Consequences of a Failed System: Summary

Excerpt from Stop Beating the Dead Horse

The great social problems facing our citizens today are not unavoidable catastrophes – they are all preventable with the right education. As citizens paying taxes for a public school system, we have the right to receive an education that will protect us from these problems and ensure our unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. We have allowed the public school system to usurp and undercut our rights – as parents and as citizens – long enough. It is time to demand that our public education system meet the needs of our citizens in an effective and productive manner. It is time to dismount the dead horse and find a new one which will address the fundamental problems with the current system and provide the education we, as tax-paying citizens, deserve.

To read more from Stop Beating the Dead Horse, visit www.stopbeatingthedeadhorse.com.

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Consequences of a Failed System: Part 7

Excerpt from Stop Beating the Dead Horse

In the old days (i.e. the days before mandatory public schooling), a person with high levels of energy (now called hyperactivity) was able to channel that energy into success at farming, ranching, business, whatever enterprise he or she was interested in. It is only because of the institutional setting of the public school system that we now feel that something must be wrong with these high-energy children, something that needs to be medicated and squashed. It is no wonder that these children often become discipline problems, and, later on in life, some become criminals and drug addicts. It is not the children who need to be fixed; it is the system that needs fixing. At no other time in a person’s life is he or she required to sit still and be quiet for six or seven hours a day. Some careers may require it, but people are not forced into those careers, and usually, high-energy people will not choose those careers. We are wasting the potential of these young people by stifling them and trying to eliminate their high-energy, making them into angry, self-loathing adults who think they are flawed. Instead, we should be channeling all this energy in creative and productive ways so they grow into energetic adults with a thirst for success. This is nearly impossible in the current system of education.

According to the National Institutes of Health, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) affects only 3-5% of the population, yet nearly half of school-age boys in this country are now diagnosed with the disorder and prescribed psychoactive drugs to make them more manageable in a classroom setting. As Peg Tyre, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, says in her book The Trouble With Boys,

“That such large numbers of boys are being diagnosed with a central nervous system disorder suggests two things: Either we are witnessing the largest pandemic in our country since influenza struck the United States in 1918, or school-age boys are being overidentified and overdiagnosed.”  

In The Myth of the Hyperactive Child, Peter Schrag and Diane Divoky contend that

“[a] small percentage of those children [taking amphetamine-type drugs and other psychostimulants] suffer from some diagnosable medical ailment sufficiently serious to warrant chemotherapy. Most do not; they are being drugged at the insistence of schools or individual teachers, to make them more manageable.”

Even as early as in 1862, Leo Tolstoy realized that

“[c]hildren’s conversation, motion, and merriment [in school] … are not convenient for the teacher, and so in the schools, which are built on the plan of prisons, questions, conversation, and motion are prohibited.”

Many so-called hyperactive students are also highly intelligent and get bored with the slower paced learning of the “normal” students. They need to move ahead, be challenged, to work at their own pace. Many hyperactive students have one or more learning disabilities (which are not an indication of intelligence) that cause them to lag behind in one or more subjects. The snowball effect of missing vital building blocks in those subjects cause self esteem problems that, in turn, cause the student to give up on learning and on themselves.

In effect, what the system is doing is trying to make all children, with all their ranges of human behavior, fit into a narrow definition of what is “normal” and desirable for the institution of public school. Figuratively, they are changing the various shapes of children, which may include ovals, squares, triangles, and even polyhedrons, to fit into a perfectly round slot. In order to do this, the system must resort to subjecting children to behavior modification and drugs. Instead of changing the shape of the system, the system chooses to modify the shape of millions of children, with little or no thought to the long-term effects of these strategies on the children they are forced upon. According to Schrag and Divoky,

“millions of children are no longer regarded as part of the ordinary spectrum of human personality and intelligence—children who are quieter or brighter than the average, children who are jumpy, children who are slow—but as people who are qualitatively different from the ‘normal’ population, individuals who, as a consequence of ‘minimal brain dysfunction,’ ‘hyperactivity,’ or ‘functional behavior disorders,’ constitute a distinct and separate group.”

