Last month I had occasion to chat with a youth in my town who recently graduated from high school. The youth commented to me what a waste of time high school had been (graduated from Lone Peak for the curious) and I asked him to explain what he meant. I was surprised at his response and asked him to email me and elaborate on why he felt like it was a waste of time. He desires to remain anonymous but gave permission for me to post his email to me. Here it is.
About my experience with the American School system:
The thing about the school system that most bothered me in retrospective means was that in the first grade I wrote my 4’s exactly the way that the computer shows them with most standard font’s. I was forced to write 4’s with the box at the top instead of the triangle. This bothers me, I was forced to uphold a societal standard or I had assignments marked incorrectly. This is a horrible practice. That was my first true experience with societal standards. My next experience that made me dislike the school system was that throughout all my science classes through elementary evolution was explained and explained again and shoved into your skull. Evolution should not be AT ALL the focus in classes in elementary. The fact that evolution was a huge focus throughout elementary leads to a couple simple assumptions about the thought process of the designers of this system:
1: A child must understand the theory and end result of scientific discovery.
2: The child understanding how we reached these conclusions is secondary.
3: Children are not smart enough to think for themselves so these conclusions must be supported as indisputable facts.
These assumptions were created from these facts about my experience with elementary:
1: Every lesson about evolution never asked us to look at data and reach our own conclusions.
2: Every lesson about evolution in which we had to reach a conclusion ended up strengthening the belief in evolution as a whole.
3: Dinosaurs existed 500 – 100 million years ago throughout 4 or 5 distinct eras, there was no other idea or theory presented to the child with evidence and then asked to reach a conclusion.
4: Lessons involving geology often talked about the “layers” in the earths crust, no other possible explanation of how these layers came to be was presented except for the cookie cutter one (It took millions of years).
Why was the fact that rushing water speeds up the process of petrification, the fact that rushing water can separate sediments into layers and other information that could potentially lead to a different conclusion about the earth explained at all? (IE: A worldwide flood created the layers and caused the petrification of many of the living at the time plants and animals is one such conclusion, this is supported with another piece of evidence: There are petrified trees that exist between layers in the crust, something that would be almost impossible with the cookie cutter millions of years theory, and this one actually makes sense following my religious beliefs.)
My formulated reasoning is simple:
If you want a child to believe something, never tell them the alternative.
(Pictures of rock layers for fun)
IE: The school system is set up to be manipulative, to teach children what the state and the federal government believe is supposed to be upheld, and does not leave room for the child to practice critical thinking and for children to learn how we reached the conclusions we did and other potential conclusions that could be gained from the same evidence.
Why was I never taught about the first 5 presidents of the United States? I know the name of George Washington and that he won us a war but I know nothing of James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, or any of the other key players. Why was I taught about Paul Revere but never anything about the other guy (Whose name I forget) who went triple as far in the same night? Why was I taught more about the history of the blacks in America then how the federal government became the way it is? Why is there a higher precedence placed on racial issues than the creation of the most powerful country on earth? Why did I learn nothing of the war of 1812, why did I not learn about Lincoln’s reasoning to turn the Civil wars focus on upholding the union to freeing the slaves? Why was I not taught every single right in the bill of rights and taught why they were put in there, and what they mean? And why was I not taught reasons why those should be protected? Why was I taught about racial issues and evolution as a focus instead of the history of my country?
Here I am going to try to list the first ten amendments in order without using Google to see if I know them:
1: This is the freedom of speech, religion, press, petition
2: Right to bear arms (Citizens to have guns), Right to have a state militia (To protect from government)
3: Right to not be forced to quarter soldiers (Protect from government)
4:
5: Right to be allowed to not speak if faced with criminal/civil charges. (IE: Pleading the fifth)
6:
7:
8: Cruel and unusual punishment
9:
10:
That’s all I can think of, this is a sign that the system as built does not care about citizens understanding how the government works and why the amendments were set up the way they were. Also I learned more about the amendments in my law enforcement class then my actual government class.
