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This is exactly how American education is structured. What are we doing to our children?

• kd3 7y ago
  Yes indeed, practically worldwide. As Larken Rose writes in "The most dangerous superstition": "The purported purpose of schools is to teach reading, writing, mathematics, and other academic fields of thought. But the message that institutions of “education” actually teach, far more effectively than any useful knowledge or skills, is the idea that subservience and blind obedience to “authority” are virtues. The “grades” the student receives, the way he is treated, the signals he is sent — written, verbal, and otherwise — all depend upon one factor: his ability and willingness to unquestioningly subvert his own desires, judgment and decisions to those of “authority.” If he does that, he is deemed “good.” If he does not, he is deemed “bad.” This method of indoctrination was not accidental. Schooling in the United States, and in fact in much of the world, was deliberately modeled after the Prussian system of “education,” which was designed with the express purpose of training people to be obedient tools of the ruling class, easy to manage and quick to unthinkingly obey, especially for military purposes. As it was explained by Johann Fichte, one of the designers of the Prussian system, the goal of this method was to “fashion” the student in such a way that he “simply cannot will otherwise” than what those in “authority” want him to will. At the time, the system was openly admitted to be a means of psychologically enslaving the general populace to the will of the ruling class. And it continues to accomplish exactly that, all over the world, including in the United States."
  • zzzcpan 7y ago
    Not all countries are equal at this. Some push police country level obedience, like with "detentions" modeling jails.
• coldtea 7y ago
  Teach them that they live in a society, and so they have certain responsibilities, limits, and roles, as opposed to being mere individuals that can do whatever they please, others be damned? Sorry, but the Chinese have camps for ethnic (or religious) targeted detention and/or brainwashing. This is nothing like "what we do" in education, American or otherwise, and the similarities (the students having a specific desk, queues to eat, etc) are irrelevant and superficial...
  • blotter_paper 7y ago
    I do think that GP made a gross overstatement, but I don't think the similarities are irrelevant and/or superficial. These are the same tactics being used (to a lesser extent and in a different context) towards a similar behavioral end. Reflecting on that might be worthwhile. Even if you decide that they are worth using to some extent to bring about whatever ends you desire, you should at least know the devil you're dancing with.
  • abtinf 7y ago
    Your reasoning has always been the justification for the horrors of re-education camps.
    • coldtea 7y ago
      Nonsense. It's like saying "arguments in favor of industrial production have always been the justification for the horrors of labour camps". Or "arguments in favor of the rule of law have always been the justification for the horrors of police abuse". There's a superficial similarity, but totally different scopes, methods, and outcomes. In this case, I'm against things like the e.g. Native American re-education camps, because I believe that they have the right to their own culture (plus, they were there first). But I'm in favor of mere education camps, also known as schools. And guess what? Populations that was sent to "re-education camps" also are in favor of such things. They also have schools (or similar processes and teachings for their youth). There's a whole lot of difference between a society teaching its children (which is how we're not animals merely grazing grass but have culture, technology, science, etc), and to be taken from your family for forced re-education to a different culture you don't belong to (and who is even adversarial to your people).