Our school system needs to be a system that provides a flexible opening (as opposed to a perfectly round one), which can change to accommodate the shape of each student without having to modify the student with drugs or psychotherapy; where students can work at their own pace in each subject, never having to worry about where the rest of the class is; where teachers can modify and personalize the lessons to teach to the learning abilities and disabilities of a student and give one-on-one attention when needed; where students can excel in the areas they are naturally good in, giving them a shot of well-earned self esteem, while getting the help they need to succeed in the other subjects as well; where high energy can be encouraged and nurtured through alternative methods of learning instead of being suppressed.

To read more from Stop Beating the Dead Horse, visit www.stopbeatingthedeadhorse.com.

Consequences of a Failed System: Part 6

Excerpt from Stop Beating the Dead Horse

Many deaths and injuries in automobiles are caused by drivers’ lack of skill, poor judgment, inattention, and not realizing the significance and consequences of all these things. Driving is a skill that is so important to the safety and welfare of the population, it should be taught in the school system, yet most people dismiss it as not being important to teach. Over eight times more people die each year on our nation’s highway than the total of U.S. casualties in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq in the last eight years combined. People of this country are distraught by the casualties of the wars in the Middle East, but think nothing of the vehicle deaths. Even though war casualties are very unfortunate, at least the soldiers are dying for a cause that they are getting paid to defend, instead of the totally senseless deaths of innocent men, women, and children on our highways. Over 40% more of our citizens die on our roads and highways than are killed by guns each year, yet we don’t hear of organizations trying to take motor vehicles away from people to stop the senseless killing.

I realize that implementing a drivers’ education program that involves vehicles, instructors, and insurance is very expensive, which is why most public schools don’t do it anymore, but by freeing money up that is spent on feeding students, for example, it can and should be done. Even if the instruction is merely class-based and not vehicular-based (i.e., no actual driving), it would be helpful in increasing student’s knowledge of laws, safety, defensive driving, consequences, etc. Also, there are many vehicle driving simulators on the market which could come close to the real thing. With the inordinate number of vehicle deaths, many of them young people, teaching vehicular safety is an extremely important obligation of the public school system, not an optional course.

To read more from Stop Beating the Dead Horse, visit www.stopbeatingthedeadhorse.com.

Consequences of a Failed System: Part 5

Excerpt from Stop Beating the Dead Horse

Many people today claim that Americans are working harder than ever: however, the statistics show otherwise. The average work week for the United States’ labor pool in 2001 was 34 hours.  By 2008, that figure had dropped to 33.5 hours. Especially troubling is the amount of hours worked by poor families. While non-poor families work, on average, 2,080 hours per year (40 hours per week), poor families averaged barely over half that, or 1,112 hours per year (less than 21.5 hours per week).  For the most part, the poor in this country are poor because they don’t work as much as the non-poor. Whether this is because of a lack of education, a shortage of job opportunities, problems with arranging for childcare, or just plain laziness, it all stems from not being prepared in school for a working life after graduation.

The United States has entered the age of technology and has left the industrial age behind. That is, except for the public school system. Since our system was set up to prepare students for working in factories during the industrial age, it is not surprising that they are not prepared for the type of work required in today’s technological age. According to a report based on a detailed survey of 431 human resource officials in 2006, high school graduates entering the work force lack the basic skills of reading comprehension, writing, and math, combined with deficiencies in “applied” skills such as professionalism and work ethic (defined as demonstrating personal accountability, punctuality, working productively with others, time and workload management, etc.). Some of the greatest deficiencies cited were in basic English writing skills, such as grammar and spelling, critical thinking, and creativity. Survey participants also noted several key skills projected to increase in importance for future graduates: making appropriate choices concerning health and wellness (such as making healthy food choices, exercise, and stress reduction), creativity/innovation, and knowledge of foreign languages and cultures.

