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Dumbing Us Down Through Public Education

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Dumbing us Down Through Public Education

Many of us believe that public education has been with us for quite some time. This stands to reason as we know that our parents, our grandparents, even our great grandparents, have participated in public education of some type, but it is at this point where things begin to get fuzzy. The truth is that public education as we know it today, free public education, available to anyone, regardless of class, social standing, race or religion, is an American phenomenon and has only been in existence, in the form that we now understand it, since the early 20th century,(Plant, Decline 213). Truth be told, at the onset, government sanctioned education was most often met with resistance, even violence, …show more content…

She states that, on nearly all accounts, her efforts were met with similar back-lash from school administrators, government officials and educational organizations, such as the State Literary Resource Center of Maine, the National Education Association and various teachers unions (Iserbyt Deliberate 3-5, 16-24). At one point she implemented a penmanship program in her class, teaching her students to make certain shapes, those which are used in the writing of letters and numbers in a repetitious manner, to the rhythm of specially composed music. Iserbyt states that such has proven to create connections in the brain that prove to be useful in other areas later in life. She states that this is where she met with her strongest reprimands, all while she assumed, and rightfully so, that she was doing what was best for her students (Iserbyt Sovereign, pt 3, 0:33, Deliberate, 142). In spite of her intermittent run-ins with higher-ups, Iserbyt did manage to promote and advance in her career as an educator. It was here where her belief that a conspiracy was afoot and, in her mind, confirmed her understanding of the true agenda in American education. Iserbyt says that she observed many disturbing trends in her tenure as a school board administrator, certainly not the least of which was the continual and gradual reduction in the instruction of basic skills. Especially in the area of mathematics and reading, Iserbyt states

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