Here's an example of how FANATICALLY the Establishment opposes actual education:

In 2013, the Springboro Ohio School Board proposed
introducing an ELECTIVE class in high school
where the following topics would be discussed:
- sex education
- legalization of drugs
- evolution/creation
- pro-life/abortion
- contraception/abstinence
- conservatism/liberalism
- politics
- gun rights
- global warming and climate change
- sustainable development

The class was to present both sides of each issue.
Students would have been graded not on giving the "correct" answers to questions,
but on how well they understood BOTH sides of each argument.

This course would have been an EXCELLENT example of how to teach critical thinking skills.
It would have equipped students to be competent citizens by giving them
subject knowledge and thinking skills on high-interest topics in today's society.

The Establishment went berserk.

Leftists descended upon the school board meeting.

The ACLU sent a letter to the school board stating,
"We urge you to reconsider these policies
as they will result in infringement of students' First Amendment rights,"
said James Hardiman, legal director for the ACLU of Ohio.

Seriously.

Somehow, it is NOT an infringement of First Amendment rights
for the government schools to dictate left wing dogma on all of these subjects,
but it IS a violation of First Amendment rights to allow students to hear
both sides of an argument!

What the news article failed to report was that the teachers' union
threatened to go on strike over this issue.
The teachers' union was willing to shut down the entire K-12 school system
just to make sure that no student is allowed to hear any position
other than left wing dogma on subjects widely debated in society today.

You can read the article on the subject, linked below.
But the article also serves as an example of slanted reporting by the legacy media.
It leaves out facts that I included in this post
(because I heard them presented in person by Kelly Kohls,
then President of the Springboro City School Board).
It also leaves out the fact that what was proposed was to be an elective class!

http://www.mydaytondailynews.com/news/news/local/creationism-creates-stir-in-springboroschool-board/nX2ct/

It's hard to control smart and informed people.

Wow, I will be digging into this article.  Thanks for posting it.  This is the kind of thing that needs to get out there.

Just a little side note, last week on the news, there was an mention of a public school that also had (in a different part of the building) a charter school.

The public school's test scores on math and English proficiency was 0 and the charter school's was 86% math and 75% English proficient. 

How the hell do they achieve only 75 percent English proficiency, when that is while not officially, in almost all walks of life in America, the language of the nation?

And leftists do not rabidly oppose education.

They love education. So long as that "education" exists to serve the purpose of libtard indoctrination.

Oh yes, watch how fast the libs go silent, when it comes to such things as "free speech zones" on campuses, and telling students what is P.C. and not P.C. and what they can and cannot say.

As if the student's have no right of free speech. When it comes to a school system doing that, or barring display of red, white, blue or the flag.

Then the libtards just love education!

Quote from: daidalos on October 26, 2015, 08:13:02 AM
And leftists do not rabidly oppose education.

They love education. So long as that "education" exists to serve the purpose of libtard indoctrination.

I should clarify my terms.

Most of what happens in government schools these days is NOT education, it is training.
What's the difference?
You educate people, you train animals.

Education develops the students' thinking capacities.  It equips students with skills
that enable them to search out new knowledge, to figure out previously unknown situations.

Training conditions students to make specific responses to specific stimuli.
When confronted with a new situation, students are helpless.  They are at a loss as to what to do.
They are trained to wait to be told what to do.

Government schools train students to make immediate emotional responses to certain things
(such as the list of topics in the original post)
to shut down their intellect - to make sure they never use their mental potential!

The worst thing is, the human brain prunes unused neural connections between age 15 and 25.
If one isn't using their thinking capacities during that age range, their brain is permanently damaged!
They will never be able to learn how to think!

Critical thinking for a lefty is sure death for their causes. Education for the left is more like a gulag where the political philosophy is embedded by the Marxists that the kids fall under the spell of the leftist dominated education system.

Get the leftists out of education at all levels!

Quote from: daidalos on October 26, 2015, 08:13:02 AM
How the hell do they achieve only 75 percent English proficiency, when that is while not officially, in almost all walks of life in America, the language of the nation?

English, or another term, language arts, covers more than just speaking English.  However, a lot of these low scoring schools have students where English is not spoken in the home. 

Quote from: Dori on October 26, 2015, 09:17:44 AM
English, or another term, language arts, covers more than just speaking English.  However, a lot of these low scoring schools have students where English is not spoken in the home.

That is not the schools fault, that's the parent's fault. But the teachers, at least in states that have things like "common core" are who get held responsible for it.

Here's something they used to teach in high school.
Does anyone know if they still teach this?

They used to teach something called "persuasive writing."
The technique is to state a proposition,
write three arguments for the proposition,
three arguments against,
and then three more arguments for.

Considering what I'm hearing about schools these days,
it seems unlikely that they'd still be teaching this.
Everything we hear about schools these days indicates that
they teach arguments for their propositions,
and none against.

If anything, they train students to react emotionally
to any actual intellectual inquiry,
to unthinkingly dismiss such as "hate speech."

