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Why Americans Are Stupid
Absolute Rights ^ | 1/1/2013 | Diane Alden

Posted on 01/01/2013 5:32:24 AM PST by IbJensen

After watching the viral video of the Obamaphone lady in October, I thought to myself — we are in a lot of trouble.

It forced me to consider just how literate are the voters and people of the US. It’s very hard to tell given so few studies nail it down to specifics. For some reason the federal government does not want to get an exact account of how many illegal immigrants we have or how much illiteracy there is in the US.

The census bureau delves into high school graduation levels, but not literacy rates. Perhaps because literacy and immigration and the problems of inner cities are connected. Such studies would not interest the multicultural US elites who do not really want to know the truth. In order to come to some conclusion about how educated the people of the US might be, one is forced to do guess-and-by-golly observations regarding why so many Americans seem so dumb, crude, and uncivilized.

As I discovered, educating for dumb and a dumber in the US goes back some time in our history.

Up until the late 1800’s a good education in the United States could be obtained without government interference or oversight. Surprisingly, 50 percent of a population of 3 million in 1776 were indentured servants and 20 percent were African slaves. Yet during that time 600,000 copies of Thomas Paine’s Common Sense had been sold in the United States and had been read by countless Americans.

By 1812, with a population of approximately 7 million, Pierre DuPont wrote in Education in the United States, “…that out of every 1,000 persons fewer than four can’t read or do numbers.” He attributed this fact to traditional dinner table debates over passages read from the Bible. In other words, children learned how to read with an understanding of what they were reading and they knew their numbers. All this education took place at home or in one room school houses, or “Dame Schools,” primarily taught by women. The children who came out of these schools grew up to be self reliant and individualistic, in marked contrast to the Prussian system which produced an obedient, collectivist trained populace..

Implementation of the Prussian System was to become the goal of Edward Everett, America’s first PhD. As Governor of Massachusetts, Everett had to deal with the problem of the influx of poor Irish Catholics into his state. In 1852, with the support of Horace Mann, another strong advocate of the Prussian model, Everett made the decision to adopt the Prussian system of education in Massachusetts. Unfortunately for the children and poor Irish Catholics of Massachusetts and elsewhere, the system produced a willing, cheap labor force with minimal reading and numbers skills. The Everetts of the world understood that people who could read and understand are dangerous because they are intellectually equipped to find out things for themselves, thus becoming a threat to already established power elites.

Shortly after Everett and Mann collaborated to adopt the Prussian system, the Governor of New York set up the same method in 12 different New York schools on a trial basis. Incredibly, within two weeks he declared the system a total success and took control of the entire education system in the State of New York. In a “blitzkrieg” action with no debate, public hearing, or citizen involvement, government forced schooling was on its way in America.

The Results of the Prussian System

The history of American education since the acceptance of the Prussian system is checkered with failure and elitism. From the time of John Dewey, who felt people should be defined by groups and associations and who believed that people who were well read were dangerous, to our own era, U.S. education has suffered. We have, in this day and age, the disheartening statistics showing 33 percent or our nation’s college graduates can’t read or calculate well enough to perform the jobs they seek.

Working against the concepts and principles the Founding Fathers provided in the Constitution, the Prussian system has produced a gradual but statistically provable decline in literacy and intellectual capability of typical Americans. We can track the five different stages that American education has gone through: 1750-1852—The idea of government controlled schools was conceived; 1852-1900—It was politically debated in state legislatures; 1900-1920—We had government controlled industrialized factory modeled schooling; 1920-1960—Schools changed from being academically focused to becoming socialized; and 1960 to the Present—Schools became psychological experiment labs.

In the year 1941 the Defense Department was preparing for World War II. In testing 18 million men between 1941 and 1944, the Defense Department found 96 percent of those tested were literate. During this same period, among African Americans who were tested—the majority of whom had only three years of schooling—80 percent were found to be literate. By literate we mean that Americans, both white and black, could read with understanding.

