Machinery of Freedom: Take back education
The United States of America is not the land of the free and never will be so long as we allow governments to dictate what is taught in our schools. This is pretty much the same around the world.
If you disagree, consider the following two questions:
- Were you educated in a government regulated school?
- Do you believe those that regulate schools hold the interests of you and your children above their own interests?
Is it possible that those who control what schools teach have an agenda that differs dramatically from yours?
The purported agenda of public schools
Most people I know believe that our schools are there to give people a real education that will allow them to be successful in life.
By that measuring stick most people rightly feel that our schools are failing and that something needs to be done. A quick search for "public schools failing" on Google turns up 21 million results.
Of course, if the agenda differs from what you believe it to be then any solutions that attempt to fix failing public schools will likely fail to make a positive difference.
An alternate agenda for public schools
What if the agenda is actually to produce citizens that are easier to control by both corporations and governments?
If that is the actual agenda then maybe the schools are actually a success.
Below I outline what I believe would be a good set of skills and knowledge for empowering children in life and then rate each according to the above two agendas.
The results are eye opening.
Afterwards, I note some possible ways to go about changing the agenda and invite you to chime in.
Fundamentals of a good education
In order to promote a free society and empower people, I believe that a solid education requires certain skills and knowledge.
Foundational Skills
The foundational skills below are those that likely don't warrant their own class (except reading and writing for those who cannot read or write), but could be easily taught when teaching foundational knowledge.
Together, they provide everything one needs to learn just about any subject without having to rely on taking a class.
Communication
Communication covers discussion (how to converse with people who disagree with you, see where they are coming from, and potentially come to an agreement), debate (arguing a point rationally to convince people your view is better than that of those you are arguing with), and public speaking.
If you can communicate well you can convince others of your beliefs, alter your own beliefs as new information comes to light, and convince people to work with you.
If you cannot communicate effectively then being able to effect change becomes very difficult.
Reading
Reading includes not just passive reading but active and critical reading as well. While it is good to be able to read, if you fail to question what is written, check resources used as proof, and/or spot faulty logic then reading can do as much harm as good.
Writing
Writing includes not just spelling and syntax but also the ability to frame ideas in an effective manner, tell good stories, put complete thoughts down onto paper, etc.
If you cannot write effectively you will have trouble convincing others of anything no matter how well you are at communication (unless you focus exclusively on video and audio without any scripts).
Logic
Logic teaches one to spot straw man arguments and other types of argument used to convince people of things that simply are provably not true.
Without a solid grasp of logic it becomes difficult to discern truth from lies and bad arguments from good ones.
Foundational Knowledge
The knowledge that I believe to be foundational in a free society is outlined below. These are all things that there are strong incentives for those who would become rulers rather than leaders to keep hidden or avoid teaching.
History
An objective view of history helps one see not only how we got where we are today but also that people organized as governments and corporations do not always have our best interests in mind.
In fact, learning real history shows clearly that the vast majority of murder, theft, and other crimes committed in the last couple thousand years has been committed by governments or with the help of them.
Law and Rights
If you do not know your rights then you effectively have no rights.
If you do not know how to exercise your rights and defend them via our legal process then you effectively do not have them.
A solid understanding of rights, how our court systems work, and how to pursue (or defend) a lawsuit is something that free people need if they want to avoid becoming less free over time.
Political Activism
If you live within a political system then you should know how it works if you want to be able to organize against corruption and prevent tyranny in governments.
If you don't know what levels of government you have, which offices you can vote (or run) for, how to run for office, what each office does, who currently holds which office, and how to tell what any current official is up to then you lack the ability to work for positive change via the political system.
While most people don't have the time everyone should have at least the basic knowledge to take part in our system if they become interested in doing so.
Finance
In it's most basic form I'd consider finance to be the ability to create a cash flow chart and use that to create a budget which can then be used to decide how to be financially independent.
I also believe that people should know how money/debt/credit work and what inflation is so that they can make intelligent decisions concerning budgeting, saving, and investing.
Health
If you lack health you are in for a rough time of life.
Real health information would include knowledge of genetically modified foods, what the numbers mean on fruits and vegetables in stores, how the meat industry actually does things, eating for optimal digestion, and the fact that no one needs animal products to be healthy.
Some information on basic exercise and self defense probably wouldn't hurt either.
Basic life skills
Freedom is about choice. To be as free as possible we need to know how to do things for ourselves so that we have the choice to hire them done, do them ourselves, or not bother doing them.
By not teaching skills such as growing and storing food, hunting and fishing, collecting water, creating shelter, maintaining a house (basic electrical, plumbing, framing, etc.), and maintaining a car (at least changing tires, replacing spark plugs and batteries, etc.) one loses the do it yourself option.
