Posted on 07/28/2010 8:39:20 AM PDT by ventanax5
"The aim of public education is not to spread enlightenment at all; it is simply to reduce as many individuals as possible to the same safe level, to breed and train a standardized citizenry, to down dissent and originality. That is its aim in the United States, whatever pretensions of politicians, pedagogues other such mountebanks, and that is its aim everywhere else."
(Excerpt) Read more at sott.net ...
Makes sense!
Read the article, she’s a vaguely dissatisfied marxist a-hole without a clue.
A great speech. Wish more students and teachers had this kind of courage.
“But I contest that I am a human being, a thinker, an adventurer - not a worker. A worker is someone who is trapped within repetition - a slave of the system set up before him. But now, I have successfully shown that I was the best slave. I did what I was told to the extreme.”
Amen. This young lady gets it.
An Enlightened, Committed People Who Understand The Principles Of Our Constitution- The Most Effective Means Of Preserving Liberty |
"Although all men are born free, slavery has been the general lot of the human race. Ignorant - they have been cheated; asleep - they have been surprised; divided - the yoke has been forced upon them. But what is the lesson? ...the people ought to be enlightened, to be awakened, to be united, that after establishing a government they should watch over it.... It is universally admitted that a well-instructed people alone can be permanently free." James Madison
America's Constitution is the means by which knowledgeable and free people, capable of self-government, can bind and control their elected representatives in government. In order to remain free, the Founders said, the people themselves must clearly understand the ideas and principles upon which their Constitutional government is based. Through such understanding, they will be able to prevent those in power from eroding their Constitutional protections.
The Founders established schools and seminaries for the distinct purpose of instilling in youth the lessons of history and the ideas of liberty. And, in their day, they were successful. Tocqueville, eminent French jurist, traveled America and in his 1830's work, DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA, wrote:
".every citizen ... is taught . the doctrines and the evidences of his religion, the history of his country, and the leading features of its Constitution ... it is extremely rare to find a man imperfectly acquainted with all these things, and a person wholly ignorant of them is a sort of phenomenon."
On the frontier, he noted that "...no sort of comparison can be drawn between the pioneer and the dwelling that shelters him.... He wears the dress and speaks the language of the cities; he is acquainted with the past, curious about the future, and ready for argument about the present.... I do not think that so much intellectual activity exists in the most enlightened and populous districts of France' " He continued, "It cannot be doubted that in the United States the instruction of the people powerfully contributes to the support of the democratic republic; and such must always be the case...where the instruction which enlightens the understanding is not separated from the moral education.."
Possessing a clear understanding of the failure of previous civilizations to achieve and sustain freedom for individuals, our forefathers discovered some timeless truths about human nature, the struggle for individual liberty, the human tendency toward abuse of power, and the means for curbing that tendency through Constitutional self-government. Jefferson's Bill For The More General Diffusion Of Knowledge For Virginia declared:
"...experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms (of government), those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny; and it is believed that the most effectual means of preventing this would be, to illuminate...the minds of the people...to give them knowledge of those facts, which history exhibiteth. History, by apprizing them of the past, will enable them to judge of the future...it will qualify them judges of the actions and designs of men; it will enable them to know ambition under every disguise it may assume; and knowing it, to defeat its views.."
Education was not perceived by the Founders to be a mere process for teaching basic skills. It was much, much more. Education included the very process by which the people of America would understand and be able to preserve their liberty and secure their Creator-endowed rights. Understanding the nature and origin of their rights and the means of preserving them, the people would be capable of self government, for they would recognize any threats to liberty and "nip the shoots of arbitrary power in the bud." (Adams)
Footnote: Our Ageless Constitution, W. David Stedman & La Vaughn G. Lewis, Editors (Asheboro, NC, W. David Stedman Associates, 1987) Part III: ISBN 0-937047-01-5
I can understand what she’s saying, but she went way overboard. This was not the place to say what she did to the extent that she did. She probably ruined the graduation experience of her fellow students. She sounds like a hard working, disciplined, but spoiled brat. Although public education is not what it should be, if she didn’t learn anything, then it’s her fault. She really has an attitude problem. If I was an employer, I would not want this young woman near my business. She’s trouble.
