Posted on 08/09/2012 6:52:43 AM PDT by ProgressingAmerica
'Tis education forms the common mind
Just as the twig is bent the tree's inclined
- Alexander Pope
Progressive education.... what is it? Where does it come from? Is America the only place it's ever been tried?
I've made my own attempts to dig into progressive education, but I can only use the internet for my queries. This book titled "Bending the twig; the revolution in education and its effect on our children" is a genuine inquiry based on thoughtful research into the topic using sources I'd probably never have access to. The review for this book comes from a website titled unz.org, which has a plethora of magazines spanning decades that it has catalogged.
Starting here is the gateway to the magazine article, this (pdf direct download) is the first page of the review(page 62), I can't see a way to get a direct download to page 63, but its easy to get just click the blue 'next page' button.
I have kept a copy of these just in case.
The thing that stands out to me more than anything from the review(and thus, the book) is the fact that progressive education was tried in Russia, and they got rid of it real quick when they started seeing the results of it. This is a small excerpt from the book:
Few Americans realize that Progressive Education was given a thorough tryout in Soviet Russia. When the Bolsheviks under Lenin destroyed the Kerensky government in November, 1917, they believed that a similar revolution was imminent in other countries and they sought to expedite it by creating in Russia a Communist model for the world. They proceeded to inaugurate a series of drastic reforms and changes in the traditional life of the Russian people. A veritable orgy of change followed in all segments of their society from education to marriage. Many of these "reforms" were not only unnecessary but proved to be harmful to the Communist cause.Anything new or extreme was tried, provided it was a break with the traditional. The Communist leaders had heard of the Progressive Education system in America and in 1918 they imported its program almost intact.*
* "The 'new' schools in Russia were organized and conducted after the model laid out by John Dewey in Chicago many years earlier. . . . Indoctrination in the practice of Communism was included as direct instruction." Dr. John Almack, San Francisco Examiner, October 12, 1942.
This review was done by Frank B. Keith, of The Freeman. Unz.org's page appears to be the only place it can be found.
Later.
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| GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach | |
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Thanks ProgressingAmerica. Just adding to the catalog, not sending a general distribution. |
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Education, Media and advertising...targets of choice. From here it grows(and has grown).
1) It is godless! The children must think and reason godlessly just to cooperate in the classroom. At its best it was never more than lukewarm and generic in its Protestant worldview. What does Christ do with the lukewarm? He spits them out of His mouth?
2) It is a single-payer socialist-entitlement. Simply by attending children risk learning that, not only can the voting mob give them tuition-free school, it can give them **lots** of free stuff!
3)It is impossible to have a religiously, culturally, and politically neutral school. At the moment, the Marxist control the agenda. And...NO! Forcing conservatism on other people's children is **not** a conservative ideal.
4) Government schools trash every First Amendment Right ( speech, press, assembly, expression of religion) and they establish the religion of atheistic secular humanism.
5) Government schools treat children like prisoners. See #4. These schools look like prisons, too! If you treat people like prisoners you will see prison social pathology and there is plenty of that in government schools. In other words the government is teaching our children to be compliant prisoners of the state!
If tyranny comes to our nation, the fascist oligarchy will not use cattle car to haul the masses off to the concentration camps. No. No. They will use big yellow school buses and the sheeple will compliantly board them just as they have been trained to do.
You are such a broken record. Believe me, I would take any one of the public schools my daughter has attended over the prison looking Catholic schools I attended.
You truly have no clue what you are talking about about and should just stop with your constant lying - you sound like a freaking liberal with your broad brushing of anything that does not go along 100% with your utopian ideal.
No one disagrees there are problems with the public school systems - but you have an unreachable ideal - one which you reuse to do anything about.
Of all people - you should be the first one to admit you have no standing in ANY discussion about public schools, considering how you utilized them when it suited you.
You - who is so quick to toss out the Lord’s name when it suits you - where also quick to utilize what you consider a godless system when it suited you. You are such a freaking hypocrite.
If government schools are not a single payer socialist-entitlement and not compulsory for all those children whose parents can not ransom them, please explain why they are not. ( You have never done so.) Please explain why children would not be at risk of becoming comfortable with socialism?
All schools must severely restrict First Amendment Rights. Government schools do, as well. The problem is that the child risks becoming comfortable with government workers crushing their First Amendment Rights. If this is not so please explain why not. ( You have never explained specifically how this can be fixed. It can't, by the way. )
Nearly all government schools in this nation resemble prisons and in many ways treat children ( who only crime was to be born) like prisoners. The children who attend risk learning to be compliant prisoners of the state. If you do not believe this is true explain why.
