Education & Freedom

Will Porter 2013

Fundamentals

The history of education is one that stretches back all the way to the dawn of human rationality.
The very moment mankind attained reason; he embarked down the limitless path to the attainment of
truth. Truth-seeking is what human beings do; it is their function if there ever were one. Mans very
nature forces him to attempt to gain valuable data about what is, about that which exists. There is a
process of gaining valuable knowledge that begins with the collection of raw sensory data. It is a vital
first step, but by no means the only one.

What comes next is the abstracting of ideas and concepts from this raw data, then both establishing
sound connections between these concepts and discarding any contradictions that exist therein. This
process is called reason. Mans primary faculty of survival is reason. He must consciously navigate his
surroundings, make valid connections about causal relations and rid his mind of any conflicting ideas.
From the stone-age man to the men who roam this earth today, the mission for truth has been constant.

The primitive man was in a situation where his life was directly contingent upon whether he could
properly exercise his rational faculties. Those who could were able to exercise a greater degree of
freedom and could better maintain themselves than others. The more he learned, the better chance he
had to sustain his own life, giving him an advantage over those who did not exercise that faculty. When
he attained some piece of truth, he had knowledge, and this knowledge is what allowed him to make
the proper connections between, and take action on, the facts necessary to his very survival.

Knowledge and liberty are therefore inextricably linked concepts. One is essentially meaningless without
the other. One who is free but has no notion of truth is, in reality, a slave to his own lack of
knowledge, unable to fully exercise his will and comprehend reality in a systematic way.

On the other hand, one who is physically enslaved cannot properly seek and attain truth according to
the dictates of his own volition, though to whatever degree that he can, he is better off.

The Ancient Latin word liber carries two distinct, but related, meanings. It means both book and
freedom (hence library and liberty). Certain men of antiquity clearly understood this connection.
The book, the container of facts and knowledge, is the path to freedom and liberation, not only of the
body but, more importantly, of the mind.

The black record of despotism and tyranny over humankind is one that has always involved a group of
men who wielded knowledge against their fellows. History is replete with examples of how the keepers
of wisdom have always accrued power. The mystic and the despot are one and the same, even in our
secular age.

From the tribal shaman, to the middle-age theocrats, to the modern day technocrats, the experts have
always been the ones to exercise control over societies by using media and schooling to manipulate the
dissemination of information and knowledge, also by making certain key information exclusive only to
themselves.

While man is a natural truth-seeker, societies have always had groups or individuals who wished to
contain and stifle the acquisition of knowledge of the people around them.

The aboriginal shaman was seen to have unique knowledge about the inner-workings of the natural and
spiritual worlds, knowledge of mystic causality that allowed him to exhibit authority over his tribesmen.
Like the other archetypal tyrants of history that I will mention, it was in the shamans interest to keep
other members of society from knowing or understanding what it was that he was really doing, to hide
or occult (to shut off from view or exposure) from them what knowledge he actually possessed and
how this might benefit others to know it.

The priest was proclaimed to have knowledge of morality, to have knowledge of who was to reap
reward or punishment from the all-mighty above, to be the direct communion with their Lord. The
divinely-ordained kings and high-ranking Church officials kept the unwashed masses in the dark in many
places, either banning them from, or highly discouraging, their own quest for knowledge. It was
expected that the Popes word would be the adopted interpretation of any commoner, if they were not
to have become a heretic or an outcast. The perceived authority of the divine-right of kings held
societies back for centuries.

Finally, the modern technocrat is seen to have specialized technical information, giving only him the
authority to exert control over matters of state and economy. Modern day intellectual elite are the ones
who completely run and control the corporate, academic, and political systems. An example is to look at
how many Western governments employ specialized economists to essentially dictate the future of an
entire nation by allowing them to have heavy influence on monetary policy, controlled artificially, of
course, by government central banks.

Typically once these people or groups attained their wisdom, they did their best to ensure the
remainder of the population would have no access to it. This is occurring less obviously today, but it is,
subtly and very effectively so. While its easy to see why for serfs in Europe and slaves in the United
States, it was harshly looked down upon, in some cases illegal, for them to learn the active literacies
(rhetoric/oratory)--and even for a time the passive ones (basic reading/writing)but it may be more
difficult to see how this has occurred in the contemporary era.

Organized education in the form of schooling most recently has been a tool wielded by this historical
group of elites in order to accomplish this goal. For the past few centuries, literacy has been used as a
weapon for waging war against the masses to ensure they never receive or grasp certain truths.



