Public Schools In The United States

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Because of violence, vandalism, and other undesirable elements, this public school has a glaring sign warning of the on-campus surveillance cameras at its parking lot entrance.

Public schools in the United States are government-sponsored institutions intended to indoctrinate children up through 12th grade. The failures of underperforming public schools are a paradigm of socialism, along with landfills and the Canadian health care system. Public schools are generally split into:

There are also some "Technical Schools" for training in specific skills or careers (the term "magnet school" is common, and is usually oriented toward a specific career requiring a college education).

Schools are arranged into school districts, which generally are independent of city/town, borough/township/county, or other jurisdictions, though they may share common geographical boundaries (such as a city or county). In some areas, a large city may (due to growth into neighboring areas) be served by several districts (this is the case in Texas, where districts are (with one exception) totally independent of cities; most of the major cities are served by many districts, with the district carrying the city's name being the poorest performing and least-desirable for parents).

Public schools have become predominantly liberal and atheistic[1][2][3][4][5] government institutions that employ 3 million people and spend more than $410 billion annually at a cost of more than $10,000 per student. Liberals censor classroom prayer, the Ten Commandments, sharing of faith in classrooms during school hours, and teaching Bible-based morality.[6][7] Mandatory homosexual indoctrination is common as early as elementary school in more liberal states.[8] Many public schools have created eSports teams that compete in video game tournaments, wasting taxpayers monies and further diluting their educational "mission"; this has spread to the college sector, and many students will get into college due to their gaming skills rather than any other reason.

The following are characteristics of US public schools:

See also: Public school culture

History[edit]

Religious origins[edit]

In 1647, Massachusetts Puritans enacted the second law, after Scotland in 1616,[21] establishing universal public schools in the English-speaking world to block the attempts by "ould deluder Satan to keepe men from the whole knowledge of the Scriptures".[22] Each settlement larger than 50 families was required to pay a schoolmaster to teach reading, writing and religious doctrine to the children in the community. Beginning in 1670, Massachusetts provided tax funding for school maintenance. This model was then copied throughout the colonies, and even throughout the world.

Curricula used[edit]

According to Noah Webster, "the books used were chiefly or whole Dilworth's Spelling Books, the Psalter, Testament and Bible".[23] Other sources such as the U.S. Office of Education note the following books used: The ABC, the Horn Book, the New England Primer, the Bible, Catechisms, and the Psalters.[24]

The New England Primer is of particular note given its widespread use over such a long period of time.[25] The Primer, also known as The Little Bible, was in use in schools for over 150 years.[26]

Importation of the Prussian model[edit]

In the mid 19th century, Horace Mann, an early education reformer, studied the methods of Prussian Education and brought them back to the United States. According to John Dewey:

“ Horace Mann and the disciples of Pestalozzi did their peculiar missionary work so completely as intellectually to crowd the conservative to the wall. For half a century after their time the ethical emotion, the bulk of exhortation, the current formulae and catchwords, the distinctive principles of theory have been found on the side of progress, of what is known as reform. The supremacy of self-activity, the symmetrical development of all the powers, the priority of character to information, the necessity of putting the real before the symbol, the concrete before the abstract, the necessity of following the order of nature and not the order of human convention - all these ideas, at the outset so revolutionary, have filtered into the pedagogic consciousness and become the commonplace of pedagogic writing and of the gatherings where teachers meet for inspiration and admonition.[27] ”

Mann would travel to Prussia in 1843 to visit the schools and study them.[28]

Secularization[edit]

According to historian Ellwood Cubberly:

“ He(Horace Mann) will always be regarded as perhaps the greatest of the "founders" of our American system of free public schools. No one did more than he to establish in the minds of the American people the conception that education should be universal, non-sectarian, and free, and that its aim should be social efficiency, civic virtue, and character, rather than mere learning or the advancement of sectarian ends.[29] ”

John Dewey regarded Horace Mann as the "patron saint of progressive education."[30]

20th century[edit]

Many children did not attend public school for the first two centuries. It was not until 1852 that Massachusetts became the first state to require attendance[31] by students aged 6 through 16, and it was not until 1918 that all states had compulsory attendance laws. High schools did not generally exist until after the Civil War, and the first American kindergarten didn't exist until 1856 in Watertown, Wisconsin.

Improvement of early childhood education[edit]

Many public schools have launched pre-kindergarten programs for 3 and 4-year-old children. Some states have shifted from half-day kindergartens to programs that match the school day schedule of the other grades. Currently, 14 states and the District of Columbia require full-day kindergarten.

Research has demonstrated the importance of testing third graders for reading ability. Seventeen states and the District of Columbia require non-proficient readers to repeat third grade if they fail a reading test.

