Education In A Real Sense

[AntiPharisee]

The simple fact is, the education SYSTEM of today does ANYTHING-BUT to allow us to think freely.  When you sit for an exam, the answers you provide are graded on how well they match with the indoctrination you have received during the year.  Education is never about education in a real sense that produces character, wisdom and understanding because this would produce an objective mind-set, a dangerous thing indeed to those pulling the strings.  It is all about rewarding those that CONFORM to establishment concepts, where it was understood long ago, that if you can control what people are taught and how their individual "reality filter" functions, then you can control the nature of society as a whole and inevitably steer it in the direction that you want.  "We are actively discouraged from thinking constructively and questioningly, and once an individual has accepted the numb acquiescence so encouraged, an insidiously vicious circle has been successfully promoted. Another rather convenient result of such a situation is that people, who don't think constructively, don't even realise it."  Michael Timothy, The Anti-Intellectual Ethic

 

As unbelievable as it may seem, it's quite possible to be a Ph.D., Doctor, Lawyer, Businessman, Journalist, an Accountant, or Factory Hand and at the same time be an uneducated person in the true sense. The difference between real education and vocational training has been cleverly blurred in our time, so that we now have people successfully practicing their vocations, while at the same time being totally ignorant of the larger and more important issues of the world in which they live.  An observation on curriculum from Alvin Toffler's: "The Covert Curriculum."  "Built on the factory model, mass education taught basic reading, writing, and arithmetic, a bit of history and other subjects. This was the "overt curriculum." But beneath it lay an invisible or "covert curriculum" that was far more basic. It consisted -- and still does in most industrial nations -- of three courses: one in punctuality, one in obedience, and one in rote, repetitive work. Factory labour demanded workers who showed up on time, especially assembly-line hands. It demanded workers who would take orders from a management hierarchy without questioning. And it demanded men and women prepared to slave away at machines or in offices, performing brutally repetitious operations."

 

Another observation from John Stuart Mill on moulding people: "A general State Education is a mere contrivance for moulding people to be exactly like one another, and as the mould in which it casts them is that which pleases the dominant power in the government, whether this be a monarchy, an aristocracy, or a majority of the existing generation; in proportion as it is efficient and successful, it establishes a despotism over the mind, leading by a natural tendency to one over the body."

 

To clearly illustrate the crucial difference between training and cognitive knowledge, John H. Groberg tells the story of his experience with an elderly Tongan sailor.  In his book called, "The Other Side of Heaven," it reads:  ". . .  I became convinced that many of those old captains were as sure where they were on their sea paths as we are on our land paths. The ocean is home to them and they develop a feel that is hard for us to comprehend. Let me give an example: I remember returning home from a long voyage in very contrary weather with heavy seas, strong winds, and a cloudy, rainy sky. We were out of sight of land all afternoon, all night and into the next morning. I became a little concerned and asked the captain if he knew for sure where we were.

 

He looked at me rather quizzically and then gazed at the shape of the sun through the heavy clouds for some time, felt the wind as he moved his head slowly back and forth, then put one hand in the water while holding the rudder with the other hand. After several minutes, he withdrew his hand from the water, pointed partway across the sky and announced, "When the sun is there, the island of Lofanga will appear there."  His statement was strictly factual and non-emotional, and when he saw I accepted his word, he went back to concentrating on moving the sail and the rudder just so, feeling the currents, and intently watching the sky.

 

Several hours passed, but when the outline of the sun was right where he had pointed, the mists and shrouds seemed to lift and, almost like magic, the islands of Lofanga "na'e kite mai" (appeared). It was as though it materialized out of nowhere to fulfill his words.  I looked at the islan

d and then looked at the old captain. He just smiled and nodded and continued concentrating on the sky, wind and current.

I marveled and thought, "We spend years going to school, getting an education in astronomy, weather forecasting, navigational engineering, or electronic maneuvering of various kinds, and then we say we know something. Yet encapsulated in this old man is more knowledge of celestial navigation than all the degrees the world can give." I realized that his eyes, his hands, his face to the wind, his sense of sight, sound, smell, and temperature were so refined that he knew exactly where we were and exactly how to set the sail, use the wind, and move the rudder to get us safely to our destination.  We arrived home that evening and I thanked the captain for the safe journey. I asked how he knew where we were. He talked of the warmth and strength of the currents, of sun and moon and stars, of the feel of the wind and waves, but basically said, "I just knew." He couldn't really explain it to me, or maybe he knew I couldn't understand. I was glad I had "my captain" to take me over the sea paths of "my ocean." I thought of how we honour our great scientists and engineers and mathematicians for their seeming intelligence and understanding, yet that old man who had no degrees was more knowledgeable about currents and directions at sea than anyone I have ever known."

 

On educated people one discerning writer put it this way:  "The reason that educated people are more susceptible to propaganda than uneducated people is that educated people tend to overestimate their own understanding.  Simple ignorant people know their own limitations; educated people forget theirs. They mistake literacy for expertise.  Knowing a smattering of many things, they confuse a dim awareness with sophistication.  Flatter their intelligence a little, and they'll swallow anything - especially if they think it's the latest thing.  The twentieth century was notable for many horrors, not least of which were the fads of the intellectuals - Marxism, Freudian psychology, existentialism, sexual freedom, "abstract" art, and so forth.  Common sense and tradition fell into disrepute.  The old idea of self-evident truths gave way to the glamour of the "counterintuitive." Anyone who could take a philosophy course could become a deep thinker, refusing to be taken in by the obvious. The obvious somehow became vulgar."   Joseph Sobran - The Decline of the Obvious.

 

The ancient Greek philosopher Socrates taught his students that the pursuit of truth could only begin once they started to question and analyse every belief that they had ever held dear. If a certain belief passes the tests of evidence, deduction, and logic, it should be kept. If it doesn't, the belief should not only be discarded, but the thinker must also then question as to why he was led to believe the erroneous information in the first place. Not surprisingly, this type of teaching didn't sit well at the time with the ruling elite of Greece, as Socrates was eventually tried for "subversion" and for "corrupting the youth". He was then forced to take his own life by drinking poison.

 

Socrates was living proof that in a time of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act – punishable by death.
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[Tomas O'Crohan]

Excellent, Anti. Well done.

[Free Truth]

Those are some really great quotes. I'm going to save and use them.

If I'm not mistaken, a fellow on TFC named Gatto was going over 12 points of proper education that I believe he said the rich are taught. Unfortunately, I think they only went over two of them; one being something like manners, and the other was something along the lines of being concise...?

What I'm wondering is if anybody knows what the other points/teachings are?

[LordLindsey]

What I saw in Thailand was exactly what is happening to America--the students are not taught how to think critically, just remember.  This is precisely why nothing ever changes and why the people just go through life oblivious of what is happening to them and who is doing it--until it is entirely too late.  Once I pointed-out to both the staff AND students, their eyes were opened as to what was happening and the shock was as if I had slapped someone in the face!  I think that that is what made me the most dis-heartened--having 30 year veteran teachers not even understand how the system really works, and when they are told the shock is truly visible.  These were some of the same teachers who would simply give students an "A" when those students had not even taken my assessment *mini-exam*.  

What I had believed to be a very simple understanding--the easiest way to control a society is to completely control a child via the education system--was a revelation to those teachers!  This is what I just can't understand...how can people who are supposedly much better "educated" than I am and who have been in the teaching system for several decades, not see so very clearly how the education system is a system of in-doctrination and control!!??  I just could never understand that, and I STILL don't understand it.  The students understood completely and, while at first were shocked at the reality, were very appreciative of understanding how the world truly is, and that is something that the indoctrination system was INTENTIONALLY keeping from them.

I could literally write a book on my experiences, but you get the idea.

LINDSEY

NB:  The American "education system" has become the same as what I saw in Thailand; it's all bullshit.

[Father Brown]

Excellent post Anti-Pharisee.

I well remember family dinner time as a teenager. We used to always get into talks that mocked the so-called experts. We called them "educated idiots". Definitely some inside vernacular, but it was well understood among our family. One thing that I think helped us in recognizing this phenomena was that fact that my grandparents came from Europe and my parents were the first generation born in the USA. After a few generations, this becomes less easy to detect IMHO.

Two great books come to mind for undestanding how easily propaganda is swallowed by highly educated people. The first one I suggest is very serious and academic, Propaganda by Jacques Ellul. It was published in English by Alfred Knopf in 1964.

An excellent novel to read is Zen and the Art of Motrocycle Maintenance by Robert Pisrig.

However, ultimately, it boils down to one of the seven deadly sins: Pride. And the fact that Jews are always looking for a way to create Heaven on earth. This thinking, which came out of the so-called enlightenment is now the default thinking of the world and has been programmed into the majority of Gentiles as well.