Our school system’s main goal should be to prepare students for a successful and productive future. This is not only good for each individual student, but imperative for the success of our nation, as well. One of the most important facets of this preparedness is the education and tools needed to succeed in the kinds of jobs that will be available to them when they graduate. We must realize that the industrial age is over and begin to train our students for work in business, technology, and service areas rather than training them to be factory workers. Obviously, from the results of the survey described above and many others as well, two of the most important aspects of job training are communication skills and work ethic, both of which the current system is failing to teach adequately.

To read more from Stop Beating the Dead Horse, visit www.stopbeatingthedeadhorse.com.

Consequences of a Failed System: Part 4

Excerpt from Stop Beating the Dead Horse

Incidences of violence, and especially teen violence, are much more prevalent now than, say, fifty years ago. Or even forty, or even twenty. Annual statistics show that the United States is not as safe as it used to be for young people. Homicide is the second leading cause of death among teens, second only to accidents. Suicide, which is violence committed on oneself, is the third leading cause of death among teens. Violence has escalated, especially in our schools; incidences of bullying (taken to new heights with cyber bullying), school shootings, bomb threats, and gang activity in the schools are frightening. Many of these problems arise from unhappy students who don’t want to be at school; they feel school is irrelevant to their lives and that it is an imposition on them to be forced to attend. Many have learning problems that are not addressed, whether it is above-average intelligence (causing boredom and inattention), learning disabilities, or physical problems such as mental disorders and hyperactivity. Many problems are caused by irresponsible and unresponsive parents. Often times, it is a combination of several of these factors that lead to increased violence and suicide.

Teens, at least by the age of sixteen or so, are biologically and physically adults. The reason that most are not prepared emotionally and mentally for adulthood is that the current educational system, as well as our society, encourages them to remain helpless, dependent, and immature. They have no real responsibilities in life, they are given possessions they should be earning, and they are indulged, yet they are not trusted with making decisions for themselves. A hundred years ago, people were on their own by the age of fifteen or sixteen, working, making their place in the community, and starting families. Now they are forced to languish for several years in a setting that is at odds with their biological clocks, making them restless, unhappy, surly, and angry.

Dr. Robert Epstein, in his book The Case Against Adolescence: Rediscovering the Adult in Every Teen, contends that this anger, and therefore the violence, is caused by artificially extending childhood well past puberty. He makes the point that throughout human history, up until the last century, people were considered adults and treated as such shortly after puberty. He also notes that there were very few problems associated with teens until the last 50 or 60 years, which just so happens to coincide with the extension of the compulsory school attendance age to at least 16. A study conducted by Dr. Epstein and Diane Dumas recently revealed that

“teens appear to be subjected to about twice as many restrictions as are prisoners and soldiers and to more than ten times as many restrictions as are everyday adults.”  

Teens react to this subjugation with rebellion, anger, depression, or passivity. None of these reactions are healthy.

Our culture, as well as our school system, needs to recognize teens as young adults and to equip them with the skills to be responsible and independent instead of being an ever-increasing drag on society. We need a system that will make use of the enormous energy and creativity that can be found in people of this age group.

To read more from Stop Beating the Dead Horse, visit www.stopbeatingthedeadhorse.com.

Consequences of a Failed System: Part 3

Excerpt from Stop Beating the Dead Horse

Unsocial behavior among teens is becoming more and more of a problem. Many high school graduates do not know how to communicate with adults, handicapping them in their jobs and their lives. I believe the public school system is the prime cause of this problem. It creates an environment that is counter-productive to true socialization. Many opponents of homeschooling (the National Education Association in particular) cite the lack of socialization as a key disadvantage of learning at home. They believe that institutionalizing children – forcing them to socialize only with other children of the same age and usually the same general socio-economic background, often further dividing them by gender (as in boys’ line and girls’ line, boys against girls, boys’ sports and girls’ sports, etc.), and being dictated to by adults who are seen, not as social peers, but as authoritative figures – is conducive to true social behavior. Publicly schooled children in general are not social, they are socialized; the difference being in the quality of the social connections they are permitted to make. Outside of public school, people are free to associate with other people of all ages, genders, races, and socio-economic backgrounds. In this way, a person learns to be social with all types of people. Homeschooled children are consistently more social with adults and more accepting of gender and race differences than their publicly schooled counterparts because of this freedom to associate with a wide variety of people. A study by the Fraser Institute, an independent public policy organization, found that the typical homeschooled child is more mature, friendly, happy, thoughtful, competent, less peer dependent, better socialized, and exhibits "significantly higher" self-esteem than students in public or private schools. ERIC, the Education Resources Information Center of the U.S. government, which has published multiple articles on homeschooling, reports that

“insofar as self concept is a reflector of socialization, ... there may be sufficient evidence to indicate that some home-schooled children have a higher self concept than conventionally schooled children.”