Historically, early childhood education focused on reading and writing. However, the research shows that young children's minds are receptive to math and logic. So public schools are adding Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM Education) to the lower grades.[32]

Views on morals[edit]

In response to increasing violence in public schools, public schools are installing security devices such as metal detectors and bullet-proof glass

So-called "character education"[edit]

In response to the perception that public schools have stopped teaching morality, many state education departments have or are in the process of developing "morality" that avoid good and evil, right and wrong, and instead present under the heading of "character" education.[33] The lack of appreciation for right and wrong can surprise outsiders, and even school principals. When one public school student was charged with felony computer crime for altering the grades of 20 students, the principal said, we "want to teach them what's right and wrong, and it's tough for some kids to catch on to the idea that changing grades is the wrong thing to do."[34] The impact of the removal of morality from the public school curriculum (which is also used in private schools) is that "more than one in three boys (35 percent) and one-fourth of the girls (26 percent) — a total of 30 percent overall — admitted stealing from a store within the past year."[35] Liberal politicians are the most frequent opponents of initiatives designed to build moral fiber in the public school system, with organizations like the ACLU and teacher's unions devoting a significant amount of their resources towards this end. In 2010, a school board in North Dakota decided to change the name of their mascot from the "Satans." Liberals unrolled a large-scale media campaign that blanketed the district with pro-Satan propaganda in an attempt to keep the name, but they were unsuccessful.[36]

Prayer[edit]

See also: Classroom prayer

The White House announced the release of Revised Religious Guidelines for America's Public Schools on May 29, 1998. Within this announcement, President Clinton stated, "Nothing in the First Amendment converts our public schools into religion-free zones, or requires all religious expression to be left behind at the school house door."—President Clinton, July 12, 1998[37]

In 2003, the Education Department released the following guidelines that clarified and added requirements to Public Schools to ensure the religious rights of students.[38]

Schools that don’t allow students to pray outside the classroom or that prohibit teachers from holding religious meetings among themselves could lose federal money, the Education Department said late last week.

The guidance reflects the Bush administration’s push to ensure that schools give teachers and students as much freedom to pray as the courts have allowed.
The department makes clear that teachers cannot pray with students or attempt to shape their religious views. The instructions, released by the department on Feb. 7, broadly follow the same direction given by the Clinton administration and the courts. Prayer is generally allowed provided it happens outside the class and is initiated by students, not by school officials.

The department, however, also offered some significant additions, including more details on such contentious matters as moments of silence and prayer in student assemblies. And for the first time, federal funds are tied to compliance with the guidelines. The burden is on schools to prove compliance through a yearly report.

Teaching the Bible in public schools[edit]

The National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools[39] (NCBCPS) provides a program for teaching the Bible in public schools. Currently, the NCBCPS's Bible curriculum has been voted into 462 school districts (over 1,900 high schools) in 38 states. Over 210,000 students have already taken this course nationwide, on the high school campus, during school hours, for credit.

However, many public schools suffer from a liberal bias, resulting in policies opposed the Bible and Christianity, while topics favored by leftists, such as other religions or the homosexual agenda, are promoted.

Teaching of Islam in the public schools[edit]

Public school textbooks have been found to be portraying Islam in a positive light. Some world history textbooks in Florida claim Muslims profess to worship the same God as Christians and Jews, women historically had more rights in the Islamic world than the Christian world, and Jihad is not a violent movement, among other falsehoods. These lies have caused patriots some areas of the state to complain to local school boards, but not much has been done by the boards to actually remove the Islamic propaganda.

In California seventh grade social studies classes, students analyze the geographic, political, economic, religious, and social structures of the civilizations of Islam in the Middle Ages. Hence, Islam is one of eleven units taught in the class.[40][41] In addition, a San Diego school district worked with CAIR to add "anti-Islamophobia" classes.[42]

Censorship[edit]

Public schools enforce liberal ideology through aggressive censorship of right-wing and conservative students, including for speech or conduct occurring off school grounds. Conservatives, as well as some libertarian organizations, have challenged instances of school censorship under well-established legal precedent protecting free speech against all state actors, including public schools.[43]

Gender disparity[edit]

Public schools as of late have seen girls' scores soar above boys' because schools have been geared toward the needs of girls and schools seek to emasculate boys by preventing healthy roughhousing and having psychiatrists prescribe boys drugs such as Ritalin. Then boys often come to hate school because radical feminists seek to prevent men from being men and forcing males to go through counseling to "discuss their feelings" and other liberal values treating all students as if they were female. Colleges, because of this trend, see a trend of 60/40 female to male ratio because of feminist drivel such as romance novels in literature and ineffective therapy and attempts to push feminine traits on boys and young men making them frustrated and fed up with the system unless they agree to the school's desire to become effeminate.