Additionally, learning these skills builds confidence.
Obviously, basic math would be required for learning finance and useful for teaching logic.
That being said, more advanced math, the hard sciences, literature, art, and most other classes taught in school today are things that well educated people can teach themselves, choose as electives, or perhaps learn at a local community college.
Rating if the agenda is empowerment
Looking over the list of skills and knowledge outlined above and rating each one when the agenda is seen as empowering those who go to school, the picture is pretty bleak. (0 = failure, 1 = poor, 2 = good or better)
| Skill/Knowledge | Score | Notes |
| Communication | 0 | rarely taught |
| Reading | 1 | passive only |
| Writing | 1 | how to, but not used much |
| Logic | 0 | rarely taught except by accident in math |
| History | 1 | taught, but avoids anything making gov/corp look bad |
| Law and Rights | 0 | not taught |
| Political Activism | 0 | not taught |
| Finance | 0 | not taught |
| Health | 0 | not taught with any validity, uses bad information |
| Basic Life Skills | 0 | not taught |
| Total | 3/20 | 15% |
By this agenda, the schools are definitely failing.
Do you really think that those running this country are so incompetent?
Maybe you should consider that the agenda is different than what you believe it to be.
What if the agenda is very different?
What if the goal of schools is not to empower people and provide a brighter future, but rather to create docile citizens and employees.
Let's take another look at the above skills and knowledge with the idea of what is needed to meet these two goals:
Communication
People with good communication skills tend to get organized, demand decent treatment, and fight against being oppressed. Keeping communication skills poor makes it easier to control people.
Reading
Active readers tend to ask questions and pick up on lies and half truths more easily than passive readers. Keeping people from reading in an active fashion makes it easier to control people.
Writing
Good writers that communicate well can quickly convince others that their point of view (if valid) is correct. Keeping people who might oppose corporate and government control from writing well makes it easier to control people.
Logic
People who have a grasp of logic can detect lies more readily and see the likely outcome of various actions. Suppressing logic helps to allow more power for governments and corporations.
History
People who know real history tend to resist government and corporate control and organize to demand rights and the end of oppression. Preventing a real knowledge of history helps to keep control of people.
Law and Rights
People who know their rights and are willing to sue those that violate them are a serious threat to government and corporate control of people.
Political Activism
Combine this with good communication and (even worse) a knowledge of law and rights and you have people that will not be tread upon easily. Very bad for corporate/government control.
Finance
People that save money and spend wisely generally do not have to continually buy things or rely on welfare to make ends meet. This lowers the GDP and so the tax base and makes it harder to continually improve profits.
Health
Healthy people have more energy to enjoy life, fewer medical bills, and potentially more ability to save when wanted. Profits from hospitals and drug companies would plummet.
Basic Life Skills
The more that people become self sufficient, the more they are able to withdraw from the system if they want to and the lest they have to pay to get everything done. This hurts both profits and taxes.
Rating if the agenda is control
Using the same rating scale used above with the goals being control, let's see how well the schools are performing if the agenda is control by government and corporations:
| Skill/Knowledge | Score | Notes |
| Communication | 2 | most cannot communicate effectively |
| Reading | 2 | few active readers, some nearly illiterate |
| Writing | 2 | most cannot write a complete sentence of any complexity |
| Logic | 2 | almost completely avoided with the "new math" |
| History | 2 | almost no mention of bad government |
| Law and Rights | 2 | not taught |
| Political Activism | 2 | not taught beyond useless basics |
| Finance | 2 | not taught |
| Health | 2 | the ever changing food pyramid with no mention of quality |
| Basic Life Skills | 2 | not taught |
| Total | 20/20 | 100% |
This agenda would show that those deciding what is taught and how it is taught (by training the teachers, limiting text books and real classes, etc.) are doing an amazingly good job and that the schools are not failing but instead performing almost perfectly.
If you can tolerate some strong opinions on education and have a couple of hours to burn, I highly recommend reading John Taylor Gattos Underground History of American Education or watching the video:
What can we do?
Rather than simply point out the problems with our schools, I'd like to note at least a few things that we can do about turning things around. After all, while knowing about a problem is a start, coming up with potential solutions and working towards them is a better start.
So, here are some ideas:
Spreading this knowledge
Most people don't want to hear this message, especially not teachers, school administrators, and others that are part of the system who don't want to hear that they are part of the problem.
You average adult that went to public schools likes to believe that they received a good education.
