Stupid In America

[Bastiat's The Law]

John Stossel's in depth investigation of the decline of the American educational system. This is Stossel at his best!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUmcjbSHYq0


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5mx-Mg8KSY


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yo0nSYxFV94

[Acala]

Government fails at virtually everything it does. Why would anyone think something as complex as education would be the exception?

[heavenlyboy34]

Government fails at virtually everything it does. Why would anyone think something as complex as education would be the exception? Because they went to government schools. ;)

[DamianTV]

Holy shit! Play the first video about 15 minutes in. how the fuck is that right?

[tod evans]

I was in school in the burbs when Ill. tried busing inter-city kids into our district.

Didn't work well for anyone.

[DamianTV]

So, um, what exactly gives them the "Right" to come in to a persons home? Just because they do or dont attend a school should not be considered Probable Cause to have a Cop come into your home and "inspect" it to see if so and so is actually living there!

[The Goat]

Holy shit! Play the first video about 15 minutes in. how the fuck is that right?


So, um, what exactly gives them the "Right" to come in to a persons home? Just because they do or dont attend a school should not be considered Probable Cause to have a Cop come into your home and "inspect" it to see if so and so is actually living there!

That is crazy, My sons teacher visited our home but it wasn't mandatory, it was our choice. We also have permission to go to another school because we don't like the one we are assigned too.

We live in SC, its nice to see governor Sanford, we miss him around here. I don't think Nikki Haley will make it another election. That school choice bill that Sanford was pushing was voted down, the video tells the story. It would have made a big difference.

[DamianTV]

Stossel is right as usual. Competition drives Quality, and Monopoly drives Stagnation.

Ok, now I need someone that can creatively combine the words Stagnation and Education, like I would with stupid and idiot to come up with a brand new word "stupidiot".

[The Goat]

like Stagnucation?

[Bastiat's The Law]

I've worked in education and I know what a cluster it is...nobody is happy either. These videos are a harsh truth that needs to be seen by everyone.

[heavenlyboy34]

Stossel is right as usual. Competition drives Quality, and Monopoly drives Stagnation.

Ok, now I need someone that can creatively combine the words Stagnation and Education, like I would with stupid and idiot to come up with a brand new word "stupidiot".
Stagnacation.

[QuickZ06]

Dang.

[Bastiat's The Law]

like Stagnucation?
Sounds like a serious disease. It's bad, he caught the Stagnucation virus. :D

[Bastiat's The Law]

Are these videos really new to you guys? Seems like a lot of you posting haven't seen them?

[azxd]

GS/HS public education fails a bit more each year.

[Bastiat's The Law]

Here's the follow up, part 2


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5mx-Mg8KSY

[Jovan Galtic]

US schools are total disaster. When I first came to the US, they recommended a public school for my 8 y/o kid and we (luckily) decided to stay in the school the first day, just to get familiar with how everything works. We were outraged by the experience and that was his first and last day in the school. The same afternoon we decided to home-school..

I think that 90% of problems you guys discuss on the forum are caused by the educational system. It is a sui generis totalitarian institution.

[WilliamShrugged]

Are these videos really new to you guys? Seems like a lot of you posting haven't seen them?

That is becoming my biggest issue with libertarians. Instead of furthering our knowledge by reading and listening to videos like these. We're off half knowingly debating people, posting "Ron Paul 2012" everywhere, or asking guys like Tom Woods for help.

[Anti Federalist]

I think that 90% of problems you guys discuss on the forum are caused by the educational system. It is a sui generis totalitarian institution.

Yes, it is.

That is where the problem comes in.

Most think that it just needs to be "reformed" or have more money thrown at it.

They do not want to accept the fact that the educational system is doing exactly what Horace Mann and his followers wanted it to do when they imported the entire system from Prussia in the 19th century.

It is, in fact, working perfectly, in that it churns out generation after generation of moderately literate people who are fully compliant and support the state, no matter what.

[Lucille]

Yes, it is.

That is where the problem comes in.

Most think that it just needs to be "reformed" or have more money thrown at it.

They do not want to accept the fact that the educational system is doing exactly what Horace Mann and his followers wanted it to do when they imported the entire system from Prussia in the 19th century.

It is, in fact, working perfectly, in that it churns out generation after generation of moderately literate people who are fully compliant and support the state, no matter what.

Exactly.


[P]olitical control is … by its nature, bound to legislate against statements of both facts and opinion, in prescribing a school curriculum, in the long run. The most exact and demonstrable scientific knowledge will certainly be objectionable to political authority at some point, because it will expose the folly of such authority, and its vicious effects. Nobody would be permitted to show the nonsensical absurdity of "dialectical materialism" in Russia, by logical examination … and if the political authority is deemed competent to control education, that must be the outcome in any country.

Educational texts are necessarily selective, in subject matter, language, and point of view. Where teaching is conducted by private schools, there will be a considerable variation in different schools; the parents must judge what they want their children taught, by the curriculum offered. Then each must strive for objective truth…. Nowhere will there be any inducement to teach the "supremacy of the state" as a compulsory philosophy. But every politically controlled educational system will inculcate the doctrine of state supremacy sooner or later, whether as the divine right of kings, or the "will of the people" in "democracy." Once that doctrine has been accepted, it becomes an almost superhuman task to break the stranglehold of the political power over the life of the citizen. It has had his body, property, and mind in its clutches from infancy. An octopus would sooner release its prey.

A tax-supported, compulsory educational system is the complete model of the totalitarian state.
--Isabel Paterson (http://mises.org/daily/2226)

[Bastiat's The Law]

US schools are total disaster. When I first came to the US, they recommended a public school for my 8 y/o kid and we (luckily) decided to stay in the school the first day, just to get familiar with how everything works. We were outraged by the experience and that was his first and last day in the school. The same afternoon we decided to home-school..

I think that 90% of problems you guys discuss on the forum are caused by the educational system. It is a sui generis totalitarian institution.
I totally agree with your assessment.

[UWDude]

Belgium has public schools. In fact, all of the most educated countries are public schooling.
The real reason schools are failing is because of the lack of teachers. And it is not that teachers are exactly hard to come by, it is that the unions have made it a job that requires a master's degree (at least in WA state) which is ridiculous if you are going to teach 8th grade math.

It is also not just the schools, it is the parents, and the media culture that glorifies ignorance. This ignorance is seen as fostering street-cred and toughness, which is essential to survive bullying for many kids in the public school system.


...and that is because of the lack of discipline, fostered by a nation of sue happy parents.