Schools commonly suspend students for defending themselves from violent bullying, even though that is illegal under the laws of all 50 states which protect the right to self-defense.

Liberal ideology has also eliminated most male role models in public schools, such that less than a quarter of the teachers are men now.[44]

In areas on such standardized tests as ACT and SAT, girls have typically scored higher in areas such as mathematics and science. Colleges have become majority female, and the feminization of men is strong on college campuses with events that openly advocate female superiority. Females are also intent on emasculating males by forcing them to see "chick flicks" and concerts of female singers which also promote feminist nonsense, strongly continuing a trend that begins in high school which results in a large number of males taking up historically female programs such as psychology and nursing; this begins in school where teachers and administrators teach boys and girls to be girls and not only condone but encourage such emasculation which only continues throughout the boys' lives as learned behaviors are strongest during the crucial formative years these boys are in school.

Most U.S. public schools receive federal funding. Those that do are subject to Title IX which among other things requires equal access to extra curricular activities and sports.

Suppression and intolerance of alternative views[edit]

Several courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, which frequently engage in judicial activism, have ruled that teaching creationism[45] and intelligent design in public schools is unconstitutional because they claim that such teachings would amount to a government establishment of religion, which is prohibited by the First Amendment.[46] Hypocritically, nothing has been done to remove the religions of Secular Humanism and Islam from the schools.

Educational outcomes[edit]

Declining literacy[edit]

Since the rapid expansion and liberalization of public schools after World War II, students' literacy levels have dropped significantly. While the average 14-year-old had a vocabulary of 25,000 words in 1945, the equivalent student in 2000 had a vocabulary of only 10,000 words, a severe disadvantage in an increasingly textual world.[47]

Liberal bias in textbooks[edit]

See also: Textbook bias

Textbooks (K-12) have been systematically analyzed in a study funded by the U.S. government. The 1986 findings were that massive, systematic liberal bias exists, resulting in several information blackouts in four key areas of modern American life—marriage, religion, politics, and business. While an actual conspiracy was then ruled out, the cause was found to be a "a very widespread secular and liberal mindset" pervading "the leadership in the world of education [and textbook publishing]".[48]

Professor Larry Schwikart, of the University of Dayton, wrote a book about biased textbooks. False claims common in those texts included that the Founding Fathers wanted a "wall of separation" between church and state, that "Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation only because he needed black soldiers", and that "Mikhail Gorbachev, not Ronald Reagan, was responsible for ending the Cold War".[49]

Evidence for bias in school textbooks includes promotion of Homosexual agenda, support of liberal viewpoint, as well as support of the unproven theory of evolution. Most Biology textbooks do not provide the Creationist viewpoint a chance, or even a second thought.

Non-Dismissal of tenured teachers[edit]

Due to the strength of the nation's teachers' union, it is nearly impossible to fire a bad performing teacher with tenure. The process can take years and involves countless steps to even attempt. The union claims that the protections are needed against arbitrary and malicious lawsuits.

The New York public schools system has approximately 700 teachers accused of insubordination to sexual misconduct. They remain in seclusion from the classroom but are paid full salaries until their cases are heard, sometimes from months to years later. All because their union contract makes it extremely difficult to fire them.[50]

Flow chart showing the "process" for firing teachers in the Los Angeles Unified School District, the nation's second largest school district.

4-day week[edit]

In order to save on transportation costs and reduce time spent on travel, many states have been experimenting with holding school on four days a week leaving the fifth day for medical appointments and athletic events. In such programs, the school day is lengthened to provide the same number of hours per week of instruction. The option is more frequently used in large rural school districts. These states include: Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, Nevada, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Wisconsin, Wyoming and Washington. In states which have legislation permitting a 4-day school week, each school district decides whether to implement it. Arkansas, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Virginia and Washington have no schools using the option.[51]

Notable graduates[edit]

Before 1962[edit]

Given that public schools educate about 90% of Americans, it is astounding how few prominent Americans attended public school after the banning of school-sponsored prayer in 1962. Here is an impressive list of people who attended public schools before the banning of school-sponsored prayer.