Finally....I bet you have NEVER changed you mind about a single thing in the past 42. Nope! Not a thing.
Believe me, if you have specific solutions to the above, I would like to hear them. Getting elected to a school board or getting involved with any government school will not fix the above because the problem is **structural** to the system.
Really? Then tell me why "IN GOD WE TRUST" is in every classroom my daughter has ever been in?
( You have never done so.)
Only in your mind.
All schools must severely restrict First Amendment Rights. Government schools do, as well. The problem is that the child risks becoming comfortable with government workers crushing their First Amendment Rights. If this is not so please explain why not. ( You have never explained specifically how this can be fixed. It can't, by the way. )
Do you realize how down right silly this is? Please re-read what you wrote here - and I have the entire "paragraph" and took nothing out of context. Let me give you a little bit of reality here - my daughter has more 1st amendment rights in her public school than I ever did in Catholic school. Heck she has more 1st Amend rights in school than she does at home.
Nearly all government schools in this nation resemble prisons and in many ways treat children ( who only crime was to be born) like prisoners.
You've changed your wording here - why is that??? You previously said ALL........
When you respond to my points, I will continue with yours. Based upon past experience, I won't have to bother with the rest of your drivel.
An important lesson is being taught in government schools that do this ( such my county's government schools). Lesson: Those who believe in God are sneaky and too timid to challenge the state openly.
If a godless government school uses the nation's motto in every classroom, as my area schools do, what it is doing is attempting to **sneak** in a tiny sliver of community belief into the curriculum and around and under the government's law. It isn't teaching children to think and reason in a God-centered manner about everything in their lives, as specifically counseled by their specific religious leaders, unique scriptures, writings, and pronouncements,
So?....Is the work of **real** missionaries in the lives of these children when they are adults going to be harder or easier? My question: Who would join a religion whose members are sneaky and timid?
As for the other points:
You dismissed one as silly and side stepped the other with a point of grammar. Not **all** government owned and run schools trash the First Amendment Rights of children. There are online schools available in some states to select children. And....There may be (somewhere out there in the nation) some government owned and run experimental magnet school. If you know of one, please send a link.
The **point** is that the typical county government school looks like a prison and the children who are under police threat to attend are treated like prisoners. Their First Amendment Rights are trashed by government functionaries and they risk learning to be compliant prisoners of the state. It is sad, too, given that the only crime these children have committed is being born.
Thanks again, Gabz, for the opportunity to bring this to the attention of those Freepers who may foolishly be considering a government indoctrination camp for their children this August.
I can see you are being picky in an attempt to avoid addressing an issue that might be uncomfortable for you.
From now on I will state thatPrussian-model schools must severely suppress First Amendment Rights just to maintain order and safety. When government owned and run Prussian-model schools ( which is nearly **all** government schools in this nation) do this, the children risk learning to be compliant prisoners of the state.
I hate to burst your precious little bubble, but not everyone is as supposedly “Godly” as you claim to be. In fact there are plenty of people who profess no belief in any “god” and yet are far more “godly” than you could ever be.
From now on I will state you are a hypocrite who has no clue what she is talking about because she just speaks in generalities which are never always correct and in your case are most often more wrong than right.
I do understand that you are a proponent of home school education, but you should know that often those children are as poorly educated as the kids in public school. There are many home schooled kids sitting in remedial college classrooms because their parents, and the home school associates of their parents, were unable to teach them. When you accuse teachers of “malpractice” you are really being ridiculous. You should admire those teaches who stay to fight the good fight and not ridicule and accuse them of being the problem. Most public schools are not inhabited by godless, evil teachers trying to destroy children. There are bad teachers and bad school systems, but in home schooling there are religious bigots and buffoons that get off on the power of indoctrinating their own kids. There is no perfect system of education.
Accusing teachers of 'malpractice' is not at all ridiculous. Even in all white areas, the results in math and reading are going down, not up. Phonics works, the other crap not so much. Yes, teachers work hard, but that doesn't matter so much. Deming showed that it is the process that provides the limits on quality. Great workers can sometimes push the limit up, but not every teacher is great. To get better results out of the teachers, a better process is needed. Phonics worked to get near universal literacy at the time of the WW1 draft. Nothing TPTB in education has tried since has worked as well.
