“David learns to read at age four; Rachel, at age nine: In normal development, when both are 13, you can’t tell which one learned first—the five-year spread means nothing at all. But in school I label Rachel “learning disabled” and slow David down a bit, too. For a paycheck, I adjust David to depend on me to tell him when to go and stop. He won’t outgrow that dependency. I identify Rachel as discount merchandise, “special education” fodder. She’ll be locked in her place forever…
Government schooling is the most radical adventure in history. It kills the family by monopolizing the best times of childhood and by teaching disrespect for home and parents.”
From John Taylor Gatto’s, “I Quit, I Think”, Wall Street Journal (Gatto is a former New York “Teacher of the Year” who quit his job after he decided “he was no longer willing to hurt children”.
This article is too good not to share. It encapsulates the answer to the big question, “What’s wrong with society?” for those who realize that there is something terribly wrong.
“God’s theory on education is quite different than the theories that men have come up with in the modern world….
What then would constitute a good science class, for example? Picture the instructor describing the order, the beauty, the complexity, the expanse, and the glory of the universe, the human body, and the animal kingdom. Then, he lifts his arms and says in a whisper to the class, Silence for a moment! All of you, stand in awe of him! Stand in awe of him! Let us worship the mighty Creator of heaven and earth. Anything short of this is not good science….
“What happens to a nation that doesn’t teach the fear of God as the beginning of wisdom for five generations? What happens to a nation that will not build its house upon Jesus and his words? When the rains come and floods rise, that house will come down, and great will be the fall of it (Matt. 7:27)! That nation will find 37% of children born without fathers, up from 6% in 1960, and half of marriages ending in divorce. That nation will become the greatest debtor nation on earth and inherit the weakest families in the entire western world. Sound familiar?”
Read the rest of “…A Good Education”. And then tell me what you think.
“The biggest problem with western civilization is the methodology by which we educate our children. We have tried to compartmentalize education. We have divorced the knowledge of God from chemistry. I’m not so concerned with teaching my children about the fear of the Lord or teaching them about chemistry as I am about teaching them the fear of the Lord IN the chemistry classroom.” -Kevin Swanson
A reader asks a good question: ”how does he whittle it down to just one thing?” According to Lori, it’s “presuppositional apologetics” which traces our presuppositions back to wrong doctrine. I second that and added in the comment section that one’s world-view determines the way one lives. Divorcing the wisdom of God from education turns out a nation full of people with a false/wrong world-view which causes them to live wrongly….thus, a nation’s demise.
The Anti-Educational Effects of Public Schools is perhaps one of the most well-articulated and creative looks at some of the problems of compulsory public education I’ve ever read. (Hat tip to Lori!)
“Indeed, some of the teachers there are genuinely competent and interested in the advancement of their students. It is just that virtually all the incentives are wrong…The very environment of a public school brings with it severe consequences — some unintended, others intended perhaps in part — that turn it into the virtual antithesis of true education.”
Even mentioning public schooling in a negative light evokes deep emotion in many, reinforcing the ingrained loyalty placed in us by the system itself.
This article actually discusses several angles you may have not even considered before (what is “school spirit” really about anyway?) and the author (though not a Christian that I can tell) does a superb job of candidly exposing some of the downfalls of public education.
His conclusion? Deep budget cuts to the educational system could be the best thing to ever happen in our country to the real pursuit of education.
Worth the read! I’d love to hear your thoughts when you’re done.
The Anti-Educational Effects of Public Schools
Need another reason to homeschool?
“…we’re not as concerned as we ought to be about the millions of young men who are floundering or lost.
But they’re there: The young men who are working in the lowest-level (and most dangerous) jobs instead of going to college. Who are sitting in prison instead of going to college. [My note: I would also add "instead of becoming entrepreneurs", understanding the great opportunities that await and are not limited to those with college degrees.] Who are staying out of the long-term marriage pool because they have little to offer to young women. Who are remaining adolescents, wasting years of their lives playing video games for hours a day, until they’re in their thirties, by which time the world has passed many of them by.
Root Problem
Whether in the prison system, in my university classes or in the schools where I help train teachers, I have noticed a systemic problem with how we teach and mentor boys that I call “industrial schooling,” and that I believe is a primary root of our sons’ falling behind in school, and quite often in life.
Two hundred years ago, realizing the necessity of schooling millions of kids, we took them off the farms and out of the marketplace and put them in large industrial-size classrooms (one teacher, 25 to 30 kids). For many kids, this system worked — and still works. But from the beginning, there were some for whom it wasn’t working very well. Initially, it was girls. It took more than 150 years to get parity for them.
Problem With Industrialized Schooling
Now we’re seeing what’s wrong with the system for millions of boys… Read more »
Jasmine Baucham had a great post about the error of a typical homeschool argument we hear often. I found it excellent food for thought…
“I’m going to be completely honest here:
Some of us have a huge bias when it comes to arguments about education.
You know the kids I’m talking about.
They’ve been educated in an echo chamber, a place where the curriculum is a unified effort to teach them one way to think.
They learn to view the world through a single lens: the worldview that they’re being taught.
They don’t live in the real world.
They’ve been told what to think and how to act from a young age; their responses to certain stimuli are deeply ingrained in them. And because of all of this, they’re biased. When they speak, they’re often just parroting what they’ve been taught….”
Read the rest at Joyfully Home
homeschooling, public school | Word Warrior | 
March 11, 2011 8:03 am | 
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