“Free education for all children in public schools” has been the rallying cry of the Left, both in this country and others, for over a century and a half. If there is actually anyone still left that wonders why the political and theological Left has such a passion for promoting public “education” let me say this. Public education, as presently constituted, is an ideal platform from which to promote Leftist indoctrination of future generations. It’s made to order and the Left has been exploiting it for longer than most of us have been alive. Those wishful thinkers that want to reform public education to get it back to the “good old days” have yet to figure this out.
Just this past week I ran across an article by Maria Biery from July 6, 2017 on The American Conservative titled, Liberal Bias Starts Long Before College. Miss Biery brought up many worthwhile points to consider. The main point she sought to make was that American students, particularly in public schools, are much exposed to liberal, Leftist bias in their classrooms long before they ever sit foot on a college campus. It was an astute observation, and one that most folks fail to make.
She noted her personal experience with this. She wrote: “In my own experience, during my years in a public high school, I had a teacher who aired his left-leaning political views on a daily basis during class hours, when we were supposed to be learning biology. I can remember sitting in the back of the class with my fists clenched asking myself, ‘what are we learning right now besides what he thinks about politics?’ There was no space to debate him. Numerous students told their parents about it, but at the end of the day, we all knew we couldn’t do anything.” The students were a captive audience. The teacher probably had tenure and so the school probably couldn’t get rid of him unless he did something really outrageous. As long as he stayed within certain parameters this teacher could spout his socialist clichés all day long and the students had to sit and take it.
You have to wonder, in this instance, whose interests were really being served–the students’ or those of this Left-wing ideologue posing as a teacher. This situation is one that has been repeated in public schools all across America for decades now–at least since the advent of the Frankfurt School in this country. And probably before!
Miss Biery had other issues with the public school system besides this one teacher. One other gripe she had, and it’s a legitimate one, is that the schools only teach the kids what they need to know to pass those standardized tests that all public school kids everywhere have to take. If the kids do well on those tests then it makes the school look good–even if the kids learn almost nothing worthwhile. I’ve heard this complaint from all manner of people over the years. If the local school looks good, with fantastic standardized test results, then a compliant “news” media puffs that and runs with it and it creates the false premise that public education is light years ahead of all other kinds of education–and those fantastic test results prove it! Sorry to burst the bubble, but it’s all a scam. Ask most of these kids about anything they didn’t have on that test and they don’t have a clue!
Biery quoted from a College Fix article that said: “The public school system is a microcosm of the socialist system, one that is bureaucratic, wasteful, and does not serve its original and intended purpose.” Biery quoted that and I don’t know who wrote it but I have some disagreement with the sentiment. Recognizing the public school as a microcosm of the socialist system is downright prescient, but feeling that it failed in its original intent to educate is not. Any socialist system does not exist to educate, but rather to indoctrinate with a Leftist worldview. Real, true and accurate education has nothing to do with socialism.
She notes how public schools fail to teach much of our history. They ignore critical areas and stress indoctrination, especially in U.S. history, to “support an agenda…”–such as, the “Civil War” was only fought over slavery, or, in elections, we’d do better to get rid of the Electoral College and just do it all by “majority rule.” The question of majority rule vs. minority rights is never dealt with. You just aren’t supposed to ask about that. Biery stated that she never really found out how horrific a system communism really is until she attended a private school.
You can bet the farm that the school Miss Biery attended is quite typical of public “education” establishments nationwide. So if you wonder why so many college kids are so Leftist-oriented, look no further than the public schools they attended and the teachers that taught them.
Admittedly, there are exceptions to the public school teachers. I have been privileged to know several over the years who sought to truly educate the kids committed to their charge. Sadly, these folks are the exception rather than the rule.
The quote I began this article with was one taken from the Communist Manifesto, and made by Karl Marx. It is a sentiment advocated by Marx and a whole bevy of other socialists, Marxists, Unitarians, and Transcendentalists . Maybe if we can ever wrap our minds around that fact, we will stop supporting that system and start to separate our kids from it. Until then, sadly, most will continue to let those committed to our cultural destruction continue to educate our kids and then wonder why we, and they, have problems.
More on socialist “education” (indoctrination) in schools as the Lord enables.
October 21, 2018
~ The Author ~
Al Benson Jr. is the editor and publisher of “The Copperhead Chronicle“, a quarterly newsletter that presents history from a pro-Southern and Christian perspective. He has written for several publications over the years. His articles have appeared in “The National Educator,” “The Free Magnolia,” and the “Southern Patriot.” I addition to that he was the editor of, and wrote for, “The Christian Educator” for several years. In addition to The Copperhead Chronicles, Al also maintains Revised History.
He is currently a member of the Confederate Society of America and the Sons of Confederate Veterans, and has, in the past, been a member of the John Birch Society. He is the co-author, along with Walter D. Kennedy, of the book “Lincoln’s Marxists” and he has written for several Internet sites as well as authoring a series of booklets, with tests, dealing with the War of Northern Aggression, for home school students.
He and his wife now live in northern Louisiana.
Mr. Benson is a highly respected scholar and writer and has graciously allowed Metropolis Café to publish his works. We are proud to have his involvement with this project.