“Many public-school children seem to know only two dates – 1492 and 4th of July; and as a rule they don’t know what happened on either occasion” -Mark Twain

I don’t mean anything against public-school teachers, and by no means do I think that all children (or adults) educated by the public school system are moronic idiots who don’t deserve a job.
I have relatives who work as teachers, and friends in public school.
And, of course, I understand that not all public schools are the same and that not every teacher is planning on indoctrinating their students.

However, the fact is, by and large, public schools are failing our students. They’ve gone from a means of education to a means of government indoctrination.
Fearmongering? No. I promise you, this is truly what public schools have become. As a survivor of nine long, terrible years, I can tell you this for a fact.
After all, when you think about it, every single person who works at a public school works for the government.
They’re being paid by the government.
Is it really any surprise that the government is therefore factoring in the opinion-forming process of our students?
And do we really want an America in which every student can spout off the doctrines of the government, but couldn’t point out Arkansas on a map?
History is failing; children are fed “facts” from biased, incompetent textbooks which present American history as benign.
Foreign Languages are weak at best, with most schools employing a loose, fill-in-the-gap curriculum which teaches the basics of grammar and vocabulary, though not much else.
But failing most of all?
Mathematics.

Older generations lament the critical condition of mental math abilities; they point out time and time again the fact that most young people need to use the calculator function on their cellphones to check their change or dole out a tip.  With bizarre new programs coming into play, including Everyday Math which stresses the use of calculators in order to solve math problems. In many schools (including my former elementary school) these new systems are employed without consideration for students without a basis on this form of math. While the incoming grades begin with Everyday Math, older students are left at a loss in trying to muddle their way through a program so different from the one they are used to.

Everyday Math encourages students to solve math problems by any means necessary…including the use of calculators and counting blocks in place of pencil-and-paper formulas.
As a student who attended a school which implemented everyday math, there are a few things I should relate to you.
1.) By sixth grade, I still could not do basic multiplication without the help of a table.
2.) I saw fractions only once: in second grade. The next time they came up, I was a freshman at my independent high school which (unsurprisingly) had kept to “old” math. Needless to say, I was at a complete loss.
3.) I couldn’t tell you any of the math I learned between third and eighth grade.
4.) I am guilty of using the calculator function on my cellphone to add up prices and tax on purchases because I cannot do it in my head.
5.) I dread the basic, simple things math is supposed to teach, like handing out change.

If these are the results of teaching simple math, I don’t want to know what the economy is going to look like, soon enough. Not unless some really brilliant math teachers step up and above the system.

And I’m not a slacker. I’ve kept up steady As and Bs throughout my school career. I can’t (and don’t want to) imagine the dust that has settled in the brains of the slackers.

Which, of course, leads to my next topic: Public schools are erasing the individual.
The students who slack off are rarely called out. Students who excel are rarely lauded.
All in the name of “equality.”
In some schools, educators even do away with the concept of private property. Shiny new pencils and notebooks and bright new crayons are taken from the children and put in a communal box.
These supplies are now for the use of everybody in the classroom. No one owns them; not anymore.
What we have to remember, here, is that public schools are entirely in the hands of the government in a way that the nation is not.
If this is the way they run an institution owned by themselves, we should take notice. Eradicating the indavidual and erasing the rights to property on government-owned territory should tell us one thing: if they could, this is the way in which they would run our nation.

And this is not to mention the out-and-out neglect which our government-run schools inflict on children with learning disabilities. Obstacles such as dyslexia are often ignored until the child no longer believes they can learn, thinking themselves stupid. Even once such a thing is discovered, it often is not handled. If the child is lucky, they will receive extended time in which to take their tests. Through battling with school boards, the parent might score a laptop and learning program with which the child may work. This appalling neglect of children with such workable conditions should infuriate you.
These are bright children with a condition that could easily be remedied or worked around. And they are being taught to hate themselves, and to hate learning. They are being taught, even if not in an outright fashion, that any work they put into their education goes to waste.
This does not bode well for the child’s career later in life.

Neal Boortz says it best in his book Somebody’s Gotta Say It.

“Child abuse is neither always obvious nor intentional. The most rampant form of child abuse in this country is not only legal, but committed routinely. It is the act of taking what arguably is, or should be, the most precious things in your life – your children – and places them in the hands of the government.”

In the end, this is exactly what you are doing with your children when you send them to public schools: placing them in the hands of the government. When you put your children in public schools, you no longer have any real say in what they learn, or from whom. You have no say in how they learn. In short, you’ve lost all control of your children’s minds. Don’t believe me?
Ask students simple questions. Ask them about American history, math, or basic concepts of grammar.
Most likely, they won’t be able to answer without a struggle.
Many public schools seem to be teaching children government principles above fact. They teach children to expect nothing but the same.
Ask a child what they want to be when they grow up. Odds are, it has something to do with education, medicine, or public service.
There isn’t anything wrong with this when it comes to the individual. But if children aren’t thinking outside the box on something as abstract as future careers…?
You do the math.

I could go on even further than this. I could ramble on about teacher’s unions, about the horrific hypocrisy and tyranny in the government of school boards, which closes their eyes and ears to the concerns of parents.
But I’ll leave that up to you.
You’re a thinking person, capable of drawing such conclusions for yourself.
Check out a book from the library.
Lies My Teacher Told Me, for example.
Talk to local, publicly educated children.
The results may shock you.

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