*Video* The Shocking Truth About Public Schools

I'm (like every other state educated person) a product of the very system being talked about so I have the self evidence of what is and isn't being taught. I'm re-educating myself but more importantly my children will not be part of this system because they are not taught at school and they are/will learn at their own pace (not following any state system) and be allowed to grow as nature intended i.e. slowly as children. My Children!

*Bumping* this thread because I think it's important.
second line.

I found out in 1992 that schools in london where having electronic mind control used on the kids.

So what more do you need to know.

There is scum behind the scenes using these weapons to either boost certain people or destroy others with these weapons.

hint: Wayne rooney, being boosted at the mo with the english desperate and i mean desperate to win world cup.

I've heard that Rockefeller once said "I don't want a nation of thinkers, I want a nation of workers." I don't know if he -really- said that, but the current school system is largely set up to produce workers, not thinkers.

I did find university to be an improvement over grade school, but there are still many problems even at the college level. Despite what educators may tell you, critical thinking is not taught at all in the current school system. It's all about memorization and reciting back what you 'learned'. I graduated high school back in 2000, and from what I've seen younger siblings and other children doing, the programs are getting dumbed down even further. Last week, for example, I helped a friend of mine with his math homework; the material in question I covered in grade 10, and he was in an advanced grade 12 class doing the same thing.

I do disagree somewhat with the kid claiming that material such as quadratic equations are useless. From his point of view, though, I can see why he states this. Many of the things I learned in grade school would have been completely useless to me if I had not gone on to earn an engineering degree, such as quadratic equations.

Has anyone here gone to a private school? I'm wondering how they compare in quality. I would think that they are better, but without experience I don't really know.

Despite what educators may tell you, critical thinking is not taught at all in the current school system. It's all about memorization and reciting back what you 'learned'. I graduated high school back in 2000, and from what I've seen younger siblings and other children doing, the programs are getting dumbed down even further. Last week, for example, I helped a friend of mine with his math homework; the material in question I covered in grade 10, and he was in an advanced grade 12 class doing the same thing.

reply to post by DragonsDemesne


I'm an educator, and I will happily tell you what I and several of my colleagues see in the public school system. We just discussed this yesterday.

Critical thinking is NOT taught. Why? Because the public schools have turned into robot training grounds.

Let me explain.

In an effort to make sure all children were succeeding to the best of their ability, the government decided to use standardized tests to compare the growth of the student from the previous year and to rank the student with regards to others in the same grade throughout the nation.

Because funding and jobs are directly tied to student performance, schools and teachers are pressured to "teach to the test." In other words, coach the students on how to pass the two or three (middle and high grades have more) standardized tests. The easiest way to do this? Memorization.

Another factor, and this is going to sound very harsh, but not all kids are capable of performing at the same level. Yet we group all kids together and pitch the lessons to the center of the class......which means the students who are above the curve are bored and not learning and the students who are below the curve are bored, frustrated, and not learning.

I don't have a solution for this, but I think the first steps would be to acknowledge that not all students are going to be able to keep up with the curriculum in every subject, and go from there.

reply to post by OutKast Searcher


I completely agree with your posts on this subject. This kid does not help himself by his scatter gun approach?

It is a bit of a curate's egg. It has good parts and bad parts.

How on earth can any teacher body slam a kid?? America is the home of personal injury lawsuits. Is the teacher mad or just has deep pockets?? What about the parents thtat go in and beat teachers??I would not body slam any kid.

The dislike of maths is fine for him but how on earth did we ever get to the moon?? Does this kid realise that America like most western countries seeks to move to a knowledged-based economy because it cannot compete as a geographical entity with a other manufacturing countries?


School can be irritating but he should just take the rough withthe smooth. BTW I wonder whathe will be doing 5years from now? Will he have changed his views?

I have been saying this my whole life, finally someone with intelligence!

I started not liking school at around 8yrs old yet my parents forced me to go only so the system wouldn't come after them, then at around high school I got the idea that my teachers were not working as teachers for there soul purpose of teaching, NO they were only there for money, power and greed. I found it that most of my instructors could care less of the students as long as they look good and can get a raise.

So I left the school at age 16, the system then said I was in violation of code %*^!*% and was to be considered a truent. They then took me to court, since I didn't attend school due to insubordination or unintelligence they were mostly in shock.

How could a truent have such high grades?

Answer: because I'm not an idiot, and I see through the lies.....but with everyone else oblivious to the truth, why do I have to suffer?
There is but only one way to stop them, and it's for every one to unite and over throw them! This will do nothing in terms of solving the problem and it will only create absolute anarchy amongst the people.