During the Korean War the Department of Defense tested three million men for service and only 19 percent were found to be literate. In less then 10 years there had been a 500 percent rise in illiteracy. Perplexed, the Defense Department investigated and found that the same test had been used during the two wars and the only difference was that those men and women tested during the Korean War had more schooling—at a significantly higher cost.

Twenty years later, around 1970, the same test was used at the time of a new war. Among the Vietnam draftees and enlistees who were tested for literacy only 27 percent were found to be capable of reading with understanding the material which they needed in order to serve in the armed forces. Again the major difference between American soldiers in the 1940’s and the 1970’s was more schooling for the latter group at a higher cost to the taxpayers.

Consider that the billions of taxpayer dollars were spent over the time period from the 1940’s to the present increased by some 350 percent with totally unacceptable results despite all the increased spending. In 1996 statistics prepared by the National Association of Education for Progress showed that some 44 percent of African Americans could not read at all. The same set of statistics shows that illiteracy among whites has quadrupled. Incredibly, educating Americans continues to cost massive amounts of taxpayer dollars to achieve unacceptable and devastatingly poor results.

Manipulating for the Collective State

As education expert and author Beverly Eakman states in “The Culture Wars: “… Americans bought critical changes in behavior, beliefs, and worldviews. By applying advertising and agitation in just the right proportions, our adversaries learned they could create a mob mentality and suppress independent thinking. Technically, this is called the science of coercion. If done properly, one can fool nearly all the people all the time.”

Mastery Learning, Outcome-Based Education, School-to-Work, Goals 2000, Profiles in Learning – all fads and educational trends put into operation in the nation’s school system since the late ’60s and early ’70s.

Now, those of you who have followed along thus far are asking: What does all this have to do with Emmanuel Kant, Hegel, Marx, the Frankfurt School of Sociology, Freud, Jung, Adler, Rogers and Maslow and the price of tea in China?

All these things are connected because they betray and explain a mindset. A worldview, a philosophy that seeks to shape humanity, the individual as a moral relativist, undiscerning, while building a thought pattern that denies or deconstructs facts – even those in math and science.

Because children are not given the grounding by doing the hard stuff of learning, the memorization, the drills, the creation of pattern and discipline, they will never be truly free to THINK on their own. Without the base, the technique, someone will always be manipulating or recreating them according to the latest fad, trend or totalitarian frame of reference that intellectuals usually succumb to.

According to Bev Eakman, one of the techniques that the educational mind Gestapo uses is that “Teaching techniques were … OBE [Outcome Based Education] inspired: cooperative learning, multi-age grouping, minimal failures, constant retesting and remediation, teachers as coaches or facilitators, inclusive classrooms, and the vacuous mantra, ‘All children can learn [at a high level].’ ”

The problem is that for most children, especially recent immigrants, inner city kids, and some rural areas, education is not obtained at a high level. Pew Hispanic Research claims that 75 percent of Hispanics graduate from high school. Meantime, American born black males have a 47 percent high school graduation rate. What this means is we have a home grown lower class that is ill educated and ill prepared in an era when college grads are flipping burgers and driving cabs. The outlook is not good and Obamaphone lady may be the new normal.

Conclusion

The cost to America of the under or ill educated can’t be measured in just dollars and cents. While the economic cost is monumental as indicated by the $30 billion annual Department of Education budget and billions more spent by local communities, the lack of results for the dollars we spend is catastrophic. We are paying billions to maintain a system which is ineffective and dangerous—because it is not teaching people the critical intellectual skills which are crucial to making economic and political decisions for themselves.

