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L. Neil Smith's THE LIBERTARIAN ENTERPRISE Number 215, March 17, 2003 IT'S DOWN TO ME
How Public Schools Have Destroyed America
Exclusive to TLE The public school system in the United States is a major factor in the ongoing deterioration of our rights as enumerated under the Constitution. This continuing erosion of our Constitutional rights has been largely the result of a dearth of instruction or exploration of the history of this country in a meaningful sense, the teaching that the right to bear arms is inherently evil, and an emphasis on "dumbing down" the curriculum to produce a docile underclass. The founding of this country was based on the concept of individual liberty and limited government. This is central to the unique American experience. In the public schools, significant events in American history are ignored, glossed over, or even deliberately misrepresented. The great Presidents such as Washington and Jefferson are virtually ignored, while the architects of totalitarian government, Lincoln and Franklin D. Roosevelt, are deified as saviors of our country; Lincoln from the evil, slave-holding Southerners, and Roosevelt from the greedy businessmen who drove us into the Great Depression. The myriad causes of the Civil War are distilled down to it be a crusade to free the slaves, never mentioning the significant issues of tariffs, taxation and states' rights. Most students today have no idea regarding the significance ideas expressed in the Declaration of Independence, the Federalist Paper, the Constitution, and especially the Bill of Rights. I would wager that not one in a hundred understand the significance of the Ninth and Tenth Amendments. This is just fine with an establishment that wants the populace to be an ignorant, unthinking mass who will do their duty mindlessly, which is to spend, spend, spend, and die for the government when called upon. The issue of the possession of firearms as a fundamental right under the Constitution is under assault on a number of fronts. Most notably, there is revisionist teaching being promulgated that the Second Amendment does not refer to the individual right to bear arms, but refers rather to the organization of a militia, which of course must be done under the supervision of the State. This is completely contrary to the intent of the Founding Fathers, who realized that the ultimate protection against a tyrannical government was an armed citizenry. The idea that citizens be allowed to arm themselves as protection against would-be criminals is denounced as right-wing hysteria, completely ignoring the right of each person to be secure in their person and property. The thought of an armed citizenry is an anathema to those who would control us. This campaign against guns is illustrated by the hysteria following any incident in which there are multiple fatalities at the hands of a lone gunman, or when a child is the victim of gun violence. For instance, after the Columbine incident, there was much talk about how there were too many guns in our society, and how we need more gun control laws, completely ignoring the fact that the perpetrators of the Columbine killings violated dozens of existing gun laws. There was little discussion about how the public school system itself may very well be the main reason these young felt so alienated from their peers. Americans need to seriously think about the education assembly lines that comprise the bulk of the public education system in this country. If we were serious about education in this country, we would not build these huge education factories where often thousands of children are warehoused for the day. Under these circumstances, many children are made to feel lost in the system and it is no wonder that increasing numbers feel alienated. The principal activity in public schools has become suppressing the creative urges that all children have and imposing a bland, uniform curriculum designed to produce cadres of well-ordered factory workers. The error most of us fall into is assuming that the purpose of the public school system is to educate the young people of this country. Nothing could be further from the truth. The entire philosophy behind the organization and development of the public school system is to create a submissive underclass that will be malleable for the purposes of those who would control American society. The elite classes in the country to not want our young people to be able to think for themselves. They do not want our young people to be inspired by the great thoughts on liberty espoused by the Founding Fathers. Heaven forbid our children should be taught anything about economics. Everyone who cares about the public school system in this country should read The Underground History of American Education by John Taylor Gatto. Mr. Gatto examines many of the prime movers behind the development of compulsory public education in this country and reveals that their true motivation was the development of a subordinate, submissive workforce. The last thing they wanted was masses of intelligent, freethinking young adults let loose in American society. Government at all levels in this country is wary of the citizenry exercising their Constitutional rights. A large, well-educated populace is much less likely to blindly follow its leaders into foreign wars, nation building, sustenance of a domestic welfare state, socialized medicine, and other misadventures sponsored by the State.
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