The History of Compulsory Schooling

Modern compulsory education found its first voice in two Reformation thinkers, Martin Luther and John
Calvin; though the foundations go much deeper in Western civilization, to places like Athens and Sparta,
the latter of which Plato based his authoritarian ideas of schooling on.
i


In much of Europe before the Reformation, the Catholic Church had a firm grip on the pedagogic
system, lower class citizens werent to have their own books or bibles, as only the Popes interpretation
of it was deemed legitimate.

With the advent of Johannes von Gutenbergs moveable-type printing press, the mass dissemination of
books, especially the Christian bible, sparked a revolution in human knowledge. Dozens, if not hundreds,
of separate factions of Christianity exploded across Europe as the Popes worst nightmare manifested in
reality: free-thinking individuals critically analyzing information for themselves, rather than passively
accepting what was dictated down to them.

Although this caused a great expansion in the intelligence of the common man, or at least gave that
potential, not long after this revolution were steps taken toward ever-more advanced control over the
human mind using institutionalized instruction and schooling.

In the 1500s Martin Luther was a driving force behind making education a state-controlled enterprise.
He compared public schooling to military conscription. From his famous 1524 letter to German rulers:

If the government can compel such citizens as are fit for military service to bear spear and rifle, to
mount ramparts, and perform other martial duties in time of war, how much more does it have a right
to compel the people to send their children to school[?]

After the receipt of this letter, the first public-school emerged in the German state of Gotha in 1524,
implementing Luthers Saxony School Plan.

Luther is thought to be a great Reformation liberator, but if one reads his ideas in his own words, he was
truly a tyrannical figure. His overall goal was to convert all to Lutheranism, with penalties as harsh as
death to heretics and non-believers. His advocacy of state-controlled education had everything to do
with this. For Luther, the primary function of the state was to impose and enforce his specific
interpretation of Christianity onto the masses.

As quoted in Murray N. Rothbards essay, Education: Free & Compulsory, Lord Acton said
ii
of Luther:

The Defense of religion becamenot only the duty of civil power, but the object of its institution. Its
business was solely the coercion of those who were out of the *Lutheran+ Church.

Passive obedience to the state was demanded, as Luther himself said
iii
in 1530:

It was the duty of a Christian to suffer wrong, and no breach of oath or of duty could deprive the
Emperor of the unconditional obedience of his subjects.

Luthers ideas had great influence on the later Prussian education system, which will be discussed
below.

Another Reformation thinker with blatantly authoritarian ideas was John Calvin. Calvin also had great
influence on public and compulsory education. Calvin traveled to Geneva in 1536, just in time for the
towns revolt against the reigning Duke and against the pervasive influence of the Catholic Church. He
eventually ended up in the position of Chief Pastor and was essentially ruler of the city.

During his rule, which ended in 1564, Calvin established various compulsory public schools in Geneva
with the goal, much like the program of Luther, of instilling pupils with the specific ideology of Calvinism.
Also similar to Luther, Calvin advocated complete obedience to the state, which had divine sanction to
rule, and harsh penalties, also including death, to heretics and to dissenting citizens.
iv


Although similar in method to Luther, Calvin came to have much more influence over Europe as Geneva
became a center of education where people from all over the Western world came to study in Calvinist
schools. As various prominent figures adopted Calvinism, it began to spread at a fairly rapid rate. In
1560, the Calvinist French Huguenots attempted to implement compulsory education, but were
turned down by the nobility.

But in 1579 Queen dAlbret of Navarre took up and carried out the Huguenot cause, establishing
mandatory schooling in her part of France. Calvinist Holland followed in 1609.

The influence of John Calvin had a far reach, it made its way to the New World through Puritans residing
in New England, from where it eventually spread across America. This will be discussed in more detail
below, but first I must introduce the Luther-inspired educational system that developed in the state of
Prussia
v
, to which much credit (or blame) is due for the rise of the Prussian state itself.

In 1669, Prussia was the first place to actually nationalize public schooling into a top-down system that
encompassed the entire region. The reign of Frederick Wilhelm and his progeny helped to establish
national compulsory education in the early to mid-1700s. The 3 consecutive kingships of Frederick
Wilhelm I-III made Prussia renowned for these rulers brand of paternal despotism, later seen strongly
emulated by the well-known German Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck.

Much like the Greek state of Sparta, the Prussian system put great emphasis on militarism with the goal
of churning out good, obedient citizen-soldiers. This was due in part to the crushing defeat of Prussia by
the forces of Napoleon in 1806. About the same year, Frederick Wilhelm III set out to re-organize the
Prussian educational system to indoctrinate children with militaristic nationalism. This system was seen
as greatly effective, as by 1871 Prussia delivered its own military victory over France (which ironically
inspired a similar system of education there, much as it occurred in Prussia and for the same reasons).

