Constitutional lawyer John Whitehead describes the situation. About 65 million American kids are exposed to this for 12 years, plus kindergarten.
Once upon a time in America, parents breathed a sigh of relief when their kids went back to school after a summer’s hiatus, content in the knowledge that for a good portion of the day their kids would be gainfully occupied, out of harm’s way and out of trouble. Those were the good old days, before school shootings became a part of our national lexicon and schools, aiming for greater security, transformed themselves into quasi-prisons, complete with surveillance cameras, metal detectors, police patrols, zero tolerance policies, lock downs, drug sniffing dogs and strip searches.
Unfortunately, somewhere along the way, instead of making the schools safer, we simply managed to make them more authoritarian. It used to be that if you talked back to a teacher, or played a prank on a classmate, or just failed to do your homework, you might find yourself in detention or doing an extra writing assignment after school. Nowadays, students are not only punished for transgressions more minor than those—such as playing cops and robbers on the playground, bringing LEGOs to school, or having a food fight—but they are punished with suspension, expulsion, and even arrest.
As a result, America is now on a fast track to raising up an Orwellian generation—one populated by compliant citizens accustomed to living in a police state and who march in lockstep to the dictates of the government. Indeed, as I point out in my book, A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State, with every school police raid and overzealous punishment that is carried out in the name of school safety, the lesson being imparted is that Americans—especially young people—have no rights at all against the state or the police. In fact, the majority of schools today have adopted an all-or-nothing lockdown mindset that leaves little room for freedom, individuality or due process.
For example, when high school senior Ashley Smithwick grabbed the wrong lunch sack—her father’s—on the way to school, the star soccer player had no idea that her mistake would land her in a sea of legal troubles. Unbeknownst to Ashley, the lunchbox contained her father’s paring knife, a 2-inch blade he uses to cut his apple during lunch. It was only when a school official searching through students’ belongings found the diminutive knife, which administrators considered a “weapon,” that Ashley realized what had happened and explained the mistake. Nevertheless, school officials referred Ashley to the police, who in turn charged her with a Class 1 misdemeanor for possessing a “sharp-pointed or edged instrument on educational property.”
Tieshka Avery, a diabetic teenager living in Birmingham, Alabama, was slammed into a filing cabinet and arrested after falling asleep during an in-school suspension. The young lady, who suffers from sleep apnea and asthma, had fallen asleep while reading Huckleberry Finn in detention. After a school official threw a book at her, Avery went to the hall to collect herself. While speaking on the phone with her mother, she was approached from behind by a police officer, who slammed her into a filing cabinet and arrested her. Avery is currently pursuing a lawsuit against the school.
In May 2013, seven students at Enloe High in Raleigh, North Carolina, were arrested for throwing water balloons as part of a school prank. One parent, who witnessed police slamming one of the arrested students on the ground, was also arrested for attempting to calmly express his discontent with the way the students were being treated.
Unfortunately, while these may appear to be isolated incidents, they are indicative of a nationwide phenomenon in which children are treated like criminals, especially within the public schools. The ramifications are far-reaching. As Emily Bloomenthal, writing for the New York University Review of Law & Social Change, explains:
Studies have found that youth who have been suspended are at increased risk of being required to repeat a grade, and suspensions are a strong predictor of later school dropout. Researchers have concluded that “suspension often becomes a ‘pushout’ tool to encourage low-achieving students and those viewed as ‘troublemakers’ to leave school before graduation.” Students who have been suspended are also more likely to commit a crime and/or to end up incarcerated as an adult, a pattern that has been dubbed the “school-to-prison pipeline.”
Why do parents put up with this? “Because it’s free.” Sure it is. As long as you don’t count the costs of attending.
As long as you don’t count interest on school bonds.
As long as you don’t count the cost of what is taught.
As long as you don’t count the cost of having your child’s digital records in the government’s hands forever.
For example, in May 2013, Polk County School District in Florida foisted an iris scanning program on its students without parental consent. Parents were sent a letter explaining they could opt their children out of the program, but by the time the letter had reached parents, 750 children had already had their eyes scanned and their biometric data collected.
Making matters worse, these iris scanning programs are gaining traction in the schools, with school buses even getting in on the action. As students enter the school bus, they will be told to look through a pair of binocular-like scanners which will either blink, indicating that the student is on the right bus, or honk, indicating that they’ve chosen the wrong one. This technology is linked with a mobile app which parents can use to track their child’s exact whereabouts, as each time their eyes are scanned the parent receives a print out with their photo and Google map location, along with a timestamp. Benefits aside, the potential for abuse, especially in the hands of those who prey on the young, are limitless.