            This doesn’t mean that the only way to improve social behavior in our children is to homeschool them. A new system of public schooling can be created to implement this. To be effective in encouraging social behavior in children, a public school system must allow for the freedom to associate with people of all ages, separation by gender needs to be eliminated (except, obviously, in bathrooms), and teachers and administrators need to be mentors and advocates, someone a child can trust and relate to, not someone to be subjugated to.

To read more from Stop Beating the Dead Horse, visit  www.stopbeatingthedeadhorse.com.

Consequences of a Failed System: Part 2

(Excerpt  from Stop Beating the Dead Horse)


Deterioration of the Family Unit

It is no wonder that there is a weakening of what was known as the family unit. In days long gone by, the family unit consisted of two parents, children, and often extended family members such as grandparents and cousins. Families were together for a large part of each day, often working together, playing together, and always eating together. Children played with their siblings, shared a room, sometimes even slept in the same bed with them, and shared the same toys. Parents taught their children what they needed to know to get by in the world.  Children respected their parents and trusted them to steer them right. Grandparents were especially respected for their knowledge and wisdom. Families generally got along with each other, enjoyed being together, and, indeed, treasured each other.

Fast forward to today’s family. Today’s family may consist of parents and their children, many times only one parent, or sometimes a grandparent raising a grandchild without the parents’ involvement. Today’s family spends most of the day apart, with parents working and children going to school or day care. Often, they spend an average of only two or three hours a day together. Parents entrust the education of their children to institutions instead of teaching them themselves. Children mistrust their parents, roll their eyes at them, and rebel against them. They feel their parents can’t possibly understand what they’re going through, mainly because they really don’t know each other very well. Today’s family often eats breakfast on the run, lunch apart from each other, and supper together only if their various schedules will allow. Siblings often fight and vie for their parents’ limited attention; they have playmates from school and don’t like playing with their siblings; they have their own bedrooms and their own toys which they do not share with their brothers and sisters. Grandparents, though loved, are often thought of as old-fashioned and out of touch with the world and therefore not worth listening to. When the grandparents can’t care for themselves, they are sent to an institution for care, instead of into the arms of the family they raised. Today’s family treasures independence and encourages separateness.

It’s no secret how all these changes came about. With industrialization came the need for workers. Women entered the workforce and their children had to be cared for by someone else. Some people believe that public schools were instituted for the sake of industry for two reasons: it provided free babysitting so that women could be free to work outside the home, and it provided a training ground for future workers who would be required to work in large groups and not do too much thinking on their own. Other people believe an additional goal for public schools was to create a nation of consumers to drive the industrial age. Early industrialists such as John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie spent huge sums of money (actually more than the government did at that time) on public schooling between 1900 and 1920.1 Their actions may have been purely altruistic or may have had an underlying purpose.

Whether or not public schooling was started for the sake of industry, the reality is that it separates children from their parents, both physically and emotionally. The system, in recent years, has been trying to separate children from their parents at earlier and earlier ages. In the 1800s, the average age for beginning compulsory school attendance was eight years old: by the year 2000 the age requirement was lowered to five or six in over half the states. In the other states, even though attendance isn’t compulsory until later, usually age seven, it is universally accepted that children start school at the age of five or six.

Consequences of a Failed System: Part 1

(Excerpt  from Stop Beating the Dead Horse)


The focus of education today must be reexamined to determine what we, as a country, want from our system of education. In the past, the system has been focused on socialization and homogenization of our citizens. This focus has not only failed to educate our students well in the basics of reading, writing, and arithmetic but, most importantly, it has also failed to prepare them for life.

