One does not have to look hard to see its signs… Just yesterday for example in an opinion piece sponsored by the Delaware Chamber of Commerce one can see the values being corrupted… In statements made by our own Governor and Secretary of Education, and his former employer, Rodel, rise the taints of a new objective for public schooling….

“This region needs a strong system of public education to attract and keep businesses, to prepare our future workforce for the new and greater challenges of a more competitive world.”

Public education is to prepare our future workforce…

Raising expectations for our students to be ready for college or career is critical

to be ready for college or career

what they believed to be the most important issue for our future: preparing students for a 21st century global economy and a more diverse world.

preparing students for a 21st century global economy….

So you say, what is wrong with that?  I didn’t say anything was wrong necessarily, but let me show you why and for what public education was envisioned and created.

“The ultimate result of the whole scheme of education would be the teaching all the children of the state reading, writing, and common arithmetic: turning out [several] annually of superior genius, well taught in Greek, Latin, geography, and the higher branches of arithmetic: turning out…others annually, of still superior parts, who, to those branches of learning, shall have added such of the sciences as their genius shall have led them to. — Thomas Jefferson

Absolutely nothing about  commerce, jobs, or workforce.

that even under the best forms, those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny; and it is believed that the most effectual means of preventing this would be, to illuminate, as far as practicable, the minds of the people at large,…—– Thomas Jefferson

Absolutely nothing about  commerce, jobs, or workforce. It’s purpose was to protect against tyranny,

Education then, beyond all other devices of human origin, is the great equalizer of the conditions of men, the balance-wheel of the social machinery.—  Horace Mann

Absolutely nothing about  commerce, jobs, or workforce. It’s purpose was to equalize the conditions of men.

A human being is not attaining his full heights until he is educated.—  Horace Mann

Absolutely nothing about  commerce, jobs, or workforce. It’s purpose was raise the quality of man.

Education, therefore, is a process of living and not a preparation for future living.  John Dewey.

Not a preparation for future living.

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As these quotes convey, those originators who developed the idea of a public education had little concern or care for the future benefits of their top 1%.  But today, our top 1% is interfering with education like never before.  And in doing so, they have corrupted the entire purpose with which we first stepped out into the promise of educating every man woman and child…

Basically what we are being told, is that instead of themselves training their employees on their own dime, they want it done on the public’s.

How does knowing what the word Practicioner is, going to help a person get a high paying job?  When they could always use person who practices a profession or art in its place?

Why is an excessive focus on English and Math so necessary for living in tomorrows world?   All one does is say:  Siri: what the tangent of 35 degrees?  Pity the poor education person who gets fired because he takes pencil and paper to answer that question while his co-employee asks his phone.

But that very focus… is taking away from the other aspects of education that make living far better for all.

Only nine states require students to pass a social studies test to graduate from high school.  With school cutbacks, the Internet distracting students, and the disappearance of traditional newspapers and TV news shows that subjectively distort information, youngsters have become increasingly disengaged from civic and political life, experts say.  Those under the age of 25 are less likely to vote than were their elders or younger people in previous decades.

We have directly harmed the very reason we began public education.  To make citizens wary of tyranny.

Only a quarter of young people reach “proficient” on the NAEP Civics Assessment. Preparing citizens to be voters, jurors, and members of their communities was the original purpose of public schools

Don’t cut arts, music, sports, recess, field trips, debate teams, or other programs in order to align with the Common Core. Nothing is more core than a child’s interest and passion. A well-balanced, broad curriculum that meets the needs of each child is a much better bet for your children’s future than one devoted to two subjects standardized and prescribed by people who have no knowledge of your community or your children.

So why are we pursuing this course to our own destruction?  Most likely because with the past Depression, we are jumpy and they are not.  They see this as an opportunity to will their way onto education….

Simply put, if you used to study 12 subjects and now only concentrate on 2, you may become better workers and subjugate yourselves to their authority, but you certainly won’t benefit them any more than you would had you had a wider view of the world.

Business and education don’t mix.  Education must not become part of the business regime.  If business is bust’n loose on education, it means business is far too big for its britches and they must be broken up.  Our nation’s very being is at risk.  And always has been since it was created.  Each time before, our citizens stepped up and we survived. Today, the threat is money and power too big for even our government to counteract against it.  We are no different in that regard than Paraguay, or Somalia, or the land of the Hunger Games.

Citizens who can control their government, are the only recourse we have as a nation to preserve this noble great experiment that started 238 years ago.  If we don’t get off this kick of ruining eduction to make more money for our masters, we are going to lose our country… If we do away with Common Core, and other nations keep it, we will be the ones THEY envy, and not the other way around.