Galt's Gulch

Where are we today?

Posted by j_IR1776wg 11 years, 10 months ago to Philosophy
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Are we witnessing the end of Individual Rights or are we witnessing the last gasp of Marxism?

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  • Posted by j_IR1776wg 11 years, 10 months ago
    Is there any way of getting the marxists out of our schools without completely scrapping the public school educational system and replacing it with privately owned schools?
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    • Posted by JossAmbrose 11 years, 10 months ago
      Let me assure you, we have the same problem in the UK. I have three young children, two of whom are at primary school. My wife & I have talked about home educating when they reach secondary school age. It strikes me that that's the only way to ensure they're not getting brainwashed with Leftist garbage. The only downside to this I feel, is that they will possibly be ill equipped to deal with life in a Communist country (because that's where we're heading) when they reach school leaving age. If the prerequisite for having the capacity to earn a living in GB is a head full of BS, then are we really being fair on them by contemplating such alternatives? Saying that, I had a pretty good education but left school with no qualifications to speak of. I run my own business. So there education system!
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      • Posted by khalling 11 years, 10 months ago
        the brainwashing happens in the primary grades. it's just reinforced in secondary and peer pressure now kicks in. every family makes their own decisions, but if I could do it over again I would have kept them home in the primary years and expected them to land on their feet in the secondary years AND provide the peer pressure of reason and logic. In the US, the state pays you if you home school. I have no idea how it is in GB. I do know about a german couple who was just denied citizenship in the States for seeking political asylum because in Germany, you must be state educated. amazing!
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        • Posted by LetsShrug 11 years, 10 months ago
          Not speaking from experience here, but isn't there a vast amount of liberal brainwashing happening at the College/University level??
          If I had it to do all over again I would home school too. I briefly contemplated it and then I got all concerned that I would make socially stunted kids....man I was stupid.
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        • Posted by JossAmbrose 11 years, 10 months ago
          I agree with you in that brainwashing happens in primary grades. I've heard my son come out with some leftist garbage - which I've ribbed him about. He's six. And families who choose to home school their kids tend to get a hard time in GB. I know a couple who did this & they've had some battles. Their daughter is an ABSOLUTE GENIUS. Frighteningly so!
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    • Posted by $ winterwind 11 years, 10 months ago
      Your assumption is that all privately-owned schools are non-Marxist; Not so. The most reliable way to find out what is happening in a school is to TALK TO THE STUDENTS. What do they think? Can they think? Will the administration let you talk to them?
      Oh, sorry, in answer to the original question, which I will cut off after "...system": NO.
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      • Posted by j_IR1776wg 11 years, 10 months ago
        I agree. However, under a free market system , private schools would have to post their educational philosophy in order to attract students. Public schools are under no such constraints since they get their funding at the point of a gun.
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        • Posted by $ winterwind 11 years, 10 months ago
          A problem with merely posting, or publicizing, your educational philosophy is that the educational field has gotten so clogged with new Master's and Doctoral degree candidates that sometimes the language doesn't mean anything. If you have to find a "new" idea to write your thesis on, you get work like "The use of alternative media for the display of mathematically-centered results." That means somebody discovered that a lot of kids find math problems easier to solve inf they work on grid paper [to keep the columns straight] than on regular notebook paper.
          So you can't go by their sales pitch - look at their product: the student.
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        • Posted by LetsShrug 11 years, 10 months ago
          BINGO! And parents would have to actually CARE and research and make a decision on what school to send them too. They might even have to drive them there themselves (gasp!), and pack them a lunch (double gasp!!), and review their homework and grades....Oh THE RESPONSIBILITY! (as it is right now...it's "free" daycare with a couple of "free" meals and some indoctrination thrown in.)
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          • Posted by $ winterwind 11 years, 10 months ago
            Absolutely - until we get to the word "grades". Here's a place where the language can ding you. The school I taught at didn't give "grades" [which I called "marks", to distinguish them from "grades" which are divisions of students by age, not ability]. When you saw on our sales pitch that we give evaluations, that can make you feel all...as someone has said...rainbows and unicorns. Believe me, the evaluations we wrote were ...rigorous. This will illustrate it the best. A student I worked with on writing came back to visit, and I asked her how High School was. She said sometimes hard. ?? She continued: I can do no work and get an A, or I can take 5 hours, learn something and still get an A. So I have to make myself do the work, because nobody else will.
            AKA: GRADES?!? We don' need no stinkin' GRADES...said by student &/or teacher, followed by much giggling.

            And yes, there are parents who wanted to take no responsibility, and parents who wanted to take too much.
            Your essential point, though, is right on the money. [as it were]. Stop just handing one of the most precious parts of your life, your children, over to people who will "teach" them soul-destroying, mind-numbing JUNK.
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            • Posted by LetsShrug 11 years, 10 months ago
              The more I watch it the more I realize that too many people do not have skin in the American dream any more...there's no real risk of true failure so why bother strongly encouraging their kids to "succeed", or "work harder to get ahead"? The "poor" are too comfortable in the U.S.... it's a "why bother" attitude....and it's this attitude that has gotten more and more apparent every year. Too much is provided for and not any where near enough effort required to receive these entitlements. It's not the lack of school funding, or the curriculum (as bad as it is and it SURE doesn't help a damned thing, I know,) as much as it's pure lazy, dumb downed, unconcerned parents and kids. Or... blatant IGNORANCE.
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  • Posted by gwcalvert 11 years, 10 months ago
    Unfortunately Marxism is alive and well. Just walk into most any public school or university and listen to what is being taught (indoctrinated) to our children for 5 minutes.
    On the other hand: As long as I breathe, I am free.
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