What is the answer? While the privileged class may choose to send its children to private schools, most Americans have only one option, public education. Public schools are the country’s largest employer and the largest mediator in contracts. Unfortunately, the public education establishment is so powerful it can outlast public outrage. Consequently Americans face a dismal educational future unless we insist on parental choice. Until then there is little likelihood that a Prussian inspired educational system will change and deliver the desired results—a literate, intellectually capable citizenry.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: corruption; democrats; education; evildemocrats; evilobamaregime; homeschooling; liars; liberals; phonics; progressives; reading; thieves
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To: corlorde

“That’s a Keeper.”
That was the exact segment I copied into my Zotero on Firefox before getting to your post.

That, and this one: “Public schools are the country’s largest employer and the largest mediator in contracts.”

Albert Shanker, once president of the American Federation of Teachers, said “I’ll start looking after the interests of school kids when they start paying dues.”

That’s what the American progressive education system has come to. It’s just a means of employing government workers and funneling union dues back to democrats.

Public Education is a slush fund. Period

And the best way to end it is, as another Freeper posted, to stop hiring teachers from the “Departments of Education” in universities.


41 posted on 01/01/2013 8:48:08 AM PST by A'elian' nation (Political correctness does not legislate tolerance; it only organizes hatred. Jacques Barzun)
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To: Dartman
Here are some of the "forgotten" rules:

edsanders.com - Table of Substitutes

Click here to return

Table of Substitutes

Below is a list of letters frequently used as substitutes to represent several of the elements as given in the first table. The learner should first name the substitute, next the element it represents, and then the example in which it is combined. Thus, ei is a substitute for a (long a) as in the word vein, and so forth.

ei = a as in vein

ey = a as in they

e = a as in sergeant

ou = a as in bought
i = e as in marine

a = e as in any

ai = e as in said

u = e as in bury
y = i as in spy

y = i as in hymn

e = i as in english

ee = i as in been
o = i as in women

u = i as in busy

ew = o as in sew

eau = o as in beau
au = o as in hautboy

a = o as in what

ew = u as in new

iew = u as in view
io = u as in nation

eo = u as in surgeon

y = u as in Myrtle

e = u as in her
i = u as in sir

o = u as in son

oo = u as in blood

o = u as in wolf
oo = u as in wool

ow = ou as in now

u = w as in persuasion

o = wu as in one
i = y as in onion

u = yu as inuse

ph = f as in phrase

gh = f as in laugh
d = j as in soldier

g = j as in gem

c = k as in cat

ch = k as in chord
gh = k as in hough

q = k as in quart

c = s as in cent

f = v as in of
ph = v as in Stephen

c = z as in suffice

s = z as in his

x = x as in xanthus
x = ks as in wax

cho = kw as in choir

n = ng as in anger

c = sh as in ocean
s = sh as in sure

ch = sh as in chaise

t = sh as in notion

g = zh as in rouge
s = zh as in osier

x = gz as in exact

42 posted on 01/01/2013 9:18:32 AM PST by Mogger (Independence, better fuel economy and performance with American made synthetic oil.)
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To: thirst4truth
More of the forgotten rules:

Table of Combinations of the Substitutes:

In this table the substitutes are combined in words which you may pronounce, point out the substitutes, and give the elements for which they stand.

1. Vein, feint, deign; they, prey, survey, obey; oft, for, nor, cord; cough, trough, bought, ought; marine, police, fatugue; any, many; said, again. 2. Bury, buried, burial; spy, fly, type, tyrant; hymn, hysteric, hypocrite; English, Englishman, England; been; women; busy, busily, business; sew, shew, shewn. 3. Beau, bateau; hautboy, hauteur, hautgout; what, wad, squad, squander; mew, pew, dew; view, purview, interview; nation, passion, religion.
4. Luncheon, pigeon, surgeon; myrtle, myrmidon, myrrh; her, herd, perch; sir, stir, fir, bird; son, won, love; blood, flood; wolf, wolfish, wolverine. 5. Wool, wood, stood, how, owl, bower; suasion, suavity, suaviter; one, once; onion, valiant, collier; union, figure, stature; phrase, cipher, graphic. 6. Laugh, tough, enough; soldier, soldier-like; gem, ginger, gypsum; cat, scope, arc; chord, scholar, monarch; hough, lough, shough; quart, quibble.
7. Cent, dice, facile; of; Stephen; suffice, sacrifice, sice, discern; his, prism, usurper; Xanthus, xiphoid, xanthid; wax, axis, expanse. 8. Choir, choir-service; anger, languidly; ocean, social, specious; sure, sugar, pension; chaise, chamois, machine; notion, partial, patient; bastion, question, christian; osier, crosier, usual; exact, example, exist. 9. Ed is often used as a substitute for t; as in placed, mixed, vexed, looked, stopped, rebuked.

