Are We Purposely Making The Next Generation Stupid?

I was always told that one needs an education to get ahead in this world. I certainly believe that, and I think most believe that as well. So, why then are so many in posts of power doing so much to undermine the education of this and future generations? Is it because it is easier to control mindless fools? Is it because they want to destroy the current system of education we have? Or is it just plain old-fashioned indoctrination? Hell, for all I know it could be some of all three or some insidious new thing I haven’t even guessed at yet, but you may be wondering what I am even talking about.

Let’s start with the most recent news. It seems Congress may finally be about to get rid of most of the No Child Left Behind education law passed in 2002, except the testing parts, much to the rejoicing of vast numbers of conservatives around the country who will now get back control of their curriculums and oversight which they so cherish. Common Core will be abolished, federal oversight will be pushed to a minimum, and states would take over for the federal government in sanctioning schools for not complying with standards. Probably the most galling thing about the new bill, however, is that the government cannot give or mandate a common a particular set of standards. Why does that matter? Well, there is this heavy push in many southern conservative states to remove the theory of evolution and replace it with creationism, and to remove any talk about slavery when it comes to their history, so they don’t look bad in the history books. More on that later, by the way. By making sure that there is no longer a standard that every school and state must adhere too, states are allowed to use their own versions of textbooks that don’t require actual facts and proof. It will now be perfectly legal and alright for any state to rewrite history textbooks to portray them in a better light, and if you think this is crazy or never going to happen, you really haven’t been paying attention because it is already happening.

For years Texas has been altering the books they buy from textbook manufacturers, or I should say they have been asking for altered books. The thing is, the Texas school board buys a LOT of books – far more than any other state. So when Texas wants to make an order for textbooks, publishers are jumping to fill that order because they are going to make a lot of money. So what if the Texas state school board asks for books that leaves out Thomas Jefferson and wants to portray Joseph McCarthy as great man one year? What if the next year they want to leave out references to the Ku Klux Klan and Jim Crow Laws and then rename the Atlantic slave trade the Atlantic triangle trade? Yeah, none of that is obfuscating history or whitewashing it. The only thing that makes this worse is that after Texas has bought these modified textbooks, other states are also going to buy them too. So the disease that is conservative Texas spreads outward to other parts of the country and influences other states and children of this country.

Things that our children should know they never learn or are so misinformed on they can never hope to hold an intelligent conversation with someone who actually knows anything about it. How do you think they are going to feel when they run into someone who does know something about this topic, especially if it happens to be a foreigner? How can these children even hope to ever get into a college with this level of dumbing down?

There is something compounding this injustice too. Texas just passed a bill that won’t allow academics fact check their textbooks. Not only will they have publishers provide them with faulty textbooks, which they are now perfectly allowed to do since Common Core is going to be completely stripped away, but no one will be allowed to verify just how buggered the textbooks are for these children and in consequence other children around this country.

For now the steps have only been minor changes, but when the President signs the bill changing the No Child Left Behind law, which he will, you can bet Texas will start to radically alter their textbooks. Will someone sue them? Surely. Will it matter? Not in the least. They don’t care if they win or lose this argument because the point is to have the children see the world as they want them to. Changing history and other textbooks is pure indoctrination to give a worldview that makes them and their perverted principles seem rational while everyone else is radical and dangerous. It isn’t new, even in this country. One only has to go back and read authors like Aldous Huxley and George Orwell to see where this sort of attitude leads. That’s if you can find them and they haven’t been banned already. The question I would ask of my countrymen is this: Are we going to sit by complacently while this is done to our children?