Quote from: je_freedom on November 29, 2015, 04:06:13 AM
Here's something they used to teach in high school.
Does anyone know if they still teach this?

They used to teach something called "persuasive writing."
The technique is to state a proposition,
write three arguments for the proposition,
three arguments against,
and then three more arguments for.

Considering what I'm hearing about schools these days,
it seems unlikely that they'd still be teaching this.
Everything we hear about schools these days indicates that
they teach arguments for their propositions,
and none against.

If anything, they train students to react emotionally
to any actual intellectual inquiry,
to unthinkingly dismiss such as "hate speech."

I studied it... but they'd moved the curriculum to college-level and had incorporated it into 'Civics'.  Before debate-assignments, we had debate yourself exercises, with a written portion. 

I'm not sure TEA can get Civics back into high-school when we eliminate the Department Of Education, but we will definitely push for the elections of traditionally civic-minded schoolboard-members.

Quote from: je_freedom on November 29, 2015, 04:06:13 AMThey used to teach something called "persuasive writing."
The technique is to state a proposition,
write three arguments for the proposition,
three arguments against,
and then three more arguments for.

Considering what I'm hearing about schools these days,
it seems unlikely that they'd still be teaching this.

I kind of doubt it.  You would probably have to go to your school district and get the material used to teach whatever class that might be in.

I'm sure it varies state by state and district by district.
If your in a Common Core state, I highly doubt it.

the article is slanted towards:

QuoteThe ACLU also urged the board to abandon plans to change the board policy on Religious/Patriotic Ceremonies and Observances to allow use of materials from groups including for the National Center for Constitutional Studies, the Institute for the Constitution and Hillsdale College.

"We urge you to reconsider these policies as they will result in infringement of students' First Amendment rights," James Hardiman, legal director for the ACLU of Ohio, said in the letter.

.... you've got to be kidding, I thought as I read the article.  ACLU is taking the position of restricting information (censorship) AND restricting the free exchange of ideas (freedom of speech) - just the opposite of infringement!   I suspect... something is missing here, this article doesn't really cover what's going on...  is it really this simple, or is there some other battle we don't know about.

GLAD we homeschooled our kids!  ... now we can argue intellectually instead of emotionally over the Thanksgiving Dinner.

When the English Fabians began their long march to institute socialism in Great Britain; their first target was education. Their fellow traveler in the USA, John Dewey, did the same. After a century the results are plain to see: an unmitigated disaster.
Ok, I grasp that sex education ect. is elective and informed debate is a worthwhile activity. So what. My question is simple. What is this crapola doing in the public schools in the first place! Where is history, where is geography, where is higher mathematics, where are the sciences including biology, chemistry and physics.
We are already paying a price which will get heavier over time, as our economy continues to gravitate toward high-tech. The jobs of the future will increasingly go the the Asiatics who have a superior ability to abstract as well as the character traits necessary to succeed in school.

Quote from: Hoofer on November 29, 2015, 10:35:12 AM
the article is slanted towards:

.... you've got to be kidding, I thought as I read the article.  ACLU is taking the position of restricting information (censorship) AND restricting the free exchange of ideas (freedom of speech) - just the opposite of infringement!   I suspect... something is missing here, this article doesn't really cover what's going on...  is it really this simple, or is there some other battle we don't know about.

GLAD we homeschooled our kids!  ... now we can argue intellectually instead of emotionally over the Thanksgiving Dinner.

It's all a facade. If the tables were turned, and they were addressing Conservatives:
"We urge you to reconsider these policies as they will result in infringement of students' First Amendment rights,"

Instead would have been in the form of a lawsuit, not a suggestion.

Quote from: Walter Josh on November 29, 2015, 10:59:07 AM
When the English Fabians began their long march to institute socialism in Great Britain; their first target was education. Their fellow traveler in the USA, John Dewey, did the same. After a century the results are plain to see: an unmitigated disaster.
Ok, I grasp that sex education ect. is elective and informed debate is a worthwhile activity. So what. My question is simple. What is this crapola doing in the public schools in the first place! Where is history, where is geography, where is higher mathematics, where are the sciences including biology, chemistry and physics.
We are already paying a price which will get heavier over time, as our economy continues to gravitate toward high-tech. The jobs of the future will increasingly go the the Asiatics who have a superior ability to abstract as well as the character traits necessary to succeed in school.

Agree with most of that, except our economy is sinking into a service-sector type, instead of industry leaders in inventiveness, innovation and as you said, abstract thinking.  Part of that we owe to Television, which can either stimulate the mind to inventiveness or evil & subversion... IE. non-productive leftist propaganda.   While everyone is crying for high-tech jobs in the USA, the majority of those jobs will be staffed by non-USA workers - our people are ignorant (lack the knowledge & skill).  Wish I could say the door into the high-tech field is education, school - but, it's shifting to apprenticeships, self-taught & on-the-job-training, because the stuff we encounter coming out of college looks more like a high school education.