When the process is that bad, it's hard to chalk it up to anything else except malpractice.
Why are you posting to me about homeschooling and teacher malpractice. Nothing that I have posted is in any way related to these issues.
On average homeschoolers score **significantly** better than children who are institutionalized. Homeschoolers score in the high 80th percentiles and there is almost no difference in the scores of children from poor, rich, white, or black, and educational level of the parents has almost no effect. Children from homes with parents who are high school dropouts do nearly as well as those whose parents have Ph.D. degrees. Homeschool Legal Defense Associations has this information if you are interested.
As with all Bell Curves there will be those on the low end but **far**far** far** fewer percentages of poorly achieving homeschoolers as compared to those who are institutionalized for their schooling.
There are many home schooled kids sitting in remedial college classrooms because their parents, and the home school associates of their parents, were unable to teach them.
Chances of that happening are **far** less if the child has been homeschooled.
because their parents, and the home school associates of their parents, were unable to teach them.
If they had attended a Prussian-medel and prison-like government school they may have picked up on the very toxic prison social pathology found in these schools, and may not have had the character and self discipline that would bring them onto a college campus for remedial courses.
When you accuse teachers of “malpractice” you are really being ridiculous.
When teachers **willingly ** and **knowingly** take a job that they **KNOW** has harmful and hurtful educational practices THIS IS MALPRACTICE! In any other profession they would be subject to loss of their licenses and hefty malpractice suits! ( Where are the malpractice attorneys when we need them?)
You should admire those teaches who stay to fight the good fight and not ridicule and accuse them of being the problem.
Professionals who willingly and knowingly go to work and use methods and techniques that HURT and INJURE their clients or patients should be ridiculed, have their licenses revoked, be subject to onerous malpractice suits, and should be plainly identified AS A BIG PROBLEM! They should be shamed and shunned!
Most public schools are not inhabited by godless, evil teachers trying to destroy children.
If children attend godless schools they must think and reason godlessly. It is actually **worse** when their teachers are known to the students to be Christians. Why? Answer: Because it is a SIN to force children to think and reason godlessly and in complete contradiction to Christian teaching and belief. These children are, indeed, learning an important lesson about Christianity. Lesson: Christian teachers are hypocrites who will force children to think godlessly and sell their religious principles for a paycheck and pension.
There are bad teachers and bad school systems,
It is EVIL to force children to think and reason godlessly.There is NOTHING good about this. It is EVIL.
It is evil to willingly and knowingly establish a system of indoctrination in which children risk learning to be comfortable with socialism. Any voting mob powerful enough to give a child tuition-free schooling is powerful enough to give them **lots** of socialist "free" goodies!. There is nothing **good** about this. It is EVIL!
There is nothing good about willingly and knowingly using teaching methods that HURT children and leaves them illiterate and innumerate. It is MALPRACTICE. It is not good. It is EVIL!
Prison-like and Prussian-model government schools trash all First Amendment Rights. They treat children like prisoners and they risk learning to be a compliant prisoner of the state. THIS IS EVIL! It is not good.
but in home schooling there are religious bigots and buffoons that get off on the power of indoctrinating their own kids.< /p>
Your religious bigotry is showing. Why didn't you use atheist bigots and liberal/ Marxist/ progressive ideologues as an example. No! You choose people of faith to mock and ridicule as "buffoons".
Axiom: It is IMPOSSIBLE to have a religiously, culturally, and poltically neutral education. The education of children IS INDOCTRINATION into the culture! When someone disagrees with the politics, religious worldview, and culture of another, then tend to see the "other" as "buffoons". Government schools are NOT NOT NOT neutral and no one should be forced to pay for religiously, culturally, and politically NON-neutral GOVERNMENT SPONSORED and ESTABLISHED buffoonery!
Since you distrust parents so much what do you suggest? Should government NEA union members be present in the delivery room to catch babies as they are born? Should these infants be raised by union NEA government functionaries in 24/7 "Newborn Schools" to be followed by 24/7 "Infant Schools" and then to 24/7 "Toddler, Preschool, Children, Teenage, and Young Adult Schools"? ( Just wondering) Or....Should this only be reserved for those religious "buffoons"?
There is no perfect system of education.
On this we agree. That is why **PARENTS** should be in complete charge of their own children's education. That is why there should be complete separation of school and state with private charity tending to the poorest. Education is too important to be in the control of the government collectives ( misnamed "school boards") or voting mobs.
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