They are taught to obey. They are taught to respond to hourly bells. They are taught by means of textbooks screened by the liberal Establishment.
“But it’s free.”
1984, here we come!
Public schooling maybe be "free", but Freedom isn't Free.
Homeschooling is constantly gaining and parents should understand that it offers their children a better option. Rather than being indoctrinated into a mind set of being a "obediant serf"; children actually learn to rationalize and contemplate, IE: think for themselves.
The bigger problem is that sending their children off to public schooling creates for the parent a baby sitter for the day; they are not involved with their childs education other than to sign papers and give money for supplies.
No wonder the generations to come will only do what they are told, they dont know no better.
"No more pencils, no more books, no more teachers' dirty looks"
Technology has the power to eliminate all three! Imagine what American society could be like without schools…
But the sad fact is that America's schools have become a necessity; a hugely expensive, publicly funded babysitting service for single parents—and for two parent families who can't survive on only one job. What to do?
Think it's here.
Public schools are inherently based on fraud and force. And these conservative idiots who want to introduce God into a fundamentally immoral system are misguided (or worse, they themselves are shills for the regime they claim to oppose).
So my solution is for the complete abolition of public schooling and for its privatization in the free market order.
I am 81, spent 1937 to 1956 in school minus two years in the military 50-52. The schools of this period were not perfect but
a lot better than those of today. If you wanted to learn, there was learning to be had. If you caused serious trouble, you were
sent home and then you were in for it. That said, there was an atmosphere of common sense which is totally lost on the
educators, police etc of today. The examples of what happened to students described by Gary North and John Whitehead
is totally without common sense. One big step in the right direction would be the elimination of all federal involvement in any
aspect of education. It is the job of the states as is clearly written in the constitution.
Find a work-from-home job and switch to either homeschooling or some type of remote private school or public/private partnership, like K12.com, which works with private and public schools.
Other ways to fix it: low/no-tuition private schools are starting to become more common, as churches, philanthropic organizations and people looking for things to donate money to are starting to become more common. You can also hire a private tutor and re-arrange your schedule to keep the kid(s) at home, still have them supervised and learning, and work a reduced schedule or alternate schedule.
Similarly, take shift work.
There are plenty of ways to make it happen. You need to think outside the boxt to do it sometimes, though..
Yes, get rid of the Dept of Education, as Ron Paul wants to do (along with a lot of other Departments that have no Constitutional authorization)!
And people will spend $200,000+ extra on their house to get into what they perceive as a "good" school district.
But schools re-district all the time – my high school was redistricted between my junior & senior year.
After, nearly 3/4 of the students were pulled from poor, inner-city public housing.
My senior year I was very glad to be essentially off-campus taking AP classes at the central "fusion" site (AP was new, so no classes were offered at individual high schools)
I wouldn't dare send my kids to my old high school.
Teaching children a strong moral base is tantamount to a society that respects and works together. Divisivness in the general mindset, formented by ideaologies which are "taught" ( read:indoctrinated) into those formative minds sets the stage for a society that continually degrades itself to that of manipulated slaves who have no personal responsibility or desire to acheive on a greater level.
The free market schooling is the basis of homeschooling, and the present results, taken in total, show a greater acheivement level of those who participate. Thus those who benifit is the populace in general, both as people of respect and with the desire to make the world around them better for all.
Yes. A moral base is important, which is why compulsory public education is immoral and not the solution to teach them. For more info, read Rothbard's "Education: free and compulsory" which is available for free download at Mises.org (http://mises.org/document/2689).
The faux diversity is not so much diversity as it is a Prussian attempt to teach their students to be good little statists.
Absolutely FREE. with Government thiink.
When a robber steals your wallet and then gives back a $20, that $20 is "FREE" money.bcause you didn't work for it.
So moral integrity is a building block to learning the ability to think rationally, and with reason. To contemplate in a manner that allows a mind to explore and not be contained by abject facts; critical thinking.
Compulsory public education, as a extention of the government, can not allow such thought; it uses such "educational subjects" as "diversity" to cloud the mind and distract from critical thinking on the part of the individual and the masses in general. This being provided by educational materials by the government.
When allowed the ability to critically examine a concept, the individual, will form conclusions based on the moral structure that has formed the base of its life.
That concept is counter to the public education industry. The problem is, too many parents are too unaware themselves to understand this, nor do they consider the moral integrity solutions that it carries into society in the future. Thus brainwashing is accomplished by the inability to critically think about the outcomeof the present system.