As mentioned above, this model of education eventually made its way to North America via Calvinist-
influenced New Englander Puritans, mainly in Massachusetts. In 1642, The Bay Colony of Massachusetts
was the first place in the English-speaking world to implement compulsory literacy laws for children.

By 1850, almost all American States had some form of public education and by 1900, they were all
compulsory.

Advocates for mandatory public schooling in America include some of Americas first socialist thinkers,
Robert Dale Owen and Frances Wright, who wanted to instill collectivistic mentalities and stamp out
diversity and individualism from children, starting as young as 2 years old.

Another prominent figure worth mention is Calvin E. Stowe, a biblical scholar and Massachusetts native.
Stowe was given an assignment by the Ohio State Legislature to visit Europe to observe and study their
system of compulsory education, especially Prussias
vi
. Upon his return to the United States, Stowe
wrote and published a paper entitled Report on Elementary Education in Europe, praising the Prussian
model and recommending the State of Ohio adopt it. The Legislature sent out over 8,000 copies to each
of the Ohio school districts, and also to other State Legislatures.

Not all proponents of mandatory schooling were heavily religious though, an education-reformist
named Horace Mann was an advocate for secular teachings in public schools. As various sects of
Christianity spread across the U.S., many people no longer desired for religion to be taught, avoiding
unnecessary tension and dissent from parents of varying religious backgrounds.

In 1843, Horace Mann also traveled to Europe and returned with high praise for the Prussian model of
schooling. He had heavy influence on the U.S. Whig Party
vii
, and by 1852 the decision was made to adopt
the Prussian system in Massachusetts, much due to the urgings of people like Stowe and Mann. Soon
the system would catch on in New York and from there spread across the United States. A few other
names associated with this fervent interest in German, especially Prussian, education are Henry
Barnard, George Bancroft, and Joseph Cogswell.

More and more, Platos ideal of total state-ownership of children was implemented across much of the
world, West and East. Platos idea on education was to utterly destroy the individuality of children to
make them the perfected citizens, never to bring dissent or radical paradigm shifts to a society. To
completely arrest societal change was Platos ultimate goal.
viii


More and more, children have been taught to revere authority and the state. In 1892, the pledge of
allegiance was first used in a public school. The pledge was not first drafted by early American
statesmen, as many seem to believe, but by a Christian Socialist named Francis Bellamy.
ix
His goal in
drafting the pledge was to inspire nationalistic ardor in young children to bring unity and fraternity to
the country. Originally a salute known as Bellamys Salute was to accompany the pledge, but was later
removed in 1942, as it was identical to the German Nazi Salute.

This is just one example of how collectivism has been imposed on young children in America and around
the world. Children have steadily been taught to revere the collective over the individual and the
methods of critical rational thought have been essentially ushered out of the curriculum. Children of
such young ages cannot possibly understand what they are pledging, but the effect is none the less
corrosive to a highly-impressionable mind.

Tailoring Education for War in the 20
th
Century

The 20
th
century has taken a much darker turn in regards to both schooling and to human freedom in
general. An extremely valuable illustration of this is found in the story and testimony of Norman Dodd.
In 1953, Congress established the Reece Committee
x
to investigate the operations of tax-exempt
foundations such as the Rockefeller Foundation, the Carnegie Endowment, and the Ford Foundation;
the conclusions of the investigation were shocking.

The Director of Research, Norman Dodd, recounts his fascinating discoveries in a 1982 interview with G.
Edward Griffin.
xi
Dodd states that The Reece Committees specific goal was to investigate subversive or
un-American activities of certain groups of trustees under the tax-exempt foundations mentioned
above and groups similar to them.

During the inquiry, a letter was written by Dodd to the Carnegie Endowment asking a number of
questions pertaining to their operations. He soon got a phone call from Joseph Johnson, President of the
Endowment, and was invited to a meeting in New York. The result of this meeting was that Dodd was to
assign a staff member to dig through the records, or minutes, of the group.

What was discovered was that beginning in 1908, the year the Carnegie Endowment began operating,
the trustees met for the first time and posed a question:

Is there any means known more effective than war, assuming you wish to alter the life of an entire
people?

Their conclusion was no. The second question they raised, then, was:

How do we involve the United States in war?

It was determined on record that to accomplish this, the Endowment would have to manipulate the
State Department and take over and control the diplomatic machinery of this country...

Soon after, whether from their actions or not, World War 1 began. In the Endowments archives, a
telegram to then President Wilson is found urging him not to let the war end too early. Eventually, of
course, the War did end, so the Endowment moved on to prevent what they called reversion of the
way of life in the U.S. to its state before the War. To accomplish this, it was decided they would have to
control education.

The Endowment made agreements with the Rockefeller Foundation to take action to begin building
their own stable of historians to place throughout academia to attempt to further this agenda. The
essential content of their desired curriculum included the inculcation of collectivism, and to orient *the+
educational system away from support of the principles embodied in the Declaration of Independence,
and implemented in the Constitution, those principles mainly being the rights of the individual.

Dodd also claims that during the investigation, H. Rowan Gaither, who helped to turn the Rand
Corporation into a non-profit institution
xii
, and was also a powerful administrator with the Ford
Foundation, (at the time President)
xiii
invited him to his office. Upon his arrival, Gaither posed the
question as to why Congress was investigating the Ford Foundation and other institutions like it, but
added that he wished the discussion to be off the record. Before Dodd could answer, Gaither said (Dodd
likely paraphrasing):

Mr. Dodd, all of us who have a hand in the making of policies here, have had experience either with the
OSS during the war, or with European economic administration after the war. We have had experience
operating under directives.

The directives emanate, and did emanate, from the White House. Now, we still operate under just such
directives. Would you like to know what the substance of these directives is?"

Dodd: I would very much like to know.

Gaither: We are here to operate in response to similar directives, the substance of which is that we
shall use our grant-making power so to alter life in the United States, that it can be comfortably merged
with the Soviet Union.

Dodd went on to tell him that this is likely why Congress is investigating such organizations, and that
while they had rights to make grants for that purpose, that they were probably entitled to tell Congress
and the public about it, to which Gaither replied that they wouldnt think of doing such a thing.

When these revelations were brought to Congress in the form of testimony, Norman Dodd was harassed
and attacked, but there were never any attempts to refute what he was saying. Needless to say, nothing
happened and the hearings on the matter were eventually terminated.

Boiled down, Dodds central conclusion of this investigation was that the determination of these large
endowed foundations, through their trustees, [was] actually to get control over the content of American
Education.
Written around the same time as the Reece Committee Investigation was a book called The Impact of
Science on Society by Bertrand Russell. In the book, Russell essentially lays out the exact methods of
collectivistic indoctrination through schooling that such foundations could use to accomplish the result
they sought to reach.

According to Russell:

"The populace will not be allowed to know how its convictions were generated. When the technique has
been perfected, every government that has been in charge of education for a generation will be able to
control its subjects securely without the need of armies or policemen."
xiv


Also:

Ordinary men and women will be expected to be docile, industrious, punctual, thoughtless, and
contented. Of these qualities, probably contentment will be considered the most important. In order to
produce it, all the researches of psycho-analysis, behaviourism, and biochemistry will be brought into
play...

All the boys and girls will learn from an early age to be what is called 'co-operative,' i.e., to do exactly
what everybody is doing. Initiative will be discouraged in these children, and insubordination, without
being punished, will be scientifically trained out of them."
"It is to be expected that advances in physiology and psychology will give governments much more
control over individual mentality than they now have even in totalitarian countries.

Fichte laid it down that education should aim at destroying free will, so that, after pupils have left
school, they shall be incapable, throughout the rest of their lives, of thinking or acting otherwise than as
their schoolmasters would have wished."
xv


Bertrand Russell was not an unknown fringe thinker of his time; he was one of the worlds most
prominent figures in mathematics, science, and philosophy. He came from a blue-blooded aristocratic
background
xvi
and, due to his wide popularity and renown, he was somebody who associated with highly
respected and influential thought molders, academics, and government officials.

Russells essential goal in the realm of education was to, quoting Fichte, discover exactly how much it
costs per head to make children believe that snow is black. (Emphasis mine) In other words, to
absolutely decimate the critical faculties of children so they would become un-thinking, un-questioning
adults who could be steered in any direction by the commands of the state with zero resistance or
dissent. This is the Prussian model taken to a scientifically precise extreme.

Keeping with this trend, in the 1960s children began to be treated with a stimulant pharmaceutical
called Ritalin (Methylphenidate) to treat what is termed Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) or Attention
Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). The companies that make this drug are heavily involved in sending
cash-flow to the American Psychiatric Association (APA) and to the universities where psychiatrists
conduct studies that result in favor for the drugs the company is currently pushing.

The drive to medicate children at younger and younger ages has been constant, with one study
concluding that the Later start of stimulant drug treatment of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder is
associated with academic decline in mathematics.
xvii
Despite the recommendations from the Physician's
Desk Reference (PDR), a publication released by certain drug companies, that children under 6 should
not be put on Ritalin, there are many pre-school programs engaged in doing just that.

First of all, to diagnose ADD/ADHD, no physical tests are conducted on the child, no blood drawn, no
brain scans, and no physical exam. I know this from first-hand experience, as I was myself diagnosed
with this disorder when I was 12 years old and put on a brand of the same chemical as Ritalin, and
then put on an analogue of Adderall, which is an amphetamine not molecularly far off from
methamphetamine.

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM), first published by the APA in 1952, is what is used to
officially diagnose mental illness in the United States. As an aside, the Manual has gotten bigger
constantly since it first appeared, starting with 112 pages in 1952, to 224 pages in 1980, to 374 by
1994.
xviii


The DSM describes the list of defining symptoms of ADD/ADHD as:

1. Often fidgets with hands or feet or squirms in seat
2. Often leaves seat in classroom or in other situations in which remaining seated is expected
3. Often runs about or climbs excessively in situations in which it its inappropriate
4. Often has difficulty playing or engaging in leisure activities quietly
5. Is often on the go or often acts as if driven by a motor
6. Often talks excessively
7. Often blurts out answers before questions have been completed
8. Often has difficulty awaiting turn
9. Often interrupts or intrudes on others.

Does any of this sound at all like a mental illness? I ask, does anybody reading this know a single child
who doesnt exhibit some, if not all, of these traits? I would contend that if a child didnt display any of
these characteristics, that then maybe Id think there was something wrong.

A doctor doesnt even technically have to make this diagnosis. It can be parents, teachers, coaches,
principals, etc., really anybody who spends some period of time with the child. My personal experience
was that my teacher told my mother she thought I might have ADD. My mother scheduled an
appointment, I was asked less than 10 questions, and presto, I was now legally allowed to essentially get
high on speed so I could concentrate.

I will leave out the entire story, but I will say that it was the start of a years-long escapade of substance
abuse during my teenage years. People dont become dependent on amphetamines or speed for no
reason; it releases huge amounts of euphoric dopamine. I of course dont completely blame ADD
medication for my own experience, as it was a different class of substances that I ended up battling
with, but it certainly was, and this is true for many children, my first time getting high and it
introduces a huge potential for future problems with pleasure-seeking behavior or substance abuse.

According to a number of doctors from various fields, ADD is not even a real disorder:

"ADD does not exist. These children are not disordered." - Thomas Armstrong, PhD The Myth of the
ADD Child
"Both the FDA and the DEA have acknowledged that ADD is not a disease, or anything organic or
biologic." - Fred Baughman, MD-The Future of ADD
"We have invented a new disease, given it medical sanction, and now we must disown it." - Diane
McGuiness - "The Limits of Biologic Treatment for Psychiatric Distress"
"Research does not confirm the existence of an ADD syndrome. There is no medical, neurological, or
psychiatric justification for the ADD diagnosis." - Peter Breggin, MD - Toxic Psychiatry P. 281
"Be forewarned that ADD is not a real disease, but rather a contrived illusion of a disease, a marketplace
tool." - Fred Baughman, MD.
xix


Despite the cries of foul play from many credible physicians, psychologists, and psychiatrists, it is
claimed that over 5 million children have this alleged illness. This number will likely continue to rise.

To summarize what has been said here; in the early 20
th
century, a group of tax-free foundations made
up of the worlds wealthiest, most powerful men set out to find a way to change the thinking of an
entire society. They first tried to use war, but found that direct education would be a much more
effective method.

Meanwhile, prominent intellectual figures such as Aldous Huxley and Bertrand Russell started
advocating and talking about the scientific control and manipulation of the human mind, for Russell
through education, for Huxley, through drugs.
xx


Around the very same time that all of this was occurring, the phenomenon of Attention Deficit
Disorder was discovered and slowly foisted upon a massive population of children in the form of
essential chemical lobotomies. Is it any surprise that children cant concentrate in a classroom
environment designed not to educate, but to indoctrinate them?

The root of the word government comes from two Latin phrases, Gubernare, meaning to steer/to
rule/to control and either Mentus meaning the state of, or Mens, meaning mind, there is some
debate between which of these is the origin of the suffix, but none the less: To control the state of or
To control the mind. Compulsory education is merely the extension of the primary function of the
state.

Essentials of Real Education

So far in this discussion we have examined how man, from the dawn of his self-awareness, has always
been a truth seeker. We have looked at how institutionalized compulsory schooling has made its way
through Classical Greece, to the Reformation period, to the military-state of Prussia, and all the way to
the United States in our modern age. Along the way, Ive brought fourth examples of how efforts have
been made in various branches of science and philosophy to discover the most efficient and effective
way of decimating the life-long cognitive function of young human beings, and some possible key forces
driving this initiative.

But weve yet to broach the question; what is real education then? What constitutes genuine truth-
seeking?

First of all, education is a phenomenon that never truly ends anywhere in our lifetime. Throughout the
span of our lives, we constantly are learning whether we mean to do so or not.

But in direct response to this inquiry, I will put forth explicitly a 3-stage process, a fundamental method
for the attainment of knowledge and truth that was touched upon vaguely in the first section. The three
stages are Grammar, Logic, and Rhetoric, and they comprise a model that many call The Trivium
Method.
xxi


Grammar is first about understanding definitions, but also looking for the Who, What, When, and
Where, the basic facts about any given topic. This could be considered the input section of this
method, also known as, or associated with, the Law of Identity.

Logic is the processing stage, making valid connections between the plain facts and discarding
contradictory or conflicting notions, looking at the Why. This is arguably the most important step.
Paraphrasing Richard Grove, Literacy can be used to enslave the un-critical mind. If all you have is
input and no way to sort out the facts from fallacies and fictions, you will be a slave to whatever you
are told. Who or whatever you read or listen to becomes an unquestioned authority for you if you dont
employ your reason or critical thinking. Part of determining what is a contradiction is the identification
of logical fallacies, or errors in logic made during the course of an argument.
xxii


The final step is Rhetoric. After meshing the facts with a sound process of reasoning, it emerges as an
integrated piece of knowledge; Rhetoric is eloquently establishing that truth for another mind to
fathom. It is the output, if you will.

If Grammar is the bricks, Logic the concrete that seals them together, then Rhetoric is the design or
architecture, speaking metaphorically, of course.

This method, when used in the exact order established above, is a highly valuable tool for developing
habitual critical thinking. Certainly there are other ways to look at it, but this has been a known process
of reasoning that dates back to antiquity, and is precisely the kind of process that is being indoctrinated
out of children through compulsory schooling.

Another vital aspect of free education aiming toward developing free minds is the concept of the
primacy of parents, as opposed to the state, in the rearing of their own children. This comes down to the
right of the individual, of both the parent, who is the natural creator and caretaker of their child, and the
child him/herself, who deserves his rightful place with his parent or legitimate guardian. The history of
compulsory education has been one of trying to separate child and parent from one another, breaking
the parental bond between them.

Continuing on the topic of individualism, there is ultimately a major diversity between every individual,
both child and adult. This fact alone makes mass-formalized-instruction immediately undesirable, as
every person learns in some slightly different way. Standardized curriculums only serve to confuse the
dull and to hold back the bright. There is no such thing as a standard child, so why should all education
have one universal standard not only in content, but in method as well?

As Murray N. Rothbard stated in Education: Free & Compulsory:
xxiii


Each person is unique in his tastes, interests, abilities, and chosen activities. Animal activities, routine
and guided by instinct, tend to be uniform and alike. But human individuals, despite similarities in ends
and values, despite mutual influences, tend to express the unique imprint of the individuals own
personality. The development of individual variety tends to be both the cause and the effect of the
progress of civilization.

The goal of compulsory mass-instruction is to reduce our civilization down to the level of thinking of
animals. They wish to, through Pavlovian-Skinnerian Operant Conditioning
xxiv
, create people who dont
think as individuals, but as a mass of uncritical receptacles, ready to consume whatever input that is
given to them.

Between stimulus and response is our freedom to think and ask questions, the efforts made on
behalf of public schooling are to eliminate that variable from the equation.

Ideally then, every child should be taught on an individual basis with a curriculum that is grounded in the
individuality and diverse qualities that vary so much from child to child. The teacher should be the
person who knows the child best, maybe even the parent, but at the very least a family member or
family friend. A 3
rd
party teacher for-pay is certainly always an option but they must fulfill the needs of
the child as an individual, as stated above. The parents should get to know the teacher very well and the
child should of course at least be comfortable with them.

The entire so-called civilized world is now accustomed to handing their own children over, at the
ripest of ages, to complete and total strangers. In what other context would anyone do this? We have
been conned into surrendering the most valuable things in our lives to a vicious institution hell-bent on
eviscerating the very part of the child that most constitutes their humanity, their mind and their capacity
for reasoning.

As mentioned on many different occasions by critically acclaimed, award-winning former New York
teacher, John Taylor Gatto
xxv
, it isnt just the teachers, the principal or other administrators, or even the
parents, it is the institution itself, a bureaucracy that reaches high up into American political and
corporate power with almost zero accountability to any concerned party whatsoever.

Anyone who the parent might have some direct contact with has no control over what occurs in the
school that they work in. Teachers are in a position where they are to make reports to their superiors,
the Administrators, who are also under the same obligations, and so on up into the machine of
corporate-dominated politics that has no mechanism for recourse.

A major injustice is done when every tax-payer is forced to subsidize this system whether they have
children or not. If a parent today wishes to put their children in a private school, they are compelled to
pay twice, imposing a severe burden on the lower and middle classes to get their kids good education,
people who already struggle as it is to pay their ever-increasing tax-bill.

If schooling were not mandated by law, every parent would have the freedom to place their child in
whatever educational institution or environment they wish, no longer forced to pay for a system built
and rigged to the utter disadvantage of every child who comes in contact with it. The economics, which
we need not delve into here, also seem to clearly show that schooling would be incredibly cheaper, both
elementary/high school and college/university. Having an essential coercive monopoly on a service
certainly doesnt help to keep it cheap.


Even if elite tax-exempt foundations still had a hand in manipulating some curriculum for some
school(s), there would be the liberty for every individual to remove their child from that institution and
either find a school that properly reflects their values, or to home-school them as was done for the
majority of early American history.

Illiteracy was well on its way to being eliminated in colonial America; evidence shows that Americans
then were more literate than Americans today (adjusted in proportion to the increased population), as
literacy rates stagnate.
xxvi
It seems that after over a century of public education, people have not, in
general, gotten smarter. Some say literacy has actually significantly lowered, at least in the past decade
or so, despite millions of tax-dollars poured into government education.
xxvii
The U.S. in 2010 had the
highest expenditure on education in the world, with over $15,000 spent on every young person in the
schooling system.
xxviii


Also, according to John Taylor Gatto, from various talks including a 2001 lecture aired on C-SPAN2
xxix
,
standardized testing has zero correlation to intelligence in children. Some of the most famous,
successful, wealthy, and powerful people in America today have been college, even high school drop-
outs. There is nothing whatsoever connecting high marks in public schooling with success or knowledge
of an individual. Gatto goes on to talk about how the school environment and the standardized grading
system are tailored to create a class-system in America similar to the one in Britain.

Finally, Gatto goes into the concept of Extended Adolescence, where children are to be managed into a
state of permanent childhood as to keep them easily ruled and controlled. Gatto found in his 30+ year
experience in education that there is no such thing as adolescence; children are just human beings,
simply young adults in need of experience and knowledge.

They should be challenged to the furthest extent of their abilities, and sometimes even further. Of
course supervision is to be given, but a person learns nothing if they are constantly coddled and
everything is done for them.

I mention standardized testing and the latter concept of Extended Adolescence to illustrate what
doesnt constitute good education, what turns a childs mind to mush. Any efforts made to escape this
deliberate agenda of dumbing down children is a step in the right direction.

The type of education that has produced some of the worlds most successful people has been one
specific to the diversity and uniqueness of the individual, challenging them to the utmost of who they
can be, and relevant to the experiences of the real world. Sometimes this hasnt involved schooling at
all. We must learn to distinguish schooling from genuine education.



Conclusion

For far too long, not only the people of America, but the people of the entire civilized world have been
complacent in their duty as parents and as members of their own communities to ensure their children
are being cared for and educated in the best ways possible. Instead, children are handed over en masse
to the jurisdiction of the state. As I believe has been documented thoroughly here, this has been a
complete and utter disaster. From its very inception, compulsory public schooling has had sinister roots,
pushed forward by tyrants of both today and centuries-passed.

If we as human beings are ever to escape the bondage of compulsory state indoctrination, we absolutely
must understand the history of the institutions weve come to see as normal and necessary. We
must make it a high priority to take steps in the direction of true education to liberate the infinite
potential of every human mind.

If we continue on the path we are on, we will surely march directly into a dystopian world, the likes of
which was only fathomed as fantastical only a few decades ago. The road to serfdom has been paved; it
is up to the free-thinking individuals of the world to blaze new trails, to chart new ground for our
descendants, to make the leaps and bounds necessary to ensure cognitive liberty for the masses of
people that will live on long after us.

