The Cluelessness Crisis Part 1: The 5 Essentials of Education

Five hundred years ago, a child was ready to start his life at the age of 12 or 13. The Virgin Mary was about 13 or 14 when God considered her capable of making history’s greatest act of human moral freedom.

As early as 100 years ago, the average young person was ready to begin life at the age of 15 or 16. Most schools did not teach beyond this age; a 16-year-old could be qualified to be a midwife, to teach elementary school, to be the owner of a small business.

Sixty years ago, adulthood began at 18 or 19. Our grandparents were ready to go and fight in World War II as soon as they reached legal adulthood. Many of them left behind young wives who already had children, and who took over most of the “men’s” work until the soldiers returned.

Today, many simple jobs require university or college education, and increasingly young people are not ready to set out on their own, start a family or begin a career until they are 24 or 25. Among the university-educated, it is not uncommon to find people in their 30s who are still unmarried, childless and waiting to “start” their lives.

Most people tacitly assume that the proliferation of formal education is a sign of social advance. Democratic theorists have always agreed that a working democracy requires an educated adult population, which is why the universal franchise and universal schooling appear at a similar time in the writings of social philosophers. It is less than useless, however, to have a heavily schooled population if students emerge from 13 or more years of school without an education.

The fact that there is a great divide between what education ought to be and what it actually is suggests that there is someone who is benefiting from the status quo.

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According to the Wall Street Journal, government K-12 education consumes more of the GDP than that military( federal, state, and local combined). That’s a LOT of money finding its way into people’s paychecks both directly and indirectly.

In my lifetime, I have lived in two counties, in different states, where the school district was the single biggest employer in the county. Add to this number all the businesses that supplied services directly to the schools. Then there were businesses that depended upon these employees for their business. Even my dentist depended upon the teachers’ dental insurance for his business.

So...When we read calls from Bruce Shortt ( Exodus Mandate) for ministers to open private Christian schools. It isn’t going to happen. Follow the money. There are far too many people sitting in those pews being fed by the government schools, and these are the people who feed the collection basket. ( I have nothing but contempt for these people.)

I do have hope though. If enough parents remove their children a tipping point could be reached and the government school system could collapse like the Berlin Wall.

Thanks for the words of encouragement.

Well, my daughter isn’t Einstein, but she is gifted at math. She is also a very hard worker.

I actually think she’ll do better in the work force than her brother who has a very high IQ.

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