I found the website of Charlotte Thomson Iserbyt, author of The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America, very informative. An apparently successful plan was put in place decades ago and here we are.
I grew up in Camden Rockport Maine and remember when Charlotte and her family moved there in the 70s or so when they returned from overseas. She got on the school board for a while and really pissed people off. She was reviled in the liberal coastal rapidly blueing towns of that region. I have her book.
Public education was deemed essential. You are so right that it is "infrastructure". Elements can be private, for sure. Land tract issuance in the late 18 and early 19th centuries favored tracts for academies, etc. The original Northwest Territory including Ohio called for land for schools. Yale still owns large swaths of northeast timber lands, which they abuse through non profits, etc. Changing the subject a bit, don't forget the Bill of Rights. It was almost forgotten. It was included at the last minute. Actually, a few minutes after the last minute. Here's what John Adams wrote Thomas Jefferson in November 1788 before the Constitution was formally ratified and implemented and Washington elected. " “What think you of a Declaration of Rights? Should not such a Thing have preceded the Model?”
It was a "whoops" moment! So it was not a preceding "Declaration of Rights", but a post facto Bill of Rights. It was, nonetheless, a fortuitous and lucky inclusion.
Wanting to provide basic education for free to all is a noble ideal, however in reality that compels wage slavery to pay for it, plus allows unethical rulers to control what is taught, as is happening now all over the country. At this point it might be better to have rational thinkers whose minds have not been dumbed down and indoctrinated than overgrown children who can (sort of) read but not comprehend. Non-profit charitable organizations could provide basic reading, writing and arithmetic to those who are unable to afford to pay a teacher or teach their kids themselves. Government run and funded schools are a double-edged sword, IMO.
Accurate. The current "system" was fashioned after the Prussian militaristic state whose mission was to steer the populace in any direction it chose. We live in a time where authority is given up to the state as soon as we place our children into primary school. Kids see the school and staff as ultimate authority...where they are keepers of "knowledge". Then kids enjoy a regimented schedule along with Pavlov's Dog-styled bell chimes for lunch, recess, and end of day. This along with punitive measures to manage both compliance and engagement and you have the recipe for a managed and enslaved young population that was conditioned for a 9-5. Just as planned. I don't know if the founders really thought public education through and saw to the end just how easily a rogue government could manipulate it. Because that is where we are. The end stage of indoctrination, not education.
I found the website of Charlotte Thomson Iserbyt, author of The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America, very informative. An apparently successful plan was put in place decades ago and here we are.
I grew up in Camden Rockport Maine and remember when Charlotte and her family moved there in the 70s or so when they returned from overseas. She got on the school board for a while and really pissed people off. She was reviled in the liberal coastal rapidly blueing towns of that region. I have her book.
And now the indoctrination starts in nursery school.
Public education was deemed essential. You are so right that it is "infrastructure". Elements can be private, for sure. Land tract issuance in the late 18 and early 19th centuries favored tracts for academies, etc. The original Northwest Territory including Ohio called for land for schools. Yale still owns large swaths of northeast timber lands, which they abuse through non profits, etc. Changing the subject a bit, don't forget the Bill of Rights. It was almost forgotten. It was included at the last minute. Actually, a few minutes after the last minute. Here's what John Adams wrote Thomas Jefferson in November 1788 before the Constitution was formally ratified and implemented and Washington elected. " “What think you of a Declaration of Rights? Should not such a Thing have preceded the Model?”
It was a "whoops" moment! So it was not a preceding "Declaration of Rights", but a post facto Bill of Rights. It was, nonetheless, a fortuitous and lucky inclusion.
Wanting to provide basic education for free to all is a noble ideal, however in reality that compels wage slavery to pay for it, plus allows unethical rulers to control what is taught, as is happening now all over the country. At this point it might be better to have rational thinkers whose minds have not been dumbed down and indoctrinated than overgrown children who can (sort of) read but not comprehend. Non-profit charitable organizations could provide basic reading, writing and arithmetic to those who are unable to afford to pay a teacher or teach their kids themselves. Government run and funded schools are a double-edged sword, IMO.
Accurate. The current "system" was fashioned after the Prussian militaristic state whose mission was to steer the populace in any direction it chose. We live in a time where authority is given up to the state as soon as we place our children into primary school. Kids see the school and staff as ultimate authority...where they are keepers of "knowledge". Then kids enjoy a regimented schedule along with Pavlov's Dog-styled bell chimes for lunch, recess, and end of day. This along with punitive measures to manage both compliance and engagement and you have the recipe for a managed and enslaved young population that was conditioned for a 9-5. Just as planned. I don't know if the founders really thought public education through and saw to the end just how easily a rogue government could manipulate it. Because that is where we are. The end stage of indoctrination, not education.