After 1962[edit]

Here is a mostly unimpressive list of people who attended public school after school-sponsored prayer was banned in 1962:

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ↑ Exodus from "public schools" gets a helping hand, Exodus Mandate, Sept 15, 1998
  2. ↑ For example, "in 2005, officials at East Brunswick High School adopted a policy prohibiting representatives of the school district from participating in student-initiated prayer." [1]
  3. ↑ From 2004 to 2006, a public school banned Bible study by children ... during recess. A teacher complained about the use of the Bible and the principal then censored the study activity, according to a sworn statement by a teacher told to stop it. Principal "Summa, having learned of a complaint by a teacher and of the students' Bible study, told fourth-grade teacher Virginia Larue to nix the group's recess meeting. ... Larue later told one of Luke's Bible study colleagues the group could no longer meet at recess."[2]
  4. ↑ Atheists routinely impose their views on public schools, though liberals deny it. For example, a court prohibited a moment of silence in Illinois "Township High School District 214 after atheist activist Rob Sherman challenged" it.[3]
  5. ↑ Firsthand account of Deep State in Public Schools. The New American. December 22, 2019. Retrieved December 23, 2019.
  6. ↑ See, e.g., Stone v. Graham (1980) (excluding Ten Commandments from public school).
  7. ↑ A public school banned Bible study by children ... during recess. A teacher complained about the use of the Bible and the principal then censored the study activity, according to a sworn statement by a teacher told to stop it. [4]
  8. ↑ http://www.massresistance.org/media/video/brainwashing.html
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 "Only 70% of all students in public high schools graduate, and one study found that only 32% of all students in the high school class of 2001 left high school qualified to attend four-year colleges."[5]
  10. ↑ "Only 71 percent of kids graduate from high school within four years, and for minorities, the numbers are even worse -- 58 percent for Hispanics and 55 percent for African Americans," [Bill Gates] wrote. "If the decline in childhood deaths [in developing countries] is one of the most positive statistics ever, these are some of the most negative."[6]
  11. ↑ http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/47272207.html
  12. ↑ According to Monitoring the Future, a study funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, illicit drug use is up among students between eighth and 12th grade. In 1991, 62 percent had used illicit drugs. In 2007, the number jumped to 77 percent. [7]
  13. ↑ Fatal overdoses are common, although often underreported.Reporting of a heroin overdose by 16-year-old public school student was an exception to the underreporting.
  14. ↑ http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2008/dec/01/memphis-youth-make-progress-on-risky-behavior/ (study of Memphis students)
  15. ↑ "There is zero shame [to teenage pregnancy]," the school nurse observed.[8]
  16. ↑ One victim is now "being homeschooled at state expense."[9]
  17. ↑ The Grand Rapids Press The Grand Rapids Press: Ottawa County confronts teen drinking, By Greg Chandler, December 04, 2008 [10]
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 http://www.mlive.com/chronicle/news/index.ssf/2008/12/ottawa_co_youth_survey_surpris.html
  19. ↑ http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2008/dec/01/memphis-youth-make-progress-on-risky-behavior/
  20. ↑ Cunningham, Andrew (March 11, 2019). How did socialism become okay in America? Through the schools. LifeSiteNews. Retrieved March 11, 2019.
  21. ↑ The Social, Economic & Political Reasons for the Decline of Gaelic in Scotland [11]
  22. ↑ Family Encyclopedia of American History (Reader's Digest 1975)
  23. ↑ (1999) An American Bible: A History of the Good Book in the United States, 1777-1880, 118. 
  24. ↑ (1921) Statistics of Land-grant Colleges and Universities, Volume 1, Issues 1-26, 18–19. 
  25. ↑ (2015) Encyclopedia of Christian Education, Volume 3. Rowman & Littlefield, 874. 
  26. ↑ The New-England Primer, Encyclopedia Britannica
  27. ↑ (1901) Journal of Proceedings and Addresses. 
  28. ↑ (1986) The Individual, Society, and Education: A History of American Educational Ideas. University of Illinois Press. ISBN 978-0252013096. “"In 1843, it was these Pestalozzian practices which so impressed Horace Mann on his visit to the Prussian Schools.” 
