Want Real Grassroots Changes: Start a School

[FastTadpole]

As long as our children are indoctrinated into the current educational system each generation will be overwhelmed with the same censored, controlled and directed thinking. The obvious solution is to create parent and donation funded schools in private system. A secession of the educational bondage we have subjected the impressionable minds of our children to for centuries.

The idea would be an organized extension of ConCen applied to the meatspace for kids and adults alike. An ultimate, personable, face to face, student to teacher and local grassroots form of the wake-up movement.

This does not have to be expensive. Talk is cheap but ideas are priceless. The infrastructure exists in the garbage computers that are being thrown away, our residential homes our parks, our back yard lawns for farming and the PDFs we have amassed (purchasing copyright when necessary). The knowledge and know how are there for the taking as are the resources to implement it.

Our seniors have immense wisdom to pass down and would be happy to pass on their knowledge and experience it would give them a greater sense of value than toiling away playing bridge or rotting in an old folks home. 20 year old teachers that have been subjected to the educational constructs put in place they have been taught by status quo books in status quo institutions of have no real life experience so, for the most part, they have little to offer.

Think of what we could teach:

- real history not distorted and censored history
- science that uses both sides of the brain
- math that is targeted to common use
- real skills like farming, animal husbandry, simple mechanics and health
- teach politics not as it is but as it could be
- make chemistry applicable and not simple memorization
- promote health and fitness
- have a real spiritual program that explores all forms of theology and incorporate philosophy in the cirriculum
- explain economics and banking
- explain the effects of vaccines, food chemicals GMOs
- challenge the students to think for themselves and ask questions

The education system doesn't need to be fixed it needs to be replaced by something outside of the system itself or at least start by presenting an alternative. Home schooling only allows one child at a time to be educated by a single viewpoint. Eventually a system like this once proven successful cannot be ignored and may even be adopted universally but it starts with your community and mine.

I plan on doing this in my community by going door to door explaining the issues and the solutions, holding meetings once enough support is garnered gathering personnel and then making it a reality.

The school needs a constitution though so it does not get warped over time a basic irrefutable set of principals that cannot be amended, circumvented or bypassed by new rules. At this point I've given this about 20 minutes thought and I'm making it up as I go along so fine tuning is imminent. That task I leave to you .. open discussion fire away.

[seatis4flotation]

Right on Tad....I decided after a very long thought to go ahead and send my children to public schools. I felt that the only way for them to see the world (In Biblical since) was to see it from the inside. I have a degree in Chemistry and Biology so I feltJust on my education alone I could help them understand real science. I knew I could be the anti history and current events but there was one thing I had to remove form them. TV. They have never watch TV in our home. We read and play games..sometimes we take walks. We have a responsiblitly as Parents to raise our children and not allow some crack pot to dictate what it is that they must learn and skip. MY children 7 and 9 both know that freedom comes with knowledge not some freaking document. They Know that Obama and Bush share the same brain and that the Gov't will never give them what they need or want.

[JazzRoc]

Fast Tadpole:

As long as our children are indoctrinated into the current educational system each generation will be overwhelmed with the same censored, controlled and directed thinking.
As YOU were?

The obvious solution is to create parent and donation funded schools in private system. A secession of the educational bondage we have subjected the impressionable minds of our children to for centuries.
What of the religious "bondage" which precedes it? Isn't that FAR more serious a problem?

The idea would be an organized extension of ConCen applied to the meatspace for kids and adults alike. An ultimate, personable, face to face, student to teacher and local grassroots form of the wake-up movement.
Perish the thought!

This does not have to be expensive. Talk is cheap but ideas are priceless. The infrastructure exists in the garbage computers that are being thrown away, our residential homes our parks, our back yard lawns for farming and the PDFs we have amassed (purchasing copyright when necessary). The knowledge and know how are there for the taking as are the resources to implement it.
So do it.

Our seniors have immense wisdom to pass down and would be happy to pass on their knowledge and experience it would give them a greater sense of value than toiling away playing bridge or rotting in an old folks home. 20 year old teachers that have been subjected to the educational constructs put in place they have been taught by status quo books in status quo institutions which have no real life experience so, for the most part, they have little to offer.
Even in their degraded form they offer more than you think. The social experience and meeting children from other cultures have civilizing effects.

- real history not distorted and censored history
Not possible. NO-ONE ever will have access to the REAL truth. You'll merely replace one viewpoint with another. Maybe you'll even produce people that rebel against YOU. After all, it worked for you, eh?

- science that uses both sides of the brain
Science already does. It isn't a "democracy" and it IS an anti-belief system. It must remain so in order to BE science. It isn't possible to "soften" it up. It's a discipline.

- math that is targeted to common use
You mean arithmetic. Mathematics is ALREADY "targeted to common use". That's its nature; it's applicable to anything.

- real skills like farming, animal husbandry, simple mechanics and health
In a post industrial society? Now you're talking.

- teach politics not as it is but as it could be
As they did in Soviet Russia? NO. Teach your ENEMY. To KNOW it is to DEFEAT IT.

