Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

The Indoctrination of Children: Murray v. Curlett Revisited
Orthodoxy Today ^ | 8-1-11 | Chris Andreas

Posted on 11/29/2011 10:05:21 AM PST by ReformationFan

The year 1963 was very significant for America in many ways. It was the year that the Negro American, the term used back then, revolted openly but in non-violent fashion against a discriminatory system found especially in the south; it was the year that John F. Kennedy, 35th President of the United States, was assassinated; and it was the year that the new President, Lyndon B. Johnson, confirmed America’s continued economic and military support of South Viet Nam. It was also the year, however, that a less remembered court decision took place that had far reaching effects on American cultural history; it was the year of Murray v. Curlett where the United States Supreme Court handed down a landmark ruling that ended government-sponsored prayer in American public schools. This was the case that catapulted Madalyn Murray (O'Hare) into both national prominence and notoriety.

While many of the more conservative elements of America, including myself, have disagreed with that decision and have seen the debilitating results from this and other government policies regarding public education, the ruling itself may not have been that bad had the Supreme Court guaranteed that government, all of its agencies, and all political action groups stay completely out of any influential roles within public education. Allow me to explain.

Since the decision was handed down in 1963, the State, that is government, has used public education as a tool of various political action groups to attack all that is decent, and attempted to replace it with all that many of us find to be absolutely repugnant. Parents no longer seem to have guaranteed rights over their own children’s upbringing; the public school setting teaches dogmas that are directly contrary to what parents may wish to teach their children at home; academic failings at the national levels are at the center of constant debate; and the results of corrupting influences are seen everywhere within society, particularly at corporate and government levels.

One would be hard-pressed to find a single decent outcome as a result of the 1963 ruling. One of the reasons is that Separation of Church and State is too limited a concept for such a decision that was handed down. While we may all believe to some extent in Separation of Church and State, this should never have been interpreted as allowing the State to teach its own doctrines to children, especially those contrary to belief structures found within the privacy of family life, whether it be religious, political or merely philosophical. And this in itself is still insufficient as criticism of the limitations of the decision. It must be taken much further.

The crux of my argument is this: While “Separationists” always point to the “Establishment” clause of the First Amendment, they remain completely silent about the “Free Exercise” clause that guarantees our freedoms in religion. If the Supreme Court decision is to be considered a correct one, and to a degree it was, then I submit that the State should never have been allowed to dogmatically indoctrinate children on any issue whatsoever whether it be political, social or moral, from the excessive theocratic state to extreme outright atheism, from the point of view of intense Right-Wing conservatism to that of ultra Left-Wing liberalism, that it is extremely dangerous for any State to be allowed to do so.

This premise has strong historical backing as those States which take it upon themselves to indoctrinate children have a strong propensity toward totalitarianism. If you control the children doctrinally through continuous propaganda, you control the national direction more fully in a dictatorial manner. From Otto Von Bismarck, the Iron Chancellor, to Adolf Hitler, Germany constantly led its people to war for world domination. To paraphrase Hitler, “Give me your children for one generation, and I will rule the world.” Lenin the Bolshevik indoctrinated Soviet children, Stalin and his successors did it, Mao Tse Tung did it in Red China, and Fidel Castro himself has been doing it for over 50 years in Cuba.

The whole history of Fascism and Communism and all dictatorships has been fraught with such a policy. This is the real threat that faces America. It was never religion or any matters of faith that threatened our society. Though our nation did have a history of discrimination, we were yet the freest people on earth with a strong democratic structure.

The problem with the Murray v. Curlett decision wasn’t our not being permitted to pray in school, but the fact that it was improperly implemented in that it opened the door to direct and outright opposition against all those who held to different beliefs even within their own homes. And our children, always the most innocent within any society, are the main targets. They are the most threatened and the ones we must protect the most.

There is yet one more tragedy in all of this. In being allowed to dogmatically indoctrinate children, society’s most innocent are taught not to think for themselves. This leads to unquestioning loyalty to whatever system or philosophy is placed before them. Thus, the premise that we can think, that we can question, that we can challenge whatever it is that we may disagree with will one day disappear altogether from the American landscape. Things need to change and change immediately for time is short. Another generation of this, and it will indeed be too late.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Editorial; Government
KEYWORDS: 1963; andreas; children; chrisandreas; communism; fascism; indoctrination; murrayvcurlett; prayerinschool; schoolprayer; scotus

1 posted on 11/29/2011 10:05:27 AM PST by ReformationFan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: ReformationFan

Great post and name!


2 posted on 11/29/2011 10:16:47 AM PST by thesaleboat (Pray The Rosary Daily)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ReformationFan
A great post about the "untended consequences" of laws and rulings! Or, more likely the EXACT INTENDED consequences; either way, it has been very, very bad and will continue to create woeful results for America!

They create laws that FORCE you to put your kid in government-sponsored schools (with limited exceptions), and then force propaganda-laced, BS down the throats of their captured prey!
3 posted on 11/29/2011 10:39:17 AM PST by ExTxMarine (PRAYER: It's the only HOPE for real CHANGE in America!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ReformationFan

Prayer is coming back to school.

Muslim prayers disguised as social studies.


4 posted on 11/29/2011 10:45:25 AM PST by UnbelievingScumOnTheOtherSide (REPEAL WASHINGTON! -- Islam Delenda Est! -- I Want Constantinople Back. -- Rumble thee forth.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ReformationFan
" ... Since the decision was handed down in 1963, the State, that is government, has used public education as a tool of various political action groups to attack all that is decent, and attempted to replace it with all that many of us find to be absolutely repugnant. Parents no longer seem to have guaranteed rights over their own children’s upbringing; the public school setting teaches dogmas that are directly contrary to what parents may wish to teach their children at home; academic failings at the national levels are at the center of constant debate; and the results of corrupting influences are seen everywhere within society, particularly at corporate and government levels. ...

There is an interesting essay by Caruba: The Subversion of Education in America which references the book "The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America" by Charlotte Thomson Iserbyt.

"... Iserbyt points out, in the 1960’s "American education would henceforth concern itself with the importance of the group rather than with the importance of the individual. The purpose of education would shift to focus on the student’s emotional health, rather than academic learning...

In an interview with Yuri Bezmenov / Tomas Schuman who defected from the Soviet Union in 1970, Yuri warns of: ideological subversion

"...It’s a great brainwashing process, which goes very slow[ly] and is divided [into] four basic stages. The first one [is] demoralization; it takes from 15-20 years to demoralize a nation. Why that many years? Because this is the minimum number of years which [is required] to educate one generation of students in the country of your enemy, exposed to the ideology of the enemy ..."

"...The result...they are programmed to think and react to certain stimuli in a certain pattern. You cannot change their mind[s], even if you expose them to authentic information, even if you prove that white is white and black is black, you still cannot change the basic perception and the logic of behavior..."
5 posted on 11/29/2011 11:32:53 AM PST by algernonpj (He who pays the piper . . .)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ReformationFan

bump for later reading


6 posted on 11/29/2011 12:41:48 PM PST by Albion Wilde (A land of hyper-legalisms is not the same as a land of law. --Mark Steyn)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ReformationFan; lilyramone; crusadersoldier; Ellzeena; Anvilhead; stonehouse01; ...
‘Passing the trash’

Too often, problem teachers are allowed to leave quietly. That can mean future abuse for another student and another school district.

“They might deal with it internally, suspending the person or having the person move on. So their license is never investigated,” says Charol Shakeshaft, a leading expert in teacher sex abuse who heads the educational leadership department at Virginia Commonwealth University.

It’s a dynamic so common it has its own nicknames—“passing the trash” or the “mobile molester.”

Laws in several states require that even an allegation of sexual misconduct be reported to the state departments that oversee teacher licenses. But there’s no consistent enforcement, so such laws are easy to ignore.

School officials fear public embarrassment as much as the perpetrators do, Shakeshaft says. They want to avoid the fallout from going up against a popular teacher. They also don’t want to get sued by teachers or victims, and they don’t want to face a challenge from a strong union.


7 posted on 11/29/2011 12:44:21 PM PST by narses (what you bind upon earth, shall be bound also in heaven; and what you loose upon earth, shall be ..)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: wintertime

Wintertime, just saw this, thought you might be interested. I just walked in the door and haven’t read it yet, but will.


8 posted on 11/29/2011 1:31:47 PM PST by little jeremiah (We will have to go through hell to get out of hell.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ReformationFan
Things need to change and change immediately for time is short. Another generation of this, and it will indeed be too late.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Conservatives MUST MUST MUST see the urgency! We MUST shut down the nation's socialist K-12 schools! Another generation and it will likely be too late!

I am relieved to see this essay. I am not alone out there in the wilderness shouting at the wind that government schools are our nation's **most** serious threat!

Government schools are socialist. They are the very definition of a socialist and compulsory single-payer entitlement. Simply by attending children risk learning to be comfortable with single payer and compulsory socialist programs. If the government can use its force to give them tuition-free school, why not lots of “free” stuff? Was Franklin D. Roosevelt and accident? Heck no! All it took was one to three generations of voters indoctrinated to be comfortable with accepting socialism in the nation's socialist K-12 schools.

Government schools never were and never can be religiously neutral because no education is ever religiously neutral. The religious worldview taught in our socialist K-12 schools today is godless atheism! Children must think and reason godlessly merely to cooperate with the classroom, the curriculum, and school policies.

Government schools trash free speech, free press, free assembly, and free exercise of religion and establish the religious belief of atheistic secularism. HOW CAN THIS BE CONSTITUTIONAL????? Huh? Besides, merely by attending children risk being comfortable with government suppression of rights given to us by God.

Our nation's socialist K-12 schools are First Amendment and freedom of conscience abomination. They must be abolished.

CONSERVATIVES WAKE UP!!! Our nation will likely not survive another generation of this socialist and godless indoctrination.

Oh...And returning to some magic date will NOT fix socialist schooling. Socialism can not be fixed. And...At its very best our nation's socialist K-12 schools offered up a lukewarm and generic Protestantism. What does Christ do with the lukewarm? He spits them out of His mouth!

9 posted on 11/29/2011 3:40:17 PM PST by wintertime (I am a Constitutional Restorationist!!! Yes!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ExTxMarine
They create laws that FORCE you to put your kid in government-sponsored schools (with limited exceptions),
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Our nation's socialist K-12 schools are a price-fixed cartel. What does price fixing do to the market? Answer: It puts the competition out of business and makes it impossible to form competing services. So?....When private schools are scarce and exclusive, what does the government do? It uses the threat of armed police and court action to force a child into its prisons.

Also....Let's call the extra expense that homeschoolers and private school parents must pay by the words that fit: RANSOM! JIZYA!

10 posted on 11/29/2011 3:44:58 PM PST by wintertime (I am a Constitutional Restorationist!!! Yes!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: ExTxMarine
They create laws that FORCE you to put your kid in government-sponsored schools (with limited exceptions), and then force propaganda-laced, BS down the throats of their captured prey!
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

One more thing:

Every time that you drive by a socialist K-12 school, please remember that your money is being used to teach the children to think atheistically. The children must simply to cooperate within the classroom.

HOW CAN THAT BE CONSTITUTIONAL???? ( yeah I am shouting.)

And....When the courts are finally completely packed solid with godless Marxists there will be no peaceful solution.

11 posted on 11/29/2011 3:49:30 PM PST by wintertime (I am a Constitutional Restorationist!!! Yes!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: wintertime

Placemark to read article and comments - didn’t get to it today.


12 posted on 11/29/2011 8:22:55 PM PST by little jeremiah (We will have to go through hell to get out of hell.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson