What I learned in California public school 1996-2008:

These are in the order of first encountered to last:

1. Everyone must pledge allegiance to an object every day before commencing any sort of work.

2. Fighting is never OK, even if you are defending yourself. (Zero tolerance)

3. Drugs are bad. Just say "no."

4. Martin Luther King was a great, great, man. He died for freedoms cause, to save this land... (A song we had to sing in kindergarten before we could possibly understand what civil rights were)

5. Anyone you don't know is the enemy. (Stranger Danger)

6. If you accidentally hurt your nose, your teacher will have people in suits show up at your door to determine your mental fitness and possibly take you away from your extremely loving home. (Really happened to me.)

7. You may never criticize anyone. (If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all.)

8. Even if you suck at sports you still get a trophy.

9. Multiple Choice tests are all that really matter. (Standardized Tests)

10. Self expression is frowned upon if it makes others feel bad. ( A reason for our Uniform Policy)

11. Tag is dangerous. (My elementary school literally banned tag after a girl managed to break her femur.)

12. If you bring valentines, you must bring them for all the girls AND boys in the class so no one feels bad. (Unfortunately this was also true... )


And I'll fast forward to high school here:

13. Only dumb people should take auto shop, however, you ABSOLUTELY MUST take art.

14. The military knows who you are.

15. Only dumb or poor kids are allowed to have jobs in school. Minimum wage is a waste of your time. (I'm dead serious, an article to this effect was in our school newspaper.)

16. You're 18, but have no rights until you get out of school. Then you have some rights only so you can be allowed to kill people.

17. Republicans are evil. But we'll leave you to your own conclusions...

18. Your school is too white. 20% hispanic is not nearly enough.

19. Self Esteem!!! But you are nothing more than a glorified monkey.

20. Progressive housing policies begun under LBJ have allowed millions of disadvantaged Americans to purchase homes. (From my AP government class...that certainly turned out well...)

21. Global Climate Change. You should believe it. But we aren't allowed to teach it yet.

AND THE GRAND FINALE:

22. The easiest way to succeed in life is to go to the best university you can get into and pay for it by leveraging you future worth!!! After all, no one can ever take your education from you!!! It's the AMERICAN way!

You know, oddly enough I was never taught to balance a checkbook in school, and they pretty much glazed over compound interest...

With all this in mind...

What could POSSIBLY go wrong?

That is the demoralization phase of changing society. What no banana condomization at your school?

Good list
But you forgot:
- Dont question
- Dont 'talk back' (defend yourself non physically)

23. Respect your teacher under all circumstances (Your biological parents no longer have jurisdiction over you from 7:30am-3:00pm)
24. Do not ditch class for any reason (Your biological parents no longer have jurisdiction over you from 7:30am-3:00pm)
25. All electronics confiscated belong to the school until the end of the year (Your biological parents no longer have jurisdiction over you from August-May).

My kids will be home schooled, assuming its still legal in a few years.

Couple of things I learned going to school (1992-2004):

If you're a girl, training for well-paying, in-demand fields like welding, auto mechanics, or HVAC is a total waste of your time. Because no matter how good you are, you're going to have an extremely hard time finding a job. And if you do, you run the risk of heavy harassment every single day, and possibly risk flat-out rape. I was actively discouraged from taking this route.

Unless you want to work at McDonald's for the rest of your life or be a bum out on the street, you have to go to a 4-year college. There is no other option.

A Latina with a 2.8 GPA and mediocre SAT scores can get a full-ride, but my 3.8 and 1320/1600 got me the regular state scholarship. See, I have the advantage because I'm white, even though we went to the same school and her family was better educated and in a higher socioeconomic class.

reply to post by jcord


Do you, sir or madam, know of Mr. Bezmenov? Methinks you do. Stars.

I agree with the OP, I think the education system is the main reason we fail as a country now. I had an article once, written by a New York teacher of the year (several times over), that basically stated that compulsory education was the worst thing that ever happened to people's minds. I pretty much agree.

reply to post by jcord


Oh man I totally forgot about sex-ed!!!

I should add:

23. Everyone who has sex has STDs.

24. The AIDS virus is small enough to penetrate condoms. (Yeah I literally had a teacher who told us this.)

I lived in a pretty conservative area in a state run by ultra liberals. You can imagine the hilarity that ensued.