  29. ↑ (1919) Public Education in the United States: A Study and Interpretation of American Educational History; an Introductory Textbook Dealing with the Larger Problems of Present-day Education in the Light of Their Historical Development. 
  30. ↑ (1987) The Later Works, 1925-1953: 1935-1937. SIU Press. 
  31. ↑ (2007) Battleground : Schools. Greenwood Publishing Group. “""Mann was eventually successful, and in 1852 Massachusetts passed the first compulsory education laws in North America."” 
  32. ↑ "Strengthening the Kindergarten-Third Grade Continuum", December 21, 2016. Retrieved on June 17, 2017. 
  33. ↑ [12]
  34. ↑ http://cw2.trb.com/news/kwgn-student-grade-felony,0,7871401.story
  35. ↑ http://charactercounts.org/programs/reportcard/index.html
  36. ↑ http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-03-11/news/ct-perspec-0311-things-20120311_1_devil-man-great-deceiver-native-americans
  37. ↑ http://www.ed.gov/PressReleases/05-1998/wh-0530.html
  38. ↑ http://www.freedomforum.org/templates/document.asp?documentID=17550
  39. ↑ http://www.bibleinschools.net/
  40. ↑ Islam Studies in California Schools (April 5, 2015). Retrieved on July 30,3027.
  41. ↑ Nazarian, Adelle (February 2, 2015). Is Islamic Indoctrination Being Taught in LA Public Schools? Breitbart News. Retrieved July 30, 2017.
  42. ↑ Moons, Michelle (April 23, 2017). San Diego School District Pushes CAIR-Assisted ‘Anti-Islamophobia’ Plan. Breitbart News. Retrieved July 30, 2017.
  43. ↑ HS students' suspension over gun range photo ignites uproar, potential lawsuit (April 5, 2015). Retrieved on July 30,3027.
  44. ↑ http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=28
  45. ↑ https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/482/578/case.html
  46. ↑ See Kitzmiller, 400 F.Supp.2d at 765
  47. ↑ Utne Reader (July–August 2000), 28-9.
  48. ↑ Censorship: Evidence of Bias in Our Children's textbooks, Paul C. Vitz, Servant Books, 1986, ISBN 0-89283-305-X
  49. ↑ http://www.emailwire.com/release/20086-Controversial-Historian-on-the-Price-of-Business-Show.html
  50. ↑ 700 NYC Teachers Paid to Do Nothing AP, June 22, 2009
  51. ↑ "Four-Day School Weeks". Retrieved on June 17, 2017. 
  52. ↑ http://www.dixonil.com/reagan/reagan2.htm
  53. ↑ http://www.eisenhower.archives.gov/press_releases/2007/PR07_11_August_02_2007_Eisenhower_Co_Sponsor_Little_Rock.pdf
  54. ↑ http://www.nndb.com/edu/836/000068632/
  55. ↑ http://www.visitgrandrapids.org/ford-facts.php
  56. ↑ http://www.nndb.com/people/062/000023990/
  57. ↑ http://www.nps.gov/nr/twhp/wwwlps/lessons/103truman/103visual1.htm
  58. ↑ http://www.famoustexans.com/rossperot.htm
  59. ↑ http://www.nndb.com/people/598/000022532/
  60. ↑ http://gale.cengage.com/free_resources/bhm/bio/powell_c.htm
  61. ↑ http://online-bibleconcordance.com/Ministers/BillyGraham.aspx
  62. ↑ michaelmedved.townhall.com/About.aspx
  63. ↑ http://www.kyrene.org/schools/brisas/sunda/inventor/wright/index.html
  64. ↑ http://www.nndb.com/people/738/000138324/
  65. ↑ http://www.nndb.com/people/052/000099752/
  66. ↑ http://libraryoflibrary.com/E_n_c_p_d_Ollie_North.html
  67. ↑ http://www.rolemodel.net/brad_pitt.cfm
  68. ↑ http://www.nndb.com/people/791/000022725/
  69. ↑ http://www.sununu.senate.gov/biography.html
  70. ↑ https://www.pbs.org/newshour/vote2004/primaries/edwards_bio.html
  71. ↑ http://movies.nytimes.com/person/99175/Spike-Lee/biography
  72. ↑ https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/laura-bush-supports-gay-marriage-abortion/story?id=10629213
  73. ↑ http://www.hotsprings.org/things_to_do/historic_hotsprings/presidents_hometown.asp
  74. ↑ http://outhouserag.typepad.com/outhouserag/2008/09/sarah-palin-198.html
  75. ↑ http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/cockrell.htmll
  76. ↑ 76.0 76.1 http://alumni.bxscience.edu/?page=NotableAlumni
  77. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Axel
  78. ↑ "Delaware politics: From middle-class New Jersey, moral activist Christine O'Donnell knew 'God was calling'", Delaware Online
  79. ↑ Ames, Ann Marie, "Rock County Close to Home for Walker", Walworth County Today, Sept. 7, 2010
  80. ↑ http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2012/06/16/politics/wis-ryan/
  81. ↑ "Sharron Angle, Biography"
  82. ↑ [13]
  83. ↑ [14]
  84. ↑ [15]
  85. ↑ [16]
  86. ↑ [17]
v • d • e
Liberal Characteristics and Traits
Ideology
Policy
Tools
Traits
Other

External links[edit]

Categories: [Schools] [United States History]

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