I might write more later and iterate more on my experiences in High School, but think about this: All of the information I now believe, my personal beliefs about government and the school system. I learned NONE of it in school, none. So imagine how many people who didn’t learn what I did who are essentially mentally enslaved to the beliefs set out for them, this is a problem and not one I take lightly and not one any parent who actually cares about their children should take lightly, most of my knowledge about the revolutionary war comes from my Dad talking to us about actual history and why Washington made the decisions he did and how the environment itself played a huge role in them winning if one of many different factors were different on many different battles the British would have won. My favorite quote is by I believe a British general: “As soon as we are about to destroy the rebels the weather sets in, or we lose them…” (This quote is remembered extremely incorrectly but simply serves to iterate my point, we were not taught any information that could lead to any conclusions contrary to what the state wants, if stuff like that quote was taught the idea that the founding fathers had divine guidance and protection would be one that a child could think of and figure out, but that idea is not wanted so they don’t teach it.)
(This is a combining of many different quotes, but I like it so here you go.)
There can never be a master who obeyed his slaves.
And the master cannot have a slave who understands what a slave is.
For once the slave understands what he is he wonders:
Why are you the master, and why am I a slave.
And thus we see that the only thing stopping a slave from being the master is one simple thing.
Knowledge. And once a slave has knowledge. He will never be content with being a slave.
But a slave who has no knowledge or does not seek knowledge, he cannot be anything more than a slave.
What we teach our children and our children’s children and how we teach ourselves is the most important defining characteristic of a generation, and if the government controls the education, we are all slaves.
********************
Addendum: 7/9/16
This student just provided the quotes he was referencing above:
“Knowledge makes a man unfit to be a slave.”
“Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.”
“It is easier to build strong men, than to repair broken ones.”
-Frederick Douglass
“I cannot live without books.”
“If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.”
-Thomas Jefferson
“If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.”
-George Washington
“Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives”
-James Madison
Wow.
Pretty much sums it up now doesn’t it. Get your kids out of the system. Time to STARVE THE BEAST!!!
Absolutely mind-boggling how accurate and precise he is. The laziness of all people to rely on any politician to give us a reprieve? Oh No, without knowledge, people perish.
Absolutely,mindboggling,how accurate and precise,he is.The laziness of all people,to rely on any politician to give us a reprieve?Oh No,without knowlege ,people perish.
I had a dear friend a while back who told me … not in jest … that she’d turned the family dinner hour into a deprogramming event … to unlace the never-ending biases her children were fed day after day after day in public elementary and high school. She lived in one of the strongest performing districts in the nation, too. She was religious about her commitment ti hear .. everyday! … what was transpiring in her children’s classrooms.
I saw this bias, too, with some teachers in my own school. They just couldn’t stop shading everything that buzzed around their classrooms and their lessons with progressive/liberal dye. It was so internalized that, if you brought to their attention, they were extra-stunned. At least they seemed that way … but it made no difference at all.
I’m all for political freedom … I am not for cramming biases into captive audiences of adolescents. This is more the norm where I live.
I scribbled this a while back … just observations you can either read or ignore … but … this is what I saw. It is what it is.
The new educational reformers love rewriting American history to coalesce with the current pc mindset. They seem barely shivered by eye-popping, stomach-churning developments in sex education … for the littlest of students … who are now exposed to startling information and vividly detailed sexual escapades … all under the guise of healthy living. These oligarchs seem somewhat soothed by the politically charged alterations to historical documents and events … provided they tumble to the left of center.
If you’re up for skewering America and its history, hop on board. If you’re inclined toward seedy sexual stuff … welcome home! If you’re in favor of disrupting and disturbing a particular activity like coal or petroleum production … or sanctifying every tree and bog and swamp … then there’s a slot for you in the schools we unfortunately support financially … or the college that’s rocketed you and your kid into deep debt.
Everyone gets lumped together by color or sex or this or that … why not lump everyone together as people? I guess unity isn’t a good feature … gets in the way of some agenda. Might cause people to think on their own … come together as brothers and sisters … and that is very dangerous stuff … at least for some folks.
And we let them get away with it … all the time.
Itching for a fight about who should control nutrition for kids? You’re welcomed aboard. Cranky about about tenure or teacher sovereignty in the classroom? All aboard. It seems anyone with a beef gets a plate weird buffet of all-you-can-eat nonsense.
Got beefs? Maybe against the military or the Tea Party? Scribble out a unit or a lesson package. You’re in. Got hang-up about climate change or homosexual marriages? Fire away. Got a bug up your nose about Christianity or religion in general,? Just punch out a screed about fanatics and you’re a curriculum all-star.