An unknown, but wise, author, wrote, “An educational system isn't worth a great deal if it teaches young people how to make a living but doesn't teach them how to make a life.”

Many of this country’s current social problems would not be happening (the mortgage crisis, surging unemployment rates, rising teen violence, irresponsible parenting, preventable vehicle deaths, etc.) if the system had been educating students to prepare them for life. In the public school setting, we have a great opportunity to address these problems and any other problems which may arise, and educate students to prevent them in the future. It is very important that any system of education be flexible enough to change as the educational needs of society change. The inflexibility of our current system has been a major problem of education in the United States today. Our current system is using the methods and curriculum developed for an early industrial age to educate students for the entirely different world of today.

Who Killed the Horse?: Part 4

(Excerpt  from Stop Beating the Dead Horse)


Our culture is eroding to the point where crime and violence have become the norm in some places. A country which must expend much of its valuable resources to maintain order and peace is not going to remain on top for long. The deterioration of family and community life is rampant everywhere. Without these basics of human need, the quality of life sharply declines. The public school system encourages the deterioration of the family and community and instigates the anger and despair that fuels crime and violence. It is ironic that the very system that was created to control the masses and force obedience and morality – the public school system – has failed miserably at those basic functions. The system disregards human nature, just as communism does, and so was destined to fail even before it began.

Albert Shanker, former president of the American Federation of Teachers, stated that “it is time to admit that public education…more resembles a Communist economy than our own market economy.” 

 

A simplified definition of communism is a scheme of equalizing the social conditions of life. A communist state is generally run by an authoritarian form of government in which its citizens are told how to live. In these ways, the public education system is run like a communist state. The problem with communism, as well as with our school system, is that people are not equal in their natures; they have an amazing array of different levels of intelligence, energy, industry, interests, values, hopes and dreams; people, even children, recognize this about themselves and others, and many rebel at the idea of being homogenized. When a system seeks to equalize human beings who are by their very nature unequal (that is, in personality, not human rights), the system cannot hope to thrive. The ideal of equalizing the masses through education seems a good idea but, in reality, is impossible and undesirable. One of the most crucial things the system has failed to do is differentiate between equal educational opportunity for all and equal (or identical) education for all. Instead of trying to make everybody the same, an educational system must ensure equal rights for everyone while still allowing them to develop at their own rate and in their own way. Only then can we have the diversity, creativity, and ingenuity needed to compete in the world today.

Who Killed the Horse?: Part 3

(Excerpt  from Stop Beating the Dead Horse)


Unfortunately, truly successful people are getting fewer and fewer in the United States. The traits of the successful adult (independence, creativity, high energy, inquisitiveness, motivation, joy) are discouraged and suppressed in the current system because they create unruliness and disorder in the system. John Dewey, a progressive educational reformer of the late 1800s and early 1900s declared that

“children who know how to think for themselves spoil the harmony of the collective society which is coming where everyone is interdependent.” 

By suppressing these traits, we are, by default, preventing truly successful adulthood. It is but a few rare individuals, usually those with strong familial support, who are able to overcome this repression of spirit and find real success in adulthood.

Take, for example, Albert Einstein: Einstein was enrolled in the Prussian compulsory institutions of learning but studied mathematics and reasoning on his own. In secondary school, Einstein was in constant conflict with school authorities and resented the confinement of school regimen. About school, he later wrote,

“One had to cram all this stuff into one’s mind, whether one liked it or not. This coercion had such a deterring effect that, after I had passed the final examination, I found the consideration of any scientific problems distasteful to me for an entire year.... It is in fact nothing short of a miracle that the modern methods of instruction have not yet entirely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry.” 

Like Einstein, many of the intellectuals who were publicly schooled were less than satisfied about their educational experiences. Mark Twain, who seemed particularly discontented with his experiences in public school, said,

      “I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.”

George Bernard Shaw wrote,

“My schooling not only failed to teach me what it professed to be teaching, but prevented me from being educated to an extent which infuriates me when I think of all I might have learned at home by myself.”