That being said, teachers are not controlling the system. If they stop teaching exactly how they are supposed to and start teaching in a better fashion they could conceivably do the following:
- Teach communication
- Teach active reading
- Teach how to write better
- Teach logic
Some teachers could also teach history, rights, real health, political activism, and basic finance in the course of their normal classes.
Of course, we would have to take part in school board discussions to protect such teachers and potentially start electing ourselves to the school boards.
Taking control of school boards
In order to make real change possible, we would have to start getting involved in local politics (the easiest kind to get involved in) and work on either convincing such boards that this is happening or getting ourselves elected.
From there, we would have to wrestle control of funding back from the federal government to the states or counties where the money comes from.
Would some schools be the poorer for doing so? Sure. Even so, if they use what they have to provide a real education the result would be a huge improvement for our future generations.
Taking control of county and state offices
Different states do things differently but most rely almost exclusively on federal monies that are first taken from the states/counties via property taxes and then redistributed based upon how well schools do on the standardized tests that are designed to ensure good citizens/employees.
By getting the money back where it belongs (locally) it can then be used without having to focus on "SOL" tests (that meant S*** Out of Luck when I was a kid... talk about a fitting acronym).
Home Schooling (or good private/charter schools)
Most people cannot afford the time or money involved currently.
In some places charter schools are being propped up and people are forcing their state governments to let them choose where to send their children.
In other places home schooling is being suppressed under the pretense that kids educated at home do not get an education. True in some cases... but most parents that home school actually care about their children's education.
Providing supplementary education
For those that have kids in the public schools, giving them some subversive books (e.g. real history about colonization, civil rights movements, the civil war, the mexican american war, books that teach logic, how to read a book (the book), and getting them involved in discussions, debates, and public speaking can go a long ways.
We can also encourage them to start teaching themselves about things they are interested in and have them help with tasks that teach basic self sufficiency (start a garden, plant some fruit trees, show them how to fix things around the house, etc.).
Other ideas?
I'd love to hear other ideas.
If you like the idea of using politics to effect change (whether at the school board level, county, and/or state level) but wouldn't know where to start let people know. I'd be happy to write up a basic guide on using local politics to effect change if no one else knows of a good one that is already out there.
Updates:
This article has been altered to clean things up a bit and improve the introduction a bit.
Great post Tony. I think you pretty much covered all the bases. One thing I would add is that movement should be incorporated as much as possible into learning. I need to research this more, but the basic idea is that as humans were originally hunter gatherers, we learn better when moving as opposed to sitting at a desk. This is especially relevant to young kids for obvious reasons. Unfortunately here in Japan I'm not in a good location to do this with my students. Would be nice to have a bigger space or some land to do this, but if I moved to where there's more space I wouldn't have any students to teach.
As far as agendas go, they've got that here too. I teach English to some school teachers and I'm sometimes shocked at how little say they have as far as curriculum goes. Also, it's all rote memorization to pass tests. Listen, study, test. No questions please.
Despite's that, human curiosity just can't be snuffed out. I still meet people who want to learn and ask questions.
I completely agree about movement.
Basic life skills (growing food, gathering water, creating shelters, fixing buildings, etc.) would be an easy way to do this.
Growing food could also include identifying edible plants, creating a school garden, planting fruit trees and bushes in local towns/parks/etc. would also be a good way to give something physical to do.
Of course, with a little creativity movement could be incorporated into just about any class of any age.
I did very well in school... but never liked it.
I think rote memorization is one of the worst things in school systems. Questions, open discussions, research, and debates would help facilitate core skills in any class while giving kids a reason to move about and get involved in their own eduction.
I honestly don't remember much rote memorization when I was in school except maybe the multiplication table. It is very helpful when learning a second language though. You can certainly use memory techniques too, but I found flash cards very effective when I first started studying Japanese. However, that's a bit different from rote memorization of facts in your mother tongue, which isn't a bad thing in itself, the problem is being tested on facts, dates, names, etc. instead of the big picture.
I think combining the basic life skills in a familiar outdoor area with memory techniques that rely on knowing that area for memorizing those things that need it could be a good way to kill two birds with one stone.
https://postimg.org/image/iuanzivxx/2417092a/
Oh, and if you are in the school system and finding yourself bored or lacking challenge...
Here are some book recommendations. Most libraries should be able to get them for you:
The following have some concepts/discussions that are likely unsuitable for younger teenagers, but are eye opening books on history
I hated history in school... and used to think that I hated history. Then I read an old leather bound book on US history written at an English university decades ago and found that I actually really enjoy history but that what they teach in our schools is so watered down as to be ridiculous.
You might also consider joining a debate team, a local meetup, etc. and occasionally spending an hour or two observing a local court in session.