Well,
its been about a hundred and fifty years, now. Do you realize that
when the Mayflower landed at Plymouth Rock in 1620 and this country was
just beginning, that there would be over 200 years that families were
*left alone* (totally trusted to raise their own kids)? Parents chose
for themselves how their children would be educated. There was no big
brother breathing down their backs. In fact, the interesting thing is
that literacy was high vey high compared to what it is today.
Colonial America was much more civilized. Amazing. What happened to
evolution?" Were getting dumber as the decades pass on by. But why?
Do parents not love their children? Did our country simply get too busy
to bother with the education of children anymore? Not at all. Then how
come we're dumber? Well, it's because parents are no longer trusted.
The federal government decided back in the mid 1800s to raise your
children for you. They tricked the masses into believing that they
could do it better. But its not education that they were really after.
It was jobs. Sheep who could march to the government drum.
The
colonists were doing fine. Children were educated, many were trained in
Gods word, good character was highly stressed. Parents were interested
in their childrens future. Kids were educated out of the love and discipline of parents rather than government mandated compulsion, and it was working.
Daniel Webster himself, over a century later, said, a youth of
fifteen, of either sex, who cannot read and write, is very seldom to be
found. And Jacob Duche, the chaplain of Congress in 1772, said of his
countrymen, Almost every man is a reader. John Adams in 1765 wrote
that a native of America, especially of New England, who cannot read
and write is as rare a phenomenon as a Comet. (Joel Turtel, Public
School, Public Menace, Chapter 1)
Believe
it or not (without the help of our government), from 1800 to 1840,
literacy rates in the North increased from 75 percent to between 91 and
97 percent (Turtel). As the country grew, so did the minds of its citizens.
The pride of growing a new country fueled the desire to learn, I guess.
And that makes sense, doesnt it? After all, children are born with a
natural desire to learn, to make something of themselves, to leave a
mark on humanity. These were still exciting times.
In
1852, things changed. Education in Massachusetts became compulsory. And
as you might expect, it took some time before the new system began to
unravel. It didn't go bad right away. At first, it was almost a good
thing. The schools wanted to make a good impression to prove the
experiment, if you will. They demanded hard work, responsibility,
everything a good parent might expect of a willing child. As late as
the 1930s, this country still had a reasonably high literacy rate. But
by the mid-40s (Turtel), things started to unravel. John Taylor Gatto
speaks of the reasons why in his book, The Underground History of
American Education. In a nutshell, John tells us that at the start of
WWII, millions of men reported to registration offices to join up. But
before they could do that, the Army imposed low-level academic tests.
Eighteen million men were tested and 96% tested out just fine they
were literate. Keep in mind, these guys had been schooled in the 30s,
when literacy rates were still somewhat high. No one really worried.
After WWII ended, another began (Korea) six years later. Several
million men again were tested. This time, though, 600,000 were turned
away. Literacy in the draft pool had fallen to 81 percent even though
all that was needed to classify a soldier as literate was a fourth
grade reading proficiency. Now you might say, well, maybe it was
war-torn stresses that did this. Not at all. The Korean War group
received most of ITS schooling in the 40s, it had more years in school
with more professionally trained personnel and more scientifically
selected textbooks than the WWII men, yet it could not read, write,
count, speak or think as well as the earlier less-schooled contingent.
(I copied that last sentence verbatum from JTG)
It
started almost right away. Ill continue with this study, gaining
insights from Dr. Bruce Shortts book, The Harsh Truth About Public
Schools, John Taylor Gattos The Underground History of American
Education and Joel Turtels Public Schools, Public Menace (I highly
recommend you buying all three). Youre going to be shocked.
TOS Items of Interest
Jul. 4, 2006
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