(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.
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
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.
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