I believe that most students in our country can succeed in a meaningful way in adulthood, given a system of education that encourages the traits of a successful adult. In the current system, however, this could never become a reality. This system encourages dependency, immaturity, irresponsibility, and mediocrity.

Who Killed the Horse?: Part 2

(Excerpt  from Stop Beating the Dead Horse)


The components of the model used in the system today to educate students cannot be found in any other part of life. Not in our family lives, our working lives, our community lives, nor our spiritual lives are we ever subjected to all of the following: being segregated by age, our tasks separated and regulated by bells, central authority figures having total control over all our thoughts and actions, meals and extracurricular activities being provided for us, being compelled by law to attend, and being tested regularly to compare us to our peers of the same age. Only in the context of the institution of public school do all these unlike-real-life circumstances exist together. They do not serve to prepare the student for real life; they merely control the students while they are in that institution. They are similar only to the circumstances one finds oneself in while in another institution – prison.

As William Glasser, a noted American psychiatrist, said,

“There are only two places in the world where time takes precedence over the job to be done. School and prison.”

George Bernard Shaw wrote,

“[School] is a prison. But it is in some respects more cruel than a prison. In a prison, for instance, you are not forced to read books written by the warder and the governor.”

Some may argue that the military and factory work are similar to the institution of public schooling. While that may be true, I would point out two important observations: 1) joining the military and working in a factory are not compulsory, as is school, and 2) if the military or factory work are the closest real-life situations to public schooling (besides prison), is that what we want our education system to be geared for – training only military and factory workers – and does that training really take thirteen years to accomplish?

Who Killed the Horse?: Part 1

(Excerpt  from Stop Beating the Dead Horse)


In the beginning, Mann patterned his design for a public education system after the 18th century Prussian (German) model which divided students by age and required compulsory attendance, national training for teachers, national testing for all students (to classify students for potential job training), a national curriculum, and mandatory kindergarten. These components were created to instill social obedience in the citizens through indoctrination.

In the United States, many proponents of a compulsory public education system had similar ideas for the purpose of such a system. Benjamin Rush, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and ardent supporter of publicly funded schools, wrote,

“Our schools of learning, by producing one general and uniform system of education, will render the mass of the people more homogeneous and thereby fit them more easily for uniform and peaceable government…Let our pupil be taught that he does not belong to himself, but that he is public property…The authority of our masters [should] be as absolute as possible…By this mode of education, we prepare our youth for the subordination of laws and thereby qualify them for becoming good citizens of the republic.”

William T. Harris, U.S. Commissioner of Education in 1889, said,

“Our schools have been scientifically designed to prevent over-education from happening. The average American [should be] content with their humble role in life, because they're not tempted to think about any other role.”

Stop Beating the Dead Horse

(Excerpt  from Stop Beating the Dead Horse)

Dakota tribal wisdom says that when you discover you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount. In regards to the system of public education, however, lawmakers and educators often try other strategies for fixing the dead horse (a.k.a. public schooling), including the following:

1. Buying a stronger whip.
2. Changing riders.
3. Saying things like, "This is the way we have always ridden this horse."
4. Appointing a committee to study the horse.
5. Arranging to visit other countries to see how other cultures ride dead horses.
6. Lowering the standards to include dead horses.
7. Reclassifying the dead horse as living-impaired.
8. Creating a training session to increase our riding ability.
9. Comparing the state of dead horses in today’s environment.
10. Harnessing several dead horses together for increased speed.
11. Providing additional funding to increase the horse's performance.
12. Doing a productivity study to see if lighter riders can increase the dead horse’s performance.
13. Purchasing technology to make dead horses run faster.
14. Rewriting the expected performance requirements for all horses.

People like to blame someone for problems. Many people blame the president, Congress, local school boards, administrators, or teachers for the shortfalls of the public school system. The problem is not that the educators and lawmakers aren’t trying to improve the system; it’s that they just haven’t realized the proverbial horse is dead. If the basic system doesn’t work, all the money and strategies and dedication in the world will not help unless the system itself is replaced.