What I see is a young man with a future making documentaries.

I can't make a movie this well and he's got a lot of learning years left.

He probably doesn't need algebra and he knows it.

Public schools, the concept is Not bad.

But the ones behind the AMERICAN public schools, there is malicious intent.

they really don't teach anything that is particularly useful. There's no self development no self empowerment.

The books and the curriculum are written to literally bore the feck out of you and make it harder for you to learn anything.

On top of that, only the rich people get ok-pretty good education. The rest of the poor folks, no matter if they're poor for the right or wrong reasons end up with sucky ass materials, schooling, and no funding or financial aid. Only the extremely poor people get the funding, and they abuse it, and use it as a free ride and stay poor so us taxpayers do all the workd for them, meanwhile they just sit around and do nothing with it.

Even still. Even if they did try, they would also probably get lower than the best scores, or typically be outcast. Then they have Affirmative action which pretty much handicaps certain minorities.

[edit on 22-4-2010 by The Quiet Storm]

My kids, who are now adults, were very successful in public schools.

Instead of "mindless drones" they are incredibly smart. They are also both very successful in their own fields.

I often hear criticism of public schools but I don't hear specific plans that would improve public schools.

I will add one condition to my comment. The single most important thing that you can do for your children is to live in an area that has great public schools. Not schools that are just OK or heaven forbid schools that are failing. Choose to live in a school district that is at the top of the charts.

Second, turn off the TV and read to your children. Read some books yourself. If your children see you reading recreationally, then they will take up the habit.

Third, take an interest in your children's activities. Go to their games, concerts, art projects. Look at their homework and give them positive feedback.

I don't buy this conspiracy at all. It's nonsense.

yea school in america is largely to keep you from doing anything really productive, and they trap you , get you to think that a job is what you need, and a 9-5 job, where u have no time for anything really productive either. you're trapped. you can't really make anything really good for the world until you take time for yourself to get away from all that crap.

what is new, most of the teachers i had spreaded their liberal thoughts.

As yet, I have not had the opportunity to view the video in its entirety. I have seen the first few moments and my curiosity has been piqued. It is my intention to see all of it eventually, but one thing concerned me about what I did see.

The second item he addressed involved a video of an adult 'body-slamming' a student. He seemed to apply a generalized judgment of all teachers' actions based on this one incident. However, there were no details provided about the video.

Is he justified in making this generalization, without fully supporting the incident with specific statements of fact? What was the context of the situation? What had occurred before the two left the building? Is the incident isolated, or does this type of thing occur with enough regularity to be common-place?

Its funny, my class had this talk in a psychology lesson, we were debating whether school was just a system to keep the masses under control and to condition the masses to do what they want them to do.

Very very curious....

Originally posted by kinda kurious
Schools teach us how to learn.

So does Google, two brain cells and some curiosity.

This thread prompted me to create an account, as I have a strong opinion about this topic. I am 35 years old and I dropped out of high school after the 9th grade. I found it to be a waste of time designed to create a mass of unthinking drones -- all with extremely basic knowledge which took entirely too long to learn. Modern education, especially in the United States, has fallen well below the lowest common denominator. So how well can an “unschooled” individual like myself do in life? If you listen to the institutions, I put myself at a clear disadvantage.

While many rate a career on earning potential, I do not. My proudest achievement is pursuing a career doing something I enjoy and am passionate about. I have created and sold companies worth small fortunes. I have also started several companies that have failed. I have held positions ranging from jr. developer, to vp, coo, and ceo. My highest salaries have been quite substantial. My lowest (numerous times) was zero, while I focused on my next 'big thing'. Within entrepreneurial circles, it is very common to find passionate, driven, successful executives who opted out of traditional, institution-based schools. By no means are all successful executives “drop outs”, but far more than is commonly assumed based on the statistics.

This topic is very relevant to my family, as I have three school aged children. Many friends believe we are crazy to not have our children enrolled in public or private school. My oldest, 15, is a 3D animator, programmer and aspiring pilot. He is earning his private pilot’s license and will solo when he turns 16. I have included him, in programs such as the EAA (Experimental Aircraft Association) young eagles program. My wife volunteers with like-minded families who have formed a coop of ‘home schoolers’. We all selected a different path than the one our government has shoved down our proverbial throat. In this coop, most parents volunteer time to mentor and apprentice children interested in their profession.

Parents who believe the governmental system can provide their children with a better education than they can are usually wrong. The system is under-funded. Teachers are under-paid, over-worked, under-motivated, and usually do not possess any real-world knowledge in any field other than institutional education. When science teachers are compensated as well as top industry scientists and music teachers earn as much as a pop-star maybe the school system will have a leg to stand on.

