My Issue With Public Schools

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I was thinking more about the genocide of Native Americans, as well as the slave trade, and the subsequent discrimination against African Americans.

-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer

And the importation of Chinese and their subsequent discrimination, usw.

And the Texas incident, and potshooting bison from the train and on and on.

IF anybody bothered to teach them to think - but where to find thinking teachers? - the information is out there. Substituting one factoid for another, one socialized attitude for another, is not productive.

It wasn't just in Texas that buffalo had been shot from trains. My Dad had told me a family story that had been passed down to him, in which his people, Russian Germans, had been traveling by train to 19th century South Dakota, when they saw all these freshly dead animals littering the plain. Asking the engineer to stop the train, the Germans rushed out to cut steak from the dead animals, which the kitchen kindly cooked for them.
I somehow don't think that my ancestors grasped the implication of all those dead animals, or maybe didn't even care that it was done to starve the Indians into submission.

-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer

Yah, I agree. Its really stupid. They want people to always think America is the good guy so that people remain passive and never question the motives of their leaders, whether its the puppet out front or the guy pulling the strings from behind.

BTW, you should read the Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein if you haven't already. It goes into detail about all that.

When I hear about public schools I feel compelled to rant.

Public schools in the USA have little to do with teaching children basic skills that they need to make a living, and definitely doesn't have to do with teaching kids how to think critically. They are only interested in teaching obedience to authority and doing what you are told.

If it is not extremely obvious to you, you do not need to go to school to learn a skill! It is just that the business community demands that you go to school if you want to get employed. That is the crux of the issue, the business community actually is not interested in teaching you a skill or interesting and important things about the world, they are only interested in exploiting you for every dollar that you are worth. Their interest in schools is to shape individuals in such a way that they will be put all possible effort towards their job and be productive etc.

So first our society makes success in schools based on effort and being productive, and then tell you that they are doing this to prepare you for "the real world". Don't be fooled, they don't have your best interests at heart! Your best interests if you have a skill and an employer is to do as little amount of work as possible for the most amount of money possible. This is much much different from what school teaches.

Little kids don't fill politicians' pockets, nor do the vast majority of their mommies and daddies.
Hence, public education is not a priority for Washington (though it gets lip service, for all the good that does).
I think today's parents have to consider public education as a starting point, and fill in the gaps themselves.
Kids need to do workbooks at home, play with educational toys, be taken to cultural events and museums, etc.
Public school shouldn't be the alpha and omega of a child's learning.

It is not like you would learn that when home-schooled in the US or in a US private school either.

It depends on what private school you go to or who homschools you.

Yeah, exactly. But chances are that they will have the same national bias.

In order to be home schooled without that kind of bias, you would need a special kind of parent. But then having that parent would make you immune to public school indoctrination as well.

I went to a private school (Not in the US). The academic level was much better but I received the same level of nationalistic indoctrination because most teachers are indoctrinated in that as well.

So, I did learn that US completely raped our democracy (and Chile's and everyone else's down here). But we also did "learn" that Chile is the reason we are so badly poor. Yeah right.

Here's another thing about public schools: people have been opposing them ever since they were put into place.

Same as vaccines.

And cars.

And the wheel, possibly.

The public schools I've went to have too many people. Which means there's longer lines, crowded hallways, and more fights. When it comes to longer lines, whenever I have Lunch, I rush to the cafeteria in hopes of getting to the food before the lines gets bigger. I use to do that because I get very impatient and I am a slow eater when it comes to certain foods. That's one thing I couldn't stand about my public High School, but I graduated a 2 months ago, so that's one thing I hope I don't do again.

When public schools were first put into place people thought the schools would replace patriotic rebellion with cowardly subserviance. They were right.

But for all the problems with public schools, I'd rather have them, as all American children are offered universal education (which at one time had been the best in the world), and my autistic daughter is given special education I and my wife could not provide her in a home school situation.

-Bill, otherwise known a Kraichgauer

Public schools in the US are messed up mostly because of the public's lack of interest in them.

You forgot to include evidence with that assertion.