- make chemistry applicable and not simple memorization
It's just a branch of science. See above. Don't mess with science.

- promote health and fitness
I don't know about you, but as a child I seemed to spend WEEKS running through sub-zero temperatures in vest and shorts. Already.

- have a real spiritual program that explores all forms of theology and incorporate philosophy in the curriculum
Hell NO! Let's not waste time with mind-moulding time-wasters like theology. Philosophy - YES.

- explain economics and banking
And civic responsibility? Morality? Ethics? Ecology? Permaculture? The human body?

- explain the effects of vaccines, food chemicals GMOs
A subset of SCIENCE. Human biology.

- challenge the students to think for themselves and ask questions
This is already done in Britain.

The education system doesn't need to be fixed it needs to be replaced by something outside of the system itself or at least start by presenting an alternative. Home schooling only allows one child at a time to be educated by a single viewpoint. Eventually a system like this once proven successful cannot be ignored and may even be adopted universally but it starts with your community and mine.
Actually there is more than "local" vision to be taught. Schools still need to be centrally-co-ordinated even if you despise such control.

I plan on doing this in my community by going door to door explaining the issues and the solutions, holding meetings once enough support is garnered gathering personnel and then making it a reality.
Well in Britain you would still benefit by co-operating with the state. There are grants and information systems available. Hail diversity! Maybe one day we could all benefit by conscription of best practices.

The school needs a constitution though so it does not get warped over time a basic irrefutable set of principles that cannot be amended, circumvented or bypassed by new rules.
That, if it happened, might well be a poisoned chalice. Best just hope...

At this point I've given this about 20 minutes thought and I'm making it up as I go along so fine tuning is imminent. That task I leave to you .. open discussion fire away.
Hell? Twenty minutes? I first was a teacher in 1972...

[FastTadpole]

Good points JazzRoc I value your insight and experience.

Your points on culture sharing and its effects on mutual civility are taken. Meeting people from different cultures should be a major part of anyone's education.

Maybe a more balanced view of history is what would be best for future generations instead of the sanitized versions but backed up with irrefutable fact or as close as we can come to it would be in order.

I am consulting with an uncle of mine that was in the school system for all of his life and ran a catholic school that had its merits. I'm not advocating a complete overthrow but something parallel to combat the simultaneous segregation (private or cultural schools) and the monopoly on young minds that the government has powers that can be asserted. This idea I put forth is a case not only to prove that it works and to have it widely adopted, but to enrich the minds, peel back the curtain and encourage independent thought most of all. The system is twisted not destroyed and salvaging from their accomplishments and learning from their mistakes can only serve to make a this next generation schooling as successful as possible.

I learned from the teachers and not necessarily the curriculum and I have peeled back my own teachings to get closer to the, ultimately unattainable, truth. The system taught me to read, write and do the maths at the highest level as I was a child prodigy in that subject. I was then disenchanted by math as it became endless memorization of formulae and I was also oppressed, vilified, lied to and had my ideas and input beaten down to submission by the very same system.

Science in combination with morality in ethics can be a good thing but it should be treated as a double edged sword and not as Pandora's box you tend to describe it as. .. and yes 20 minutes of inspired thought, I just thought I'd blurt it out before it became trapped in the recesses of my mind. Anything of substance is birthed out of a thought

I'll publish more on this once I have hammered out a well thought out plan for roll out, cirriculum and moral code. I invite you and others to contribute and criticize as we go along.

[JazzRoc]

Fast Taddy:

The system taught me to read, write and do the maths at the highest level as I was a child prodigy in that subject. I was then disenchanted by math as it became endless memorization of formulae and I was also oppressed, vilified, lied to and had my ideas and input beaten down to submission by the very same system.
I went to fourteen schools. My father was in the Royal Air Force.

I was also able, yet felt exactly the same way you did. Just think how much worse the experience must be for the less able...

Yet, on reflection, I can see that such experiences are a product of the stupidity of both oneself (not that I want to blame children at all, but by one's teens one should be able, in part, to think for oneself) and others. It's just a condition of existence while we're all so stupid. That's not to say we can't make improvements to it.

I think the first improvement might be to follow the thoughts of Richard Dawkins's "The God Delusion", and STOP making THAT mistake. I couldn't make that happen for my children because the social ostracism following the "cure" would have been greater than the "disease". That worked out well, as my (now grown-up) children only find themselves in church for weddings or funerals, and one of them has had a Buddhist wedding.

By the way, Seat, I agree about the TV. My children watched mostly Science, Nature and humor programmes. Otherwise it wasn't switched on.

[mastermg]

- real history not distorted and censored history
Agreed. Usually it is the winners that re-write history. Try to teach things from both sides, example, like accepted truths regarding the holocaust, things still in debate (6 million people died..?), and what happened afterwards (Take over of Palestine and starting a new war).
- science that uses both sides of the brain
Add in the suppressed knowledge and inventions of Nikola Tesla and his followers, herbal botany, natural medicines and remedies.

- math that is targeted to common use
Interest scams