Esteemed historical figures are pilloried at the politically-correct whipping post. Historical documents … which foundationed this nation for centuries … are now seen as attic junk … to be recycled according to the “New Nonsense” of the day.
This is no time to hail this nation. Nope. It needs to be SHAMED. Made to appear as sinful as any other on the planet. It’s time to excoriate those blasphemers who think this is an exceptional nation based on a unique set of principles because, well, it makes us standout a bit too much from the rest of the miserable world. And we can’t have that. No, siree.
We’re even cajoled to empathize with the new medievalists … currently on a head-collecting mission in the sands of the Middle East … who will one day rocket us into a modern armageddon of real life-or-death preservation. It now seems wiser to “understand” our enemies than to even question them … to search for the vomit-inducing “root cause” of their bloody neo-medievalism. The nation is shaking its head.
In schools today, Christianity is viewed as a dangerous cult, personal responsibility has been replaced by an all-knowing, all-soothing government, and espousing contrarian points of view will get you tattooed as a racist, a xenophile, a homophobe, a sexist, a capitalist-pig, a neanderthal … or a dastardly conservative. The progressive/ liberal reformers have opened the flood-gates for every miscreant with a special beef to step forward and set the record unstraight … because that is part and parcel of the New Nonsense.
The time is now for change. Right now.
Denis Ian
I love your passion and knowledge.
Thank you for an uplifting read.
Denis Ian. … brilliant
Thanks for a great explanation of the stupidity of this (our) government. We are in for a sad state….
Exceedingly excellent. Thank you.
Christianity IS a dangerous cult
Christianity isn’t dangerous. Christ’s teachings are true teachings of peace. False and perverted “Christian” teachings are dangerous and power hungry manipulators are dangerous.
John, your name says it all. You were named after one of the original Apostles of Jesus Christ, and your last name is the same as his home town. I feel very sorry for you, as Satan has worked very hard on you, and it looks like he has had some success. The whole world (including Christianity) is filled with hypocrisy, false teachings, lies, fake science, and evil beliefs. Seek the truth about God, prove Him by living His commandments (starting with the original 10). Fast and pray to Heavenly Father in the name of Jesus Christ. If you really want to know, He will tell you. You don’t have to go to a church to do this. Read the Bible. Live the best you know how. YOU CAN KNOW, NOT JUST BELIEVE, BUT YOU MUST BE WILLING TO FOLLOW THE TRUTH. God and the truth will lead you to the correct church.
He is absolutely correct about only learning what the state wants you to learn. Through the process of seeking truth I have left my religion, no longer worship the state (am an anarchist in fact), and do not trust officials and experts of any kind, and do not accept any information blindly. I am also far less judgmental (because I have learned enough to know I still know very little), and I am also more spiritual and closer to my Creator than in the past. So seek out what you want to know. But you will no longer fit society’s mold once you do. It’s worth it though.
This is excellent Oak! It is excellent and sad. Thank you so very much to the high schooler who wrote this and gave you permission to publish! It’s absolutely astounding the garbage and crap being fed to our kids. I’ll never forget the instructor in the common crap video explaining to the teachers (learning it for the first time) that 5 + 5 = 11. When the educated teachers in the room balked at that – the “instructor” proceeded to tell them if the student can provide their reason and logic as to WHY 5 + 5 = 11 then it’s correct. Forget about the good, solid standard math algorithms we were all taught and memorized and have used for hundreds of years……this common crap is truly unbelievable…..it’s like a cult and they are recruiting our kids as their “followers”. It’s sick. And Denis Ian’s reply is pretty amazing (as always). Not only are our kids NOT learning anything with the common crap…..they are being subjected to porn under the guise of “health education”. Critical thinking? That was the BS slogan they came up with sell it to the parents, et al.
For a breakdown of the destruction of Christianity check out Professor Walter Veith (his “testimony” (on youtube) is a fascinating life story on it’s own) at http://www.amazingdiscoveries.tv – the total onslaught series, rekindling the reformation series and total transformation. Amazing lectures, I can’t recommend them enough and I’m an ex-catholic.
Thank God this young lad can put how he feels about his education so succinctly, many children can’t. For more about the destruction of the education system check out Charlotte Iserbyt – the dumbing down of america. I dare you not to have your mind blown!
I’m in the uk and my brother and sister in law are head teachers at primary schools 80 miles away, and they’re as indoctrinated in the system just as much as the children are. They’re breeding an new race of “brown-shirts” – watch this space!