How is California doing these days overall?

The American national average IQ is 98.
Legally Impaired (aka legally retarded) is 70 and below.
The genius range is 140 and above.
70 or 140 ... Which is 98 a lot closer to?


priorities.

I'm fortunate that my parents were awake enough to not send me to public schools, i was 'Un-schooled',

and my IQ is exceptionally high,

i believe a fundamental tribulation within the Education System, is the lack of 'Life Skills' actually being taught, at the same time suffocating Self Expression, and Performance Arts,

there are many subjects that could be done away with, and focus on the Life Skills necessary to survive outside of the constraints of School

I have lived in Finland for over half my life now, but I grew up in the US and am still a US citizen. Needless to say, I went to school there from 1969-1979. We *did* learn to balance a checkbook along with a fair bit of pretty useful stuff but even so, the vast majority of it was a waste of time and a huge amount of sexism was present everywhere. The whole world was much more sexist back then.

We didn't have the requirement to surrender yourselves completely that you have now. I did have a business math teacher who chose to inform us all that every time girls menstruated, it was murder, the killing of an innocent life. I suppose that was an omen for what was to come. That was in Southern California and toward the end of the 70s.

But now I live in Finland. I've watched my own kids grow up and go to school here. An entirely different part of the world. Here, the teachers cannot do anything at all to the kids. They don't give the kids anything to do at recess so my son and his friend, being young boys at that time, chose to play a nice game of "kick the rock" in lieu of a ball that could have been supplied, right? My son lost his two front teeth. The school paid for the crowns but they were terrible and the dentist was pretty crappy so he got infection in the roots of both.

Because the teachers were powerless, the classes were chaotic, loud, and completely out of control. The teachers pretty much couldn't teach. Many left in tears at some point of the day. There was uncontrolled teasing. But they did manage to get pretty good scores on exams so somehow they always made it through.

University is free here. You just have to get in and pay for your books, etc. No tuition for locals though. But what is the result? Everybody has Master's or Ph.Ds and is there work? Nope. There are Ph.Ds cleaning offices here. You must have a degree in retail to work in a clothing boutique. You can't do anything at all here without first going through extensive education and interning thereafter (on your own chit, of course). So kids live at home here until they're 25 or 30. Parents have to support their kids until the kids are out of school. That's in the law. Society is grinding to a halt because when people are spoon-fed just enough information to get them through those exams and into the next grade up, you remove the motivation and curiosity of a person's mind and you end up with someone who can't think on their own. They have to be led.

My youngest daughter didn't want to go to high school. She was totally fed up with the whole system. She tried to get work first but heh.. not a chance. Not at 15. So she thought about vocational school but really doesn't know what she wants to do. Who does at 15? But can you imagine any reason in the world why you would need a 3.9 GPA to be a hairdresser? That's how it is though. Imagine needing a 4.0 to get into something slightly more serious. Imagine what you need for university. Imagine that every student in that sort of environment should perform to some amazing standard. She really didn't want to go to high school so she's now attending adult high school in the evenings. She's working on her 7th language now (Japanese). She'll start her 8th next year (Chinese). She's far from stupid but she just doesn't like school! I don't know where this will all get her but she's going to be done with HS in two years instead of 3 or 4 like the "regular" schools.

Why do we all think we should be standardized and programmed in all of our thoughts and actions? Why do we even accept this whole concept? How is it a good idea?

One thing they are finding out here, having thrown out all the older, experienced (but not "educated") employees is that the diploma/degree doesn't mean you can do the job. It means you know some stuff and some other stuff but it doesn't mean you have memory or vision. It means you got a bog standard education and the employer knows that you're not going to go off and think for yourself. It means you're predictable and domesticated. You won't argue with him. You won't challenge him. Comforting, isn't it?

Where are we going? What are we turning into? What do we really want from this whole "education" experience? Why does every single job need an education?

Do you know that here, if you want to work as a cashier at the grocery store, you need a training course to do it? If you are just going to stock shelves in the grocery store, you need a certificate that you've done the course? You need training and experience to be a dishwasher. You need training and several certs to be a cleaner. And one cleaner isn't as good as another. There are house cleaners and there are public space cleaners and there are chambermaids and there are office cleaners. One is not interchangeable with another.

