The desire to control the minds of the masses has long been a driving force behind the American educational system. From the very outset, compulsory schooling was used as a means of social engineering. Gilded-Age Robber Barons like JP Morgan, John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie had a real need for this kind of [non-]education because it was to their advantage to have an endless supply of worker drones incapable of thinking for themselves.

American public schools are scientifically designed not to ‘OVER-EDUCATE.’

Rather than challenge our students, we have created an education system based on rote learning skills, obedience training and a testing regime deliberately designed to exclude as many poor people, working people and people of color as possible – and to ‘re-stratify’ higher education as a domain for the privileged only.

Mission accomplished: college is simply no longer affordable for the average American student. Fewer people are willing to take on the enormous debts involved in attending a 4-year institution.

As Allan Bloom wrote years ago in The Closing Of The American Mind: “Every educational system has a moral goal that it tries to attain and that informs its curriculum. It wants to produce a certain kind of human being.”

The Elitists who set up the American public education system knew that no matter what, their children would still be able to receive a decent education at the best – usually private – schools. It is also true that no matter what the circumstances, exceptional students will always succeed whether they are from wealthy private schools or from the worst inner city ghetto.

But for the majority of the population, the purpose of compulsory education was to produce pliant consumers [“useless eaters”] and to instill in their parents the idea The State is the real father of their children.

One goal achieved through public schooling is the alienation of children from their parental influence at a younger and younger age. This has nothing to do with “taking God out of the classroom” – and everything to do with The Pledge of Allegiance.

Prior to compulsory education, America was actually a more literate nation than it is today. The reason for this historic downturn in basic competence and consistently poor student performance is because American public schools are literally designed to discourage independent thinking and analysis. A primary component of this strategy is the fragmentation of whole ideas and concepts into different subjects; each further indivisible unto itself [i.e., social studies/political science].

Self-motivated learning, solitude and independent study are muted into short periods of time, punctuated by repeated interruptions of the class bell, signifying the ‘end of the period.’ This further programs the child to get used to shutting his brain on and off like a faucet. This kind of psychological conditioning removes the ability of the child to think for themselves, and it paralyzes the moral will as well as the intellect. No wonder kids today have such short attention spans!

It’s no accident that the American educational system was set up to function in this way.

Former New York State Teacher of the Year John Taylor Gatto wrote a book back in the early 1990s called Dumbing Us Down. His book helps explain why public school is such a soul-destroying experience for most kids. Gatto traces our current problems to the very roots of the American education system.

Our system of public schooling wasn’t born out of some lofty goal to educate the masses or to create a literate, intelligent and well-informed citizenry. No, indeed. Not by a long shot!

Most people are unaware that the model for our public schools was taken lock, stock and barrel [literally!] from the Prussian education system of the 19^th Century. The Prussian model was instigated by that State following Prussia’s humiliating loss to France in the Napoleonic Wars. Prussia’s leaders demanded answers, and it was determined that their soldiers were defeated on the battlefield because they were thinking for themselves in the heat of battle instead of following orders.

Independent thinking had to somehow be removed from the equation.

Prussian philosopher Gottleib Fuchte [1762-1814] taught at the University of Berlin. He was instrumental in promoting the idea that The State – and only The State – should be the necessary instrument of social and moral progress [read: control].

Prussian children were marched off to school literally at gunpoint so that The State could teach them what to think, when to think, and how long to think it. They created a system which would guarantee total subservience to The State. Family matters and other considerations were secondary to achieving this goal, if they were considered at all.

It was a resounding success.

This utterly dehumanizing, elitist system was noted by visiting American dignitaries who eagerly adopted the Prussian aversion to ‘over-educating’ the masses. The goal was to create future generations that would follow orders and not ask too many questions. The Prussian model was quietly implemented in the USA by the turn of the 20^th Century, just in time to ensure access to cheap, unskilled labor for the Robber Barons.

This is the root cause of our present educational stagnation.

American public schools are not meant to teach; they are a means for The State take control over the minds of our youth. ‘Standard model’ public schools discourage independent thinking and effective personality development. Our public education system – despite the best efforts of truly devoted and talented educators – is seen by the Elite as the simplest and easiest form of social engineering.

As Gatto wrote back in 1991:

“…is it any wonder why we have the national crises we face today? Young people [are] indifferent to the adult world and the future; indifferent to almost anything except diversion of toys and violence. Rich or poor, children cannot concentrate on anything for very long. They have a poor sense of time past and to come; they’re mistrustful of intimacy…they hate solitude, are cruel, materialistic, passive, dependent, violent; timid in the face of the unexpected, addicted to distraction…”

The reason we still have this system which has proven to be so destructive to individuality, family relations, and connection to community can be found in the transformation of schooling from a simple service to families and communities into the enormous, centralized corporate behemoth it has become. Gatto is not alone in his belief that there should be LESS time for compulsory schooling, and that children should spend more time with their families and working to serve the local community.

It only takes about a hundred hours total to transmit the basic lessons of reading, writing and arithmetic to a student. But our education system prolongs this process for twelve years. Between school, television [the other ‘great educator’] and time spent staring at their smartphones, the time kids actually spend with their elders and in the community is minimal. They are locked up with their same age peers and away from society…much like the elderly.

Gatto believed that the solutions to these problems involved less school, not more. There should be less regimentation and more freedom. We should trust children and parents to give kids the space and the time they deserve in order to allow them to become more independent, more intelligent, and more productive citizens.

He had a point.

Every three years the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) measures reading ability, math and science literacy and other key skills among 15-year-olds in dozens of developed and developing countries. The most recent PISA results from 2015 placed the US a dismal 38th out of 71 countries in math and 24th in science. Among the 35 member states of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development [OECD], the USA ranked 30th in math and 19th in science.

For many years, students in the Scandinavian countries have been near the top of the PISA list. Finland is a model for how a civilized nation should educate their young.

• Students in Finland have light homework loads.

•Finnish schools don’t have special classes for gifted students.

•There is very little standardized testing.

•Children do not start school until age 7.

•They have a comprehensive preschool program which emphasizes “self-reflection” and socialization over academics.

•Grades are not given until high school, and even then, class rankings are not compiled.

And perhaps most importantly,

•Teachers must have a Master’s degree; salaries are highly competitive.

John Taylor Gatto no longer teaches public school. He was one of the original home schooling advocates; he thought that parents should play a bigger role in raising their children and encouraging them to learn. Unfortunately, the average American parent is dumber than a sock drawer, and rather than take any responsibility for the education of their own children, they have willingly abdicated that responsibility to The State…per the Prussian model.

The sad fact is that most parents are a hindrance to their children’s education rather than a positive influence. Gatto’s ideas on home schooling are somewhat dated in this regard…

I have found that the majority of parents who home school their kids are simply religious fanatics who don’t want their children race mixing with all those heathens who believe in science and all that other stuff not covered in the BuyBull. Most home-schooled kids I’ve met have serious deficiencies when it comes to social interaction, and they have difficulty functioning in the real world. Some of them may be able to test well, but they are social cripples.

So clearly we’re doing something wrong; and home schooling isn’t the answer.

Home schooling is fine when you’ve got intelligent, devoted parents who are able to follow a standardized curriculum; it’s not so fine when parents remove their children from public schools simply to isolate them from society in order to poison their minds with religious fairy tales and racist hatred.

ALL I KNOW IS: I sure as hell am glad I don’t have kids so I don’t have to worry about all this shit.

Except that I do – because I have to deal with these morons every time I step outside my front door!