I have heard it all from proponents of traditional school institutions. I find all of the following myths to ensure conformity:

• You will not be able to land a ‘professional’ job without a high school diploma
• You will not be able to earn as much without a college degree as compared to someone that has one
• You will be able to earn more with a higher degree than a lower degree
• Taking on student loans to ensure you receive a university degree is money well spent (Too many people are paying off loans for unused degrees decades after they graduate)
• Everyone needs a ‘well rounded’ education.

This last myth, calling for a ‘well rounded’ education, is idealistic at best. Mozart had little need to learn chemistry. A computer engineer has little use for two years of in a Spanish class. My point is society needs to stop producing an entire population with a leveled, basic education. We need to focus on encouraging people to be exceptional at their passion instead of ‘well rounded’ and non-exceptional at anything. Life is too short to be a master of everything. I contend that if Mozart was forced to spend 7-10 hours a day obtain our modern-day, ‘well rounded’ education he would not have been able to focus on becoming a musical prodigy.

--continued--

My advice to young adults reading this thread -- be very leery of the indoctrination that comes from public or private schools. One can graduate from high school or college and achieve success, but I contend that such success is in spite of, not due to the institutional education one receives. The 9-5 mentality schools teach usually leads to a 9-5 career leaving you little time or energy to pursue your own interests. It is all too common for kids, pumped through the system, to have never had enough time to focus on themselves and find their passion. It often leads to a meaningless career which further prevents the focus and time needed to figure out their passion.

I HIGHLY recommend you pursue your own interests FIRST, then figure out how to make a living with it. Live with your parents while you do this. If you cannot live with your parents anymore, work a part time job to fund meager accommodations that allow you the time and energy to pursue your interests. Eventually you will be able to earn a living doing something you are passionate about. Life is too short to take part in ‘the grind’.

Originally posted by Wildbob77
I often hear criticism of public schools but I don't hear specific plans that would improve public schools.

Get rid of public education. Give us all our tax dollars back so we can spend it on educating our children. Join a parent lead coop of home-schoolers. Sign your kids up (even when young) to apprentice with someone who is doing, as a career, what your child is interested in. Take your child to work with you when you can. Expose your child to lots of different careers. Beyond the basics of reading and writing, encourage your child to pursue their interests at a deeper level than other areas of their education. Allow your child to favor sciences over history, or music over mathematics. Resist creating a model 'well rounded' non-exceptional conformist.

Parents are the solution to this problem. Not 'fixing' public schools. I do not have a perfect answer to help the kids of disadvantaged homes (read unwilling/unable parents). Unfortunately, life isn't fair, and all people are not born into equal surroundings or with equal aptitude.

Originally posted by smyleegrl
Another factor, and this is going to sound very harsh, but not all kids are capable of performing at the same level.

Thank you for bringing up THE key point. This is the fundamental reason why all US government attempts at creating public education have failed. The core foundation of our education system is the illusion of equality -- the fairy tale that we are all born equal and that regardless of one's privileged or unprivileged background we should all be given the same education.

ANY education system designed to be 'equal' and 'fair' will fail to produce anything but the lowest common, achievable education. What is worse is it is politically correct and trendy to believe in and tout things like 'equal opportunity education' and 'no child left behind'.

The schools of American Society do NOT teach us HOW to learn. Does not teach life.

[edit on 15-5-2010 by The Quiet Storm]

I graduated highschool in 2006 and took some college courses in 2007 and 2008, and let me tell you, college really isn't that different from highschool. For most degrees, I had to take "basic courses" like math, science, english ect. Now basic courses are good and all, but they should stop after a certain time and there should be an apprenticeship approach to the given field of study. Once you learn what you're good at, and what you actually enjoy doing, you shouldn't be forced to learn a bunch of unnescesary material.

For instance, if you want to be a writer, then you should read and study from the best writers you can find. You shouldn't waste your time studying math that only an engineer would need. The best of the best in any given field should be the ones teaching those who want to go into that field. I think that kind of learning would give us people who are better and more efficient at what they do. Probably more troublesome though than how and what they teach is what they don't teach.

Ethics and morals aren't touched on, and neither is the teaching of basic finances and money management. I think that's one of the reasons why this economy is so bad. People weren't taught how to manage their money. Most importantly and most concerning is they don't teach people how to think for themselves. We're taught not to question or challenge anything, and those that do are quickly discouraged and labelled as troubled kids. A society that dosen't question itself is headed in a bad direction, and unfortunantly that's what seems to be happening.