My sister who is a lowly teaching assistant ;) but lives in the same town as me listens to what I say and confirms it’s happening in her primary school as well.
I don’t think we’ve gone nationwide on the curriculae yet regarding teaching 5 yr olds how to masturbate, but honestly, I think it’s just a matter of time!
Pass on my regards to the lad and thank him for his expression and return the favour on my behalf by sharing with him what I’ve shared here with you.
To “RC” above, don’t be despondent my friend. Check the Professor’ Testimony out. He was raised a catholic became an atheist, studied and taught evolution at a secular university, had satanic problems with his 2 yr old child at home and started studying the bible – scientifically of course :) did his life change at all or did he remain an evolution professor.
I swear they should make a film of his life story!
we have been slaves a long time.get out of the system.
Wow,unfortunately it’s the same here in Canada as well.
This is simply amazing!
The above is exactly why our student is now in private Christian school. We’d had enough and made the financial sacrifice to get him out of government run schools.
We are raising uninformed voters, which are SO easy to sway!
http://www.communistgoals.com/goals.htm
It continues in college. An indoctrination that has no room for the truth or even for critical thinking coming up with their own conclusion, whatever that may be.
Now if he could only write, I would understand what he is complaining about because he is terrible. Albert Einstein didn’t even know his own phone number. He said it was a waste of time to memorize something he could look up. This student should take that advice.
FYI, this was a first draft private email. The student wasn’t turning in a paper. He gave me permission to print it and I did. I think anyone can sum up what he’s saying.
This is great info, but also completely irrelevant. How can one student opinion state the same for everyone? Just because his teachers didn’t teach it, doesn’t mean others didn’t. Teachers haven’t had the common core long enough to know what the actual effect is. This kid for sure had teachers doing what they felt was important.
Proof that home schooling works and public schools don’t. The important things he learned was learned at home. ;) And look at the intelligence he has! Very articulate and insightful!
Good heavens all of you are praising and idiot child. That’s do sad!
Are you attempting to criticize his grammar? :)
That rock picture is just a fossilized tree. It’s called a polystrate fossil.
Also it’s been a long time since science class but water doesn’t speed up the petrification process though you can’t have petrification without it. The minerals in water is what causes things to become petrified.
I understand what the recent grad is saying, but his point is diminished by his rudimentary writing ability. I believe that is also taught in school. Perhaps it is the student and the system harmoniously failing together.
Please note that this was a hasty first draft email this student sent to me without the anticipation of being published. If it had been under the idea that it would be published online, no doubt he would have been more careful. Please examine the content, not the style.
As a retired teacher, I was moved by the spot on comments of this graduate. When my students wanted me to “just tell us the answer,” I would reply, “My job is NOT to give you the answers but to teach you how to find them for yourself, how to use reference materials, how to think and draw conclusions, and how to make decisions that agree with your personal beliefs.”
I love what he wrote at the end, about slaves without knowledge. He said that he combined a couple different quotes for that. Could you get his sources? I’d be interested to read the originals.
DJ, the student replied back with several quotes and I have added them at the bottom of the article.
I agree accept that you ignore the fact that the racial issue was also corrupted. You weren’t actually taught anything about it either.
I was actually taught all of this in public high school through AP classes. My teacher wanted to make sure we understood how the government and the election process works. Also “Why was I taught about racial issues and evolution as a focus instead of the history of my country?” racial issuesare still a topic and a problem in our country and heavily impacted the history of America. Remember all the race riots of the 60s and the Civil Rights movement? That’s all history.
I think learning about racial issues is certainly important, but without a knowledge of the Declaration of Independence and Constitution, the major documents of freedom, the racial issues wouldn’t be in a full context. The knowledge of the founding of our nation, is to me, of far more value in preserving freedom. Both are important, but one is foundational.
As a 10th grader, I agree completely. I can bear witness that everything he’s saying is true. Thank you for contributing all that detail!
I haven’t learned ANYTHING from the school, with the exception of orchestra and other subjects that I didn’t know anything about to begin with, since the 6TH GRADE. I eventually just completely gave up on school, and most everything I know is self-taught. I’m the only youth I know who is even aware of the issues with Common Core.
By the way, you should remember the 10th amendment, that’s an amendment that Common Core completely throws under the bus.