...We are the new future and we are not going to let tradition stand. We will break down the walls of corruption to let a garden of knowledge grow throughout America. Once educated properly, we will have the power to do anything, and best of all, we will only use that power for good...
Sounds like the same thing we hear from politicians all the time. Goofy utopian stuff.
But between the lines there was the obligatory indictment of industry.
Here's one...
a world where we can either acquiesce to the inhuman nonsense of corporatism and materialism...Here's another...
so we can consume industry-approved placation after placation...
I've got news for this child. Industry doesn't tell you what to consume...it simply gives you what you ask for.
It is society that tells you what to consume...and it is you and your friends that make up society.
And then there is this drivel...
We are not enlivened by an educational system that clandestinely sets us up for jobs that could be automated.The truth is the education system does not prepare children jobs but pushes its political agenda of socialism and secular tolerance.
This is a great speech and is pointed in the right direction generally and she is certainly right about the failure of the education system in America. But if she doesn't want to play the game after high school, it is completely up to her...and that's where such courage usually fails.
Here’s a better take on what this twit believes.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2560325/posts
Education and morality are freedom.
Ignorance and debauchery is true slavery.
Liberals are evil.
After reading your post, I am so very glad that I do not know you personally.
There is hope for this girl.
But Real Life is a pointless game. Only a sheep or a fool plays it, because there is no way to win.
Most people are sheep and/or fools.
I think Richard Feynman discusses the part she is right about much better than she does. Not a huge revelation I know.
The book, marked is.
Bookmark.
I agree. It sounded good when it was the H.L. Mencken excerpt; but on close examination, it was typical leftie stuff. She was probably upset at being taught that the US is a great country.
The kindness and good manners of online posters is often a challenge.
It is a sucker's game.
My experience with society is that it is a bunch of conventional people who cling together as a group because they are afraid of being independent. They trade their own REAL hopes and dreams for group protection and confirmation.
And then they are shocked when it is unfulfilling.
Seems like she is mostly upset with being taught dry facts and figures. In the interview that has been posted she said she liked the classes she took at the local JUCO that had professors with actual professional experience. Then the dry theories and such can be explained by someone who has had real world experience with them. I thought this was the best part about my undergrad classes as well.
Thank you. That thread is composed of people who actually read and thought about what this young woman actually said.
And the source is unsurprising: one half of it is devoted to Israel-bashing, including the "scientific" proof that the Israeli army is comprised of psychopaths. The site is only slightly more extremist than the Islamist ones.
Sad to see this stage of the Scottish Enlightenment.
Had she been complaing that the schools were indoctrination/re-education camps, I would have been with her. She ultimately struck me as the typical youthful "we-young-people-could-do-a-much-better-job-than-the-grownups" stuff that all young people spout.
The speaker’s eyes are only partially opened. She indicts the sloppy school system, but makes dreamy potsmoker conclusions typical of 18 year old girls. She’ll go on to university (as valedictorian she’s probably headed for an elite institution) where she has a distinct choice: fit in with the oh-so-hip malcontent crowd or forge her own way against the popular tide.
Sadly, the numbers say she’ll most likely fall for the easy road to popularity following the liberal campus crowd. She has NO IDEA how hard it is to swim upstream against peer ridicule. A smart kid, the jury is still out on her. I’ll say a prayer for her to discover the Conservative truth, the genius of the Founding Fathers and the joy of free thinking. I’m hopeful but not confident.
Unless she attends Hillsdale!
This was already done in the '60's. Looks like re-doing education didn't work out so well.
This kid is an a..hole. What comes through clearly is her ignorance of, and antipathy toward business. Her teachers did their jobs well. After all, they are engaged in a total transformation of society.
Sounded to me like a passive aggressive who went active. It appears she deeply resented the effort she had to put in, to get what she got.
She’s a kid. They have attitudes, and sometimes they can’t fine-tune their manners. The graduation ceremonies were not all for her and she probably should have considered that before delivering herself of a cow in front of all those other people having a special day.
That’s my .02.
Absolutely there is hope for this girl. She has that “healthy disrespect for authority” that American public schools have sought to choke out of students for the past several years.
Exactly. Sounds a lot like me when I was that age. Given time, she will (hopefully) develop a sharper mental image and ability to communicate it. Excellent start, though. She'll come around. I know. I did.
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