In a time of universal deceit - telling the truth is a revolutionary act.
George Orwell



Citation:

i
Much of the information on Luther and Calvin comes from a work by Murray N. Rothbard Compulsory
Education in Europe from Education: Free & Compulsory, P. 19-30

ii
Lord Acton Protestant Theory of Persecution from Essays on Freedom & Power, P. 84-127

iii
Murray N. Rothbard Compulsory Education in Europe from Education: Free & Compulsory, P. 21

iv
Ibid. P. 23

v
Ibid. (Much of the information on Prussia also comes from Murray N. Rothbard Compulsory Education in
Europe from Education: Free & Compulsory, (P. 24-28). Similar to the information on Calvin and Luther, primary
sources are cited in Rothbards work, highly recommended. )


vi
Stowe in Prussia: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/567807/Calvin-E-Stowe

vii
Mann & the Whig Party: Mark Groen, "The Whig Party and the Rise of Common Schools, 18371854," American
Educational History Journal Spring/Summer 2008, Vol. 35 Issue 1/2, pp. 251260

viii
Plato & social change: Karl Popper Chap 4. Change & Rest from The Open Society & its Enemies: The Spell of
Plato P. 35-56

ix
Pledge of Allegiance: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pledge_of_Allegiance

x
Reece Committee: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reece_Committee

xi
1982 Griffin-Dodd Interview: http://youtu.be/YUYCBfmIcHM,
Transcript of Interview: http://www.supremelaw.org/authors/dodd/interview.htm.
(Much, if not all, of what is quoted from Norman Dodd and the people he himself quotes are sourced from the
interview, but Dodd also said most of those things on public record as well, as he says in the interview.)

xii
http://www.rand.org/about/history.html Under section An Independent Private Nonprofit Organization (Or F3-
Search Gaither.

xiii
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horace_Rowan_Gaither

xiv
Bertrand Russell - The Impact of Science on Society P.41 . Exact quote can be found here:
https://archive.org/details/TheImpactOfScienceOnSociety-B.Russell

xv
Ibid. P. 61

xvi
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertrand_russell#Early_life_and_background

xvii
http://www.pediatricsdigest.mobi/content/130/1/e53.short

xviii
http://www.chiro.org/pediatrics/ABSTRACTS/Designer_Disease.shtml

xix
List of quotes: Ibid.

xx
Not only did Aldous Huxley write the famous dystopian fiction, Brave New World in which populations were
pacified with a drug called Soma, but it is also said that he was involved in the CIAs mind-control experiments
with MK Ultra, see the work of Jan Irvin of GnosticMedia.

xxi
I am deeply indebted to the tireless, relentless, quest for truth that figures such as Richard Grove of Tragedy &
Hope (http://www.tragedyandhope.com/), Mark Passio of What on Earth is Happening
(http://www.whatonearthishappening.com/), Jan Irvin of GnosticMedia (http://www.gnosticmedia.com/), James
Corbett of The Corbett Report (http://www.corbettreport.com/), and finally, James Even Pilatto of Media
Monarchy (http://mediamonarchy.blogspot.com/) and Food World Order
(http://foodworldorder.blogspot.com/).

The Trivium Method is mostly touched upon by Grove, Irvin, and Passio, but is employed none the less by the
other names mentioned. I highly recommend visiting some of the links provided. If youre anything like me, it may
give you a life-changing experience and may mark the beginning of a comprehensive understanding of the human
condition, history, economics, politics, and especially, philosophy.


xxii
Wikipedia List of Logical Fallacies: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fallacies

Master List of Logical Fallacies from University of Texas at El Paso:
http://utminers.utep.edu/omwilliamson/ENGL1311/fallacies.htm

xxiii
Murray N. Rothbard Human Diversity & Individual Instruction Education: Free & Compulsory P. 5.

xxiv
B.F. Skinner Science & Human Behavior Concept of Operant Conditioning.

xxv
Works by John Taylor Gatto, an incredible man and one of my intellectual heros:

The Underground History of American Education: http://mhkeehn.tripod.com/ughoae.pdf

Weapons of Mass Instruction: http://antioligarch.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/john-taylor-gatto-weapons-of-
mass-instruction.pdf

Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling:
http://iwcenglish1.typepad.com/Documents/Gatto_Dumbing_Us_Down.pdf

The Ultimate History Lesson A 5-Hour Long Interview with Gatto conducted by Richard Grove from Tragedy &
Hope: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxCuc-2tfgk

xxvi
Literacy in Colonial America: http://freakonomics.com/2011/09/01/were-colonial-americans-more-literate-
than-americans-today/

Also The 7-Lesson-Schoolteacher John Taylor Gatto: http://www.newciv.org/whole/schoolteacher.txt

xxvii
Stagnation of Literacy in U.S.: http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/education/2009-01-08-adult-
literacy_N.htm

Also: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/06/illiteracy-rate_n_3880355.html

xxviii
U.S. Education Expenditure: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/25/oecd-education-
report_n_3496875.html

xxix
John Taylor Gatto 2001 C-SPAN2 Lecture: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ws4a-GMQ1MI