People wonder aloud how American voters could be so ignorant as to elect a Communist poseur to the highest office in the land. Herein resides the answer. For decades we’ve entrusted education to pseudo-psychologists whose aims are not to instill virtue, but to leave the children to their own devices in a “non-judgmental” environment, all the while robbing them of the intellectual tools to prosper and serve both family and neighbor.
Yes, you and savagesusie are correct. What I’m trying to add to the discussion is an explanation of the everyday classroom methods that make collectivist schemes possible.
All the things I talk about—Constructivism, Cooperative Learning, and the rest—are not only openly discussed, they are bragged about. Teachers actually believe they are using the latest and best ideas.
You can look back to 1935. The tone of contempt for phonics was total. Meanwhile, Look-say was praised as modern, scientific, easy, great for kids, etc.
In general, I believe that if our Education Establishment likes something, it’s probably poison. If they ridicule something (e.g., John Saxon’s approach), you know that it’s gold.
For thousands of years in Western Civilization, the only reason for education was to instill Virtue. Without Virtue in people, there is no civil society.
That ended with John Dewey, who threw out God and Ethics-—for moral relativism of Marx and Darwin. (No right and wrong except for radical egalitarianism which is the only good).
All people in Western Civilization knew that Justice (public virtue) was essential to all civil governments, since the Greek Masters, but then Dewey kicked our the Classics and Great Books and philosophy for ideas of Marx—who wanted to abolish all history and knowledge and family, so that the state could shape and form the little minds of children so they become perfect little automatons——all exactly the same—with no differences. Destroy the individual, for the collective. You can kill individuals for the good of the whole. Who decides “general welfare”-—whoever is in power, on whatever they “feel”. Of course, totalitarian govt. is the only possible one because all thoughts and ideas have to be totally controlled since most ideas they force, go against the very Nature of man.
These inhumane and irrational concepts are forced on children-—the idea that there is no Right and Wrong except what “feels” good-—is to make them into complete slaves. Knowledge is Power—True Knowledge of the Classics and Great Books are denied.
Worse than that—they teach cognitive dissonance....teach lies so that the very foundation of “knowledge” will have such a faulty base that there will be no possibility of Logic and Reason when they grow up. They fill their heads with mush-—like there are no Natural Laws-—Cause and Effect-—because everything can come from absolutely nothing (Darwinism) and men can marry men-—destroying any understanding of human nature and evil.