43 posted on 01/01/2013 9:20:46 AM PST by Mogger (Independence, better fuel economy and performance with American made synthetic oil.)
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To: wgflyer

edsanders.com - Silent Letters Rules

Silent Letters

Silent letters are those which do not represent any element; and they must not be sounded in the pronounciation of the words in which they occur.

1. E final is usually silent; as in brave, crime, drone, abide, become, improve; able, marble, Bible. 2. E is often silent before d; as in bribed, changed, hedged; cradled, handled, struggled. 3. E is often silent before l; as in drivel, grovel, hazel, shovel, swivel, weasel.
4. E is often silent before n; as in garden, hidden, kitten, lighten, spoken, taken. 5. I is sometimes silent before l; as in evil, weevil. 6. I is sometimes silent before n, as in basin, cousin, reisin.
7. O is sometimes silent before n, as in bacon, deacon, mason, pardon, reason, weapon. 8. B is silent after m and before t; as in comb, climb, dumb, jamb, lamb, tomb; debt, doubt; subtle. 9. C is silent in czar, and muscle, and before k and t and s; as in back, crack, lock; indict, victuals, scene, scythe, scepter.
10. D id silent in Wednesday, standtholder, and before g in the same syllable; as in badge, fadge, dodge. 11. G is silent before m and n, and sometimes before l; as in phlegm, diaphragm; gnat, feign, consign; intaglio, seraglio. 12. H is silent in heir, herb, honest; and after g or r; at the end of a word and preceded by a vocal; and sometimes after t; as in ghastly, gherkin, ghostly; rheum, rhyme, myrrh; ah, oh, halleluiah; isthmus.
13. K is always silent before n; as in knave, knee, knife, knob, known, knew.    

44 posted on 01/01/2013 9:26:16 AM PST by Mogger (Independence, better fuel economy and performance with American made synthetic oil.)
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To: F15Eagle

It’s very likely that the “obamaphone lady’ is not only stupid but voted more than once, I’m told that here in Mississippi my vote only counts .95%. The DOJ held up our Voter ID implementation and I doubt it will ever be put in place. At the NYC Brennan Justice Center they say election and voter fraud only makes a difference in the close elections anyway, Florida, Ohio, Virginia etc.


45 posted on 01/01/2013 9:28:45 AM PST by duffee (Newt Gingrich for Speaker)
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To: thirst4truth
Here are the basic rules, perhaps some presented in a "new" way (1830s):


Rule 1. A clear and distinct articulation should be given to the elementary sounds employed in vocal utterance.

In the following table, the letters of the alphabet are divided into three classes, or kinds, viz: vocals, sub-vocals, and aspirates.

These are all the classes necessary for practical purposes; and any further division or classification, it is believed, would only tend to confuse and perplex the learner, and thus render the study of the exercise tedious and irksome to young pupils, if it did not, indeed, place it entirely beyond their comprehension. In accordance, therefore, with this simple and natural division, the letters are conveniently arranged on one page, and afford the pupil an interesting and intelligible exercise in enunciating the elementary sounds which they severally represent. The pupil should be drilled upon this table until he can not only readily distinguish the peculiarity of each sound when given by others, but can also enunciate it with perfect ease and clearness himself.

Table of Elementary Sounds.