Let's see... How can we make life more difficult?

reply to post by Infrasilent


Yes, a load of rubbish, especially pledging allegiance to an ideal that people have trashed.

And what about not waging war - it defies belief.

The message all of this sends is "Trust yourself, trust your own values, follow your own path, and know that people always lie, especially political leaders."

I remember D.A.R.E "Drug Abuse Resistance Education" class. we spent most of the time learning about how bad marijuana was bad for us, and yet barely touching on Alcohol or Tobacco.

reply to post by Nobama


We definitely touched on alcohol and tobacco. They went so far as to stage a mock drunk driving crash in front of our school complete with the most popular students playing blood covered dead bodies and injured people. Of course they told us it was staged but they brought REAL smashed up cars and the fire department and cops. It was pretty sick. It certainly made an impression, but its sorta like having people go to war so they know how terrible it is.

I actually wish they would have made us a little more informed about the long term effects of alcohol on the brain. I probably lost a good 10 IQ points from drinking my freshman year in college.

reply to post by Infrasilent

yet barely touching on Alcohol or Tobacco.

I know they taught us about these two drugs, but the amount of time spent on marijuana far outweighs them.

23.Working 8hrs a day is normal
24.Never disagree with "authority"
25.If you cant keep up with the rest of the class they will put you in a easier class so they can make it seem as if all the students get A's. They pay you off so you do not expose their little secret by giving you easy work and pizza party's every week.
26.You have to get your vaccine(even though the law says otherwise)
27.After you take the state test its ok to forget all the information you learned to pass that test.
28.Your opinion does not matter over authority. (if a mass of students complains about a teacher, the teacher will not get punished because the students opinion means nothing.)
If a mass of customers complains about you at your work your going to get fired but not in public school.
29.Its ok for old men to hit 16 year olds

The public school system is distressful. I would not put my kids in a public school, even for a day. The teachers suck, we need higher standards. 8years of schooling instead of only 4. We need all the money we spend on war to go to education. The high school I went to was funded by bill gates. In order to that bill gates money the school had to use a bill gates system. The whole school was divided into 4 sections. Arts and humanty's, Business, Tech and some other one I cant remember. If you wear in the arts and humanity academy you could not take a class in the business academy, ect... Its all about the money, and state test. In my city if a small percentage of students do not pass the state test they will shut down the school. Its happened to 4 schools in my city.

Originally posted by Infrasilent
reply to post by Nobama

 

We definitely touched on alcohol and tobacco. They went so far as to stage a mock drunk driving crash in front of our school complete with the most popular students playing blood covered dead bodies and injured people. Of course they told us it was staged but they brought REAL smashed up cars and the fire department and cops. It was pretty sick. It certainly made an impression, but its sorta like having people go to war so they know how terrible it is.

I actually wish they would have made us a little more informed about the long term effects of alcohol on the brain. I probably lost a good 10 IQ points from drinking my freshman year in college.

They did the same at my school. They try to traumatize you into not taking drugs. In middle school we had a anti drug group come and they performed what looked like to be a satanic ritual. They had black robes and chanting it was made to scare the drugs curiosity out of you.

reply to post by Infrasilent


So sad, yet so true.

Forgot: #30 Anything resembling a firearm will be deemed an assault rifle and you will be escorted out in handcuffs from your school. This includes pictures. Even if your parent in the drawing is a LEO or Military Member
Draw happy flowers, as long as it doesn't offend anyone.

4. Martin Luther King was a great, great, man. He died for freedoms cause, to save this land... (A song we had to sing in kindergarten before we could possibly understand what civil rights were)

At my school in Ohio, I had no concept of racism until Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights movement was taught to us incessantly in the 1st grade. Great thing to open the youth to.

#31. You are not a human being. You are something less than a human and total strangers can tell you what to do.

#32. You have no rights over your private property as soon as you walk in the school building. Listening to an I-pod in the school hallway before school starts is against the rules and you will have them confiscated on sight. If you refuse to give over the electronic device you will be charged with a crime and summoned to court.


Last one happened to me......