school and get their diploma.”
Really, Mr. Harshman? Imagine, if you will, the mindset of a 16-year-old who’s made the decision to drop out of school, whether that be for reasons of employment, seeking to further his or her education by other means - or because they just happen to be bored out of their concept-deprived skull.
And your answer? To lock them up for yet another year? And what will that accomplish, other than to continue to generate income for the school district in question? Do you really believe you can force somebody to “learn” at the point of a gun?
Nor does Mr. Harshman possess a monopoly on foolishness, as this insane idea was quickly lauded by other educrats throughout the state: “The proposal was supported by... the State Board of Education, the Wyoming Education Association and the Wyoming School Boards Association.”
Indeed, local LCSD1 Superintendent John Lyttle had this to say: “Having that extra year would allow the students to ‘see light at the end of the tunnel’... ‘We really want to make the goal to get the graduation rate at an acceptable level.’”
Really, Mr. Lyttle? I guess we’ll just ignore the fact that our schools do little more than pump our kids’ minds full of socially-mandated garbage of no use to anyone in the real world. Has it ever occurred to you that it’s precisely this fact of reality that is motivating such high numbers of students to want to drop out in the first place? That is, as a means of asserting their own minds and choices in their lives? That, in their opinion, your “light at the end of the tunnel” is nothing but a train on its way to further wreck their consciousnesses?
No, like your brain-brothers Mr. Mann, Mr. Dewey and Mr. Harshman, you’ll just point the same gun at our kids’ heads and force them to comply - so you can prattle about “acceptable” graduation rates (and continue to collect the federal dollars paid for your hostages).
Speaking as someone who dropped out of high school at age 15, I can tell you quite clearly what my goal was in that move: to escape the system’s “educational” serfdom with my mind still reasonably intact. Although I didn’t explicitly realize it at the time, I was done being Mr. Mann’s “hostage,” and I’ve been a free-thinker ever since.
Mr. Harshman and Mr. Lyttle: If either of you were truly concerned about your students’ minds, you’d be advocating an end to compulsory education, not seeking to extend it.
House Bill 198 was defeated in the House on Thursday, but it will be back. The whole idea deserves nothing more than to be taken out back behind the Capitol and left there to rot.
When we were home schooling, the kids had T shirts saying "Schooling should not be confused with getting an education."