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“Okay, folks, place your bets. Was it clueless incompetence on a cosmic scale? Or, was it John Deweys collectivist wet dream turned Clockwork Orange? “

That’s easy. It’s Dewey’s fault.

He was one of the prime movers and shakers that wanted to move to universal gov’t schooling — not to improve the educational level of people in the country, but to indoctrinate children in how to be good citizens of gov’t. Back then the intelligentsia wanted a willing workforce to take factory jobs and make the robber barons rich and create more and more gov’t control over people’s lives. He visited the highly regimented Prussian school system and was in love with the prospect of bringing it to America. Two generations later his dream (our nightmare) has been realized.

It was his idea that this type of school system would eventually bring about ‘Social Utopia’.

The problem with gov’t schools is just that — they are gov’t schools. The current system does not line up with the ideals of a free country and can’t be fixed, it can only be replaced with something better.

A generation is accepted as being 25 years; ergo Dewey's crazy education ideas, have wrecked havoc for well over 100 years and ruined things for far more than just two generations.

Besides his really weird, not to mention wrong, statements about reading, he also stated that teaching penmanship should be ditched, since everyone would be using a typewriter. And bear in mind, he said this over 100 years ago.

FWIW.............Dewey not only taught at the University of Chicago, where he set up their private school ( the LAB SCHOOL, where Obama's children went to, until they all moved to D.C. ! ), but was a major deal at Columbia University's "Teacher's College",instilling his patently ridiculous ideas in all strata of future teachers.

Yes, John Dewey really is one of the founding fathers of not only dumbing down America, but destroying the minds and abilities of at least 4 generations of hapless children.

The Dewey school methods make as much sense as the Dewey decimal system for libraries these days. How many of us ever really understood the book categorization that is honored by his name?
Education should be about to undergo the same transformative changes that occurred during the Industrial Revolution. The Kahn Academy that Bill Gates has lauded may be the new model of instruction.
Why are we sticking with the Dewey model where age, not ability determines the level of education? Certainly, once one enters the work force, having dealt with people of varying ages would be at an extraordinary advantage rather than being segregated solely by that during the school years.
I could go on and on, but you get my drift that we need to completely reevaluate education in this country. Dewey's methods need to be seriously reconsidered.