Benson: The Dumb-Dumb Factory

The situation with what we charitably call “public education” continues to get more and more bizarre, and more folks are beginning to ask the question: “Is what my kids are getting in public school really education?” Well, no, it’s not. It’s not even close.

I talked to a friend recently that has his two youngest kids in public school in the town he lives in. They are in the 5th and 6th grades. I asked him about the books the kids brought home for homework. He told me they didn’t bring the books home from school hardly ever. What they did bring home for homework was worksheet type material, but rarely a book. He has no clue to the content of 95% of the books his kids use. I asked him “What does that tell you?” His reply came quickly, “They don’t want parents to see the books.” How right he is. They don’t. In his case, he is the kind of father, who, if he saw something off key in one of his kid’s textbooks he would go to the school and ask questions and he would expect real answers, not progressive platitudes.

The easiest solution to that little problem for the schools is to make sure that he and all the other parents don’t ever get a look at the vast majority of the school books. What little they do get to see is probably pretty innocuous, the rest, who knows? Shades of Kanawha County, West Virginia! Nothing has changed in public education in 37 years except that it has grown more radical and the student brainwashing has continued apace.

A friend back east recently sent an email stating that she thought it was not so much a matter of dumbing down by the schools, but rather a matter of their not wanting to believe what they don’t wish to believe. With some older students and even some adults, there is a certain amount of truth to this. I once knew a homeschooling mother who, knowing my opinion of the sainted Abraham Lincoln, told me flat out “I’m a great admirer of Abraham Lincoln and I know how you feel about him, so I’m not going there with you.” It has been said that the brainwashed never wonder, and mostly the self-brainwashed don’t either. So there is truth to this lady’s opinion.

But then the question arose from another friend “What makes folks not want to learn the truth?” And she then answers her own question “Carefully planned indoctrination (brainwashing) of course. Of a type so subtle that those subjected to it may never realize it.” She is right also. And most today who have gone to public schools have been, at one point or another, subjected to it. It’s part of the curriculum–on purpose.

I recently read on a short article written in 2005. It said: “The American public education system is dumbing down your kids and preparing them for a life of mediocrity.” That’s the startling, but perhaps not surprising premise behind John Taylor Gatto’s book “The Underground History of American Education,” which is available to read free online. (Hint: Try the printer-friendly links in each chapter.)

Gatto, a former New York State Teacher of the Year taught for 30 years in public schools. Obviously he knows whereof he speaks.

The article continues: ”He (Gatto) argues that the system is designed to suppress in children the ability of critical thinking and judgment needed to accomplish great things, and to psychologically warp children so as to be docile, apathetic, uncomplaining employees and consumers when they grow up.” The proles from 1984! Keep ‘em fat, reasonably content and stupid and they’ll never bother to ask any questions.

Charlotte Iserbyt was appointed to the U.S. Department of Education by Ronald Reagan, Her position with that august body did not last long. She was fired in 1982 “after she objected to–and later leaked documents exposing–top level agreements between the administration and the Soviet Union for the purpose of redirecting the course of American education.” Let that little tidbit sink in for a minute. The “conservative” Reagan administration was cozying up to the Soviet Union for the purpose of “redirecting the course of American education.” Where do you suppose they planned on taking it. Any guesses?

Mrs. Iserbyt said, in an interview given back in 2002, referring to Bush’s “No child left behind program” that: “Instead of thinking it’s wonderful that the president and secretary are saying ‘All children will learn. No child will be left behind’ you must ask yourself what that means. It has nothing to do with education. It has to do with reaching the lowest common denominator and getting rid of any academics because corporations–certainly the multinationals–don’t want intelligent workers. The Carnegie Corporation’s David Hornbeck , who has restructured education in many of the states, essentially said in his book “Human Capital” that ‘We don’t want educated workers. They give us a hard time. They quit their jobs. They ask too many questions.’” Interesting that the Carnegie Corporation employs this man who has “restructured education in many of the states.” Who gave him the authority to do that and were the parents ever informed? Oh, I forgot, they don’t want people who ask questions.

You folks who dutifully sent your kids to be “educated” in public schools always thought those schools were “your schools.” After all, you pay a big chunk of your property taxes to support them. Some of you are hopefully now beginning to learn that “your schools” were never really your schools, not even from day one in public education back in the 1830s! For decades these schools have been the vehicles of the Carnegie and Rockefeller foundations to promote the type of student that would be useful for their New World Order agenda–a student that will not ask intelligent questions, will not complain when the jack boot is placed on his neck and his taxes are raised and will be docile and content to work his eight or ten hour a day shift at the widget factory, come home, plant himself in front of the television and be totally satisfied to absorb whatever meaningless drivel the New World Order networks crank out there for him to amuse himself with.

This is what your public schools are turning out. This is what they exist for. This is their theology. Students learn not to think, not to question (anything except Christianity, which they are programmed to question) and never to ask why, because a thirst for knowledge, especially in the areas of history and politics might get them into big trouble.

Proletarian students (proles) who have learned not to question anything have learned to keep themselves out of trouble with the powers that be. Their parents have sold their God-given birthright of liberty for a mess of socialist pottage and the public school system is doing them all a big favor by keeping the students dumb enough that they don’t have the intelligence to question the motives of the Cultural Marxists in Washington and their state capitals. It’s the public school’s way of keeping them safe instead of free. Think about it.

Written by Al Benson Jr. and published on Revised History ~ December 1, 2011.

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