Note. - Let the class, either individually or in concert, first pronounce the word containing the element, and then the element by itself, varying the intensity of the voice as the teacher may think proper ; thus, ale, a, arm, a, all, a, etc.

Vocals

Name Power

Name Power

Name Power

Name Power

Name Power

1 A Ale

2 A Arm 

3 A All 

4 A At 

5 E Eat 

6 E Bet 

7 I Ice 

8 I It 

9 O Ode 

10 O Do 

11 O Ox

12 U Sue

13 U Up

14 U Full

15 Ou Out


Sub-Vocals

Name Power

Name Power

Name Power

Name Power

Name Power

16 B Ebb

17 D Odd

18 G Egg

19 J, G Jet

20 L Ill

21 M Him

22 N Run

23 R Bur

24 V Ev

25 W Woe

26 Y Yet

27 Z, S Buzz

28 Z Azure

29 Th Thy

30 Ng Sing

Aspirates

Name Power

Name Power

Name Power

Name Power

Name Power

31 P Up

32 T It

33 K, C Ark

34  Ch  Much

35 H He

36 F If

37 Wh When

38 S, C Sin

39 Sh Fish

40 Th Thin

Note.-In this table, each vocal element is combined in words with all the sub-vocals and aspirates which is known to combine in the language. The class may be required to pronounce these words in an explosive and forcible utterance, both individually and in concert, until the highlighted letters can be easily and perfectly articulated in combination.

1. The sound of a long; as in bate, date, fate, gate, hate, jane, kale, lade, mate, nape, pate, rate, sate, tame, vane, wave, yate, gaze, chain, thane, lathe, shape, whale. 2. a flat, or Italian; as in bar, dark, garb, hark, jar, car, lark, mar, nard, par, raft, salve, tar, vast, waft, yarn, czar, char, lath, father, sharp. At the time this was written there were conflicts between Webster and Worchester, both of which were in the dictionary business. (Ed Sanders' Note)
(Worchester regards the sound of a in the words raft, vast, waft, lath, intermediate between that of a in fat and a in far. But the sound of a in this class of words, though not quite so much prolonged, is considered by Dr. Webster to be radically the same as it is in far, daunt, etc.; and hence we have put all such words in the same class here.) 3. a broad as; in ball, dawn, fall, gall, haw, jaw, kaw, law, mall, gnaw, pall, raw, saw, tall, vault, wall, yawl, gauze, chalk, thaw, shawl, wharf. 4. a short; as in bat, dash, fat, gat, hat, jam, cat, lad, mat, nap, pat, rat, sat, tan, van, wax, yam, azoth, chap, sang, thank, that, shall, whack.
5. e long; as in be, deep, feet, geese, he, jeer, key, lee, need, peat, reel, see, teem, veer, we, yee, zeal, cheer, theme, thee, she, wheel. 6. e short; as in bet, den, fen, get, hen, jet, ken, let, met, net, pet, rest, set, ten, vex, wet, yet, zed, check, theft, then, shed, when. 7. i long; as in bite, dine, fine, guide, hive, gibe, kite, line, mine, nine, pine, ripe, site, tine, vine, size, chime, thigh, thine, shine, white.
8. i short; as in bit, din, fin, gimp, hit, jib, kit, lid, mix, nit, pin, rio, sit, tin, vill, wit, zinc, chin, sing, thin, with, shin, whit. 9. o long; as in bolt, dome, foe, go, hole, joke, coke, lone, mote, note, pole, rope, sole, tone, vote, wove, joke, zone, choke, thole, those, shoal. 10. o middle; as in boot, do, food, goom, hoot, coop, lose, move, noose, pool, roost, soup, too, woo, ooze, cartouch, tooth, shoe.
11. o short; as in bot, dot, fox, got, hot, jot, cot, lot, mop, not, pop, rot, sot, top, novel, wot, yon, zocco, chop, ssong, thong, pother, shot, whop. 12. u long; as in bugle, due, fume, hue, june, cue, lute, mute, nude, pule, rule, sue, tune, yule, zumie, truth, sure. (In the words rule, truth, sure, Worchester sounds the u like o in move. But the best speakers, in Dr. Webster's view, give only a slight softening between the vocal and sub-vocal or aspirate, pronouncing the u, in all this class of words, in a less broad and open manner than the o in move, thus giving the letter its distinctive elementary sound.)
13. u short; as in but, dust, fun, gun, hut, just, cull, lull, must, nut, pun, sup, tun, vulgar, yucca, buzz, shub, sung, thumb, thus, shut, whur. 14. u middle; as in bush, pudding, full, sugar, could, bull, pull, put, would, butcher, should. 15. ow and ou; as in bow, down, fowl, gout, how, jounce, cow, loud, mount, noun, pout, rout, south, town, vouch, wound, mouth, thou, shout.

Note.- This table embraces a great variety of the combinations of the sub-vocals and aspirates; and it is recommended that the class be frequently exercised in the pronounciation of them, both individually and in concert. The letters before the colon and dash indicate the sound to be given to the combinations underlined, whose elements are to be clearly and distinctly uttered.

1. Bd:- sobbed, robed. Bl:- blood, blind, able, feeble. Bld:- fabled, dabbled, trembled, tumbled.
Blz:- rambles, pebbles, rumbles, bubbles. Br:- brain, brown, bright, brick. Bz:- describes, cubs, clubs.
2. Ch:- pitch, much, chimney. 3. Dl:- cradle, idle, middle. Dld:- kindled, fondled, huddled.
Dlz:- candles, paddles, riddles. Dn:- sadden, ridden, golden. Dr:- dream, dress, drive, drew.
Dst:- coveredst, amidst. Dz:- trades, weeds, sleds, sides. 4. Fl:- flame, fling, baffle, trifle.
 Flz:- baffles, trifles.  Fn:- often, soften.  Fr:- frame, frank, friend.
 Fs:- laughs, griefs.  Ft:- abaft, left, lift, soft.  Fth:- fifth.
 Fts:- gifts, lifts, drifts.  5. Gd:- gragged, begged.  Gl:- gleams, glide, glory, struggle.
 Gld:- tangled, mingled, struggled.  Glz:- eagles, jungles, struggles.  Gr:- grown, grand, agreed, regret.
Gz:- rags, eggs, trigs, exert. 6. Jd:- engaged, discouraged, obliged, hedged, dodged, lodged. 7. Kl:- clad, clean, club, circle, sparkle.
 Klz:- sparkles, articles, spectacles.  Kn:- taken, forsaken, broken.  Kr:- creep, creek, crying.
Ks:- sacks, cheeks, necks, bricks, looks. Kt:- expect, looked, locked, picked. Kts:- acts, facts, insects.
Kst:- next, fixed, mixed. Ksth:- sixth. 8. Lb:- bulb, bulbous.
Ld:- failed, crawled, told, child. Ldz:- fiele.P  

46 posted on 01/01/2013 9:31:07 AM PST by Mogger (Independence, better fuel economy and performance with American made synthetic oil.)
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To: Dartman
I started school in the mid 1950’s at a four-room schoolhouse (two grades per room, one teacher) in a village here in Ontario

Big school! We had seven kids, all 8 grades in one room or smallest year (figure that math out!) 18 kids biggest year. 1960 to 1968. One teacher.

No running water for 1st 4 years I was there, got electricity when I was in 1st grade, wood stove until I was in 4th or so. We wore our mittens and coats until the place warmed up. Started at 40 below some days inside.

The teacher walked the longest distance, over 2 miles. she was approaching retirement. Rarely, she would allow her husband to drive her to school. She carried a full load of books and papers back and forth.

She was a huge woman, probably 300 pounds or more of blubber and muscle.

We had a couple of older "boys" who had been held back a few times and were real problems. One of them, taller than her and quite strong made the mistake of trying to hit her one day. She wielded a four foot hardwood lumber rule like a Samurai sword, amazingly fast and furious. He was shortly reduced to a quivering pile of pulp in a corner.

Behavior improved after that.

We brought in the wood, swept and mopped the floor, cleaned the chemical toilets, etc. There was no vandalism.

They closed the place and went to a union school system when I was in 8th grade.

IMHO, a huge mistake.

Do you still have the smaller schools in Ontario?

47 posted on 01/01/2013 9:49:51 AM PST by Mogger (Independence, better fuel economy and performance with American made synthetic oil.)
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To: wgflyer
America’s future depends upon it.

Sadly, my present opinion is that this country must go down the rathole to which we are headed.

If we are lucky maybe we can start over after hitting bottom.

Maybe we can somehow pull it out of the fire first, but it isn't looking good.

I wish everyone would get as much knowledge as possible in print form, such as the phonics rules I posted and any other books, etc., and store it all away in fireproof, safe locations.

With all the knowledge that's been forgotten and lost over the millenia, we need to preserve as much as possible in as many places as possible.

48 posted on 01/01/2013 9:58:59 AM PST by Mogger (Independence, better fuel economy and performance with American made synthetic oil.)
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To: IbJensen

Good article thanks for posting.


49 posted on 01/01/2013 10:07:08 AM PST by antisocial (Texas SCV - Deo Vindice)
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To: IbJensen

No one knows the true history of compulsory schooling in America. I wonder why?

John Gatto’s “Underground History of American Education” is a revelation. It’s also available to read for free on line.


50 posted on 01/01/2013 10:11:45 AM PST by St_Thomas_Aquinas
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To: sergeantdave

-— that accounted for the high literacy. -—

Learning to read is easy. It typically takes about 8 hours of instruction.

I spent 15 minutes a day, for four weeks, instructing my daughters, at age 4, in phonics. After four weeks they were reading Dr. Seuss books on their own. This is typical for homeschooled kids. Many learn faster.

So why can’t so many kids read, after years of instruction? Compulsory learning isn’t about the lessons on the chalkboard.


51 posted on 01/01/2013 10:20:58 AM PST by St_Thomas_Aquinas
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To: IbJensen

She certainly helped strengthen the point that too many Americans are stupid, but I didn’t see the root cause. Until they take the “Left-Winger-Gene” theory seriously and treat it like a lethal disease, we will continue to have a low smarts/common sense profile.


52 posted on 01/01/2013 10:24:12 AM PST by trebb (Allies no longer trust us. Enemies no longer fear us.)
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To: driftless2

-— By 1940, only fifty percent of Americans had graduated from high school. -—

True. Kids today spend much more time in school. Are they smarter? Wiser? More moral?

Schooling and learning aren’t synonymous but, more often than not, antithetical.


53 posted on 01/01/2013 10:34:59 AM PST by St_Thomas_Aquinas
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To: St_Thomas_Aquinas
John Gatto’s “Underground History of American Education” is a revelation. It’s also available to read for free on line

Thanks for posting this. I searched for, and immediately found it and have started reading.

The info he presents is even more dark than I had known.

54 posted on 01/01/2013 10:56:53 AM PST by Mogger (Independence, better fuel economy and performance with American made synthetic oil.)
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To: IbJensen
We should cease referring to the Democrat Party as 'democratic.'

I stopped using that term for them a long time ago.

They are Leftists, pure and simple.

55 posted on 01/01/2013 11:04:36 AM PST by Old Sarge (We are officially over the precipice, we just havent struck the ground yet...)
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To: Mogger

“Do you still have the smaller schools in Ontario?”

Maybe in the northern areas, I don’t know for sure. I think busing has taken away most of the smaller schools.
When I was a kid (I know ...here we go) there weren’t any school buses for the elementary students. My sisters and my brother and I walked about a mile and a half to school. When the big snow storms hit (before Algore took charge of the weather) we would sometimes go a few days before the plow would come down our road. Depending on the amount of snow, we would return to school according to our height. The taller kids would go first, a day or so later, the rest of us.

My favourite memory is of my Grade 1/2 teacher, Mrs. Oliver. She was an older lady who LOVED teaching. It was so obvious in her speech, her mannerisms, and the love of learning she instilled in us.


56 posted on 01/01/2013 11:23:19 AM PST by Dartman
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To: IbJensen
It's time for liberals and conservatives to realize we don't want the same things... time to split - walk away, breakup, get a divorce - whatever.

A THIRD PARTY is NOT the answer. A 'red' United States and a 'blue' United States is the answer.

Consider the two countries as a RED STATE and a BLUE STATE solution. Liberal elites won't have to fight us to win all the things they want - and we won't have to argue with them about our positions.

It's a win-win. Liberals can have ALL of the following:

Free - TOTALLY FREE Medical care from cradle to grave. ObamaCare on speed.

Unlimited gun control laws.

Unlimited immigration from third world countries.

A minimum wage of $50 an hour.

Taxes on the ‘rich’ of 90% to 98%.

Anyone can vote as ofter as they want to... no ID required.

Teachers have life time appointments - even if they can't pass a simple reading test.

“Marriage” is something between any groups or species or whatever. Anything and everything goes...

Krugman of the New York Times can run the economy - and borrow money from the world until (red state) debt is a million to one.

***********************************************************************

OUR SIDE can have traditional values...

Traditional Medical Care.

Voter ID Laws

Marriage between a man and a woman.

Balanced budget

Newspapers that work to win the respect and trust of their readers rather than working for liberal ‘prizes’ to adorn their office walls.

Citizens can keep the Constitution we have now - and ALL of the Bill of Rights.

57 posted on 01/01/2013 11:31:23 AM PST by GOPJ (It's not possible to be a Progressive and not be a hypocrite. Freeper TigersEye.)
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To: IbJensen; Pelham

Why do so many people including many here find this so new?

conservatives like me raised as a near minority in a creeping black dominated environment have known this all my life...minority dominated and secured by northern and coastal white liberals

(55 years old)

we now have let our elections be determined by stupid folks who want free stuff or getback or both

the only thing that could change this ...and only that is temporary is to shift a conservative white turnout at least 5 percentage points up...and that would matter...handwringing about turning minorities is a waste with little results unless you turn most of them...ain’t gonna happen

it’s too late now really in the long run...the Bush open borders really cemented the incremental-ism of turning the US into a non white nation...what we end up with will not be pretty or familiar

all this blather now is just biding time till total capitulation or civil war


58 posted on 01/01/2013 11:37:30 AM PST by wardaddy (wanna know how my kin felt during Reconstruction in Mississippi, you fixin to find out firsthand)
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To: W. W. SMITH

-— The schools can be fixed. Stop hiring education degrees. -—

All that requires is destroying the teacher unions.

Beyond that, compulsory schooling is opposed to liberty and parents’ right to be their child’s primary educators.

Finally, schooling and true education are often opposed.


59 posted on 01/01/2013 12:08:32 PM PST by St_Thomas_Aquinas
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To: Mogger

-— When we started homeschooling I realized this, since I have a complete collection of bound Harpers magazines from number 1 on the 1840s to 1900, when the magazine began its’ slide into liberal trash.

From that magazine and other books and magazines I figured Americans were the most literate in the mid to late 1800s.-—

Fascinating. Thank you.

BTW, “whole word” was promoted by Dewey to prevent children from reading independently. As a committed socialist (he was one of the original signatories of the Humanist Manifesto), he desired that children learn to read cooperatively, guessing together at the meaning of words.

Teachers are unaware of this history, and promote “whole language” out of ignorance.


60 posted on 01/01/2013 12:21:32 PM PST by St_Thomas_Aquinas
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