Barbarians at the Gates: Authoritarianism and the Assault on Public Education

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"The whole people must take upon themselves the education of the whole people and be willing to bear the expenses of it.
There should not be a district of one mile square, without a school in it, not founded by a charitable individual,
but maintained at the public expense of the people themselves."
— John Adams, U.S. President, 1785
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….”These are dangerous times. Compromise and compassion are now viewed as a pathology, a blight on the very meaning of politics. Moreover, in a society controlled by financial monsters, the political order is no longer sustained by a faith in reason, critical thought and care for the other. As any vestige of critical education, thought and dissent are disparaged, the assault on reason gives way to both a crisis in agency and politics.

The right-wing Republican Party and their Democratic Party counterparts, along with their corporate supporters, despise public schools as much as they disdain taxation, institutions that enable critical thinking, and any call for providing social provisions that would benefit the public good. Not only are both parties attempting to privatize much of public education in order to make schools vehicles for increasing the profits of investors, they are also destroying the critical infrastructures that sustain schools as democratic public spheres.” …. – Source​

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There may come a time when there is no more pedagogy. Instead, education will be constructed around a profit/loss column. Investments will be done in a person’s education, based on their potential for profitability. Those less gifted will get less education and maneuvered into jobs fitting to what some test score says and of course, the needs of industry.

This threat to education is coming directly from not only the corporations and their Republican thralls, but, to wit;

"…the Democratic Party has been particularly beholden to big money, wealthy donors and the Pentagon, and has pursued "centrist politics that allow them to follow the Republicans ever further to the right." President Obama personifies the political and moral cowardice of the Democratic Party given his violation of civil liberties and civil institutions, the development of a foreign policy that amounts to a doctrine of perpetual war, and his backing of "corporate-friendly economic policies."

Moreover, the Obama administration's educational policies have been more conservative than those of his predecessor George W. Bush and are based on accountability schemes that reproduce the worst of the testing craze along with an aggressive approach to promoting charter schools, attacking unions and privatizing public education."​

America, once a shining star of education throughout the world, has degenerated by coupling it to political ideologies which favor the rich, over the poor.
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http://www.amazon.com/Underground-History-American-Education-Investigation/dp/0945700040

The public education systems has done what it has always been designed to do.

 

The government should govern, not run socialized schools.

 

And this kinda conspiracy theory bull(*)(*)(*)(*) is why.

 

I offered no conspiracy theory. I just said the government should govern, not run socialized schools.

 

You don't see the irony in that statement?

Wow, it's worse than I thought!

 

Maybe you could point out what you consider to be ironic about it.

 

You put "socialized schools" and "no conspiracy theory" in the same sentence.

That is a textbook example of irony.

 

Its not a conspiracy to say mainly elites receive a liberal education while the masses in public school are just taught subordination.

Part of Rockefeller’s statement to the General Education Board in 1906.

The evidence is clear that literacy rates plummeted after compulsory public schooling was implemented nationwide. So much so, in fact, that just after World War II, the Army could not believe literacy had fallen so much in a generation that they commissioned a study to find out how over half a million recruits had attempted to fake illiteracy.

The book is well sourced.

 

Socialism is typically defined as government ownership of the means of production. If the government owns and operates an enterprise, it is typically referred to as being socialized. The term "socialized medicine" is an example. Socialized schools refers to the schools that are owned and operated by the government. That's not a conspiracy theory, it is simply a description.

 

Exactly. The postal service is another example of socialism.

 

Yes, another good example.

 

Public education is not socialism.

 

I don't agree with you there, but it doesn't matter. I'll rephrase my initial statement.

Government should govern. It shouldn't own and operate schools.

 

Although I do not agree with your opinion, I do understand it, and I appreciate you rephrasing it.

 

This seems highly unlikely. Please show this evidence.

Cuba has one of the highest literacy rates in the world.

 

I don't know. This reeks of left-wing fear mongering. The language and the message both compel me to take it as such. Funny, considering the piece mentions critical thinking! This piece has certainly got me doing that, but in a way likely unintended.

 

Not if you count minorities....

Also what the army really noticed was that smarter soldiers (educated ones) survived war at a higher rate than less smart soldiers. That is why they commissioned that study.

 

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If the only tool you have, is a hammer, everything you see starts looking like a nail.

 

K. Thanks. 'Preciate the cliche.

It was clearly an ungrounded, hyped-up bit of writing, though.

 

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Yes, it was ...a precise cliché and true. Those with an anti-educational agenda, if they are not shills, are ultimately mislead individuals. Once properly trained, they become discardable fools. It follows a well worn pattern.
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Who's anti-education? Some religious loons in Kentucky?

I'm even willing to teach you how to spell the past tense of mislead (which is 'misled').

 

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1) The entire conservative/GOP movement.

2) When a poster has nothing intelligent to add; they can always critique spelling, typos and grammar.
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1. Nobody is against education for their own kids. A lot of people are against paying for education for other people's kids.....
2. I don't criticize spelling (unless the misspelling is done in the criticism of spelling) or typos, but poor grammar is a sign of a writer who doesn't care.

 

I guess in your mind, John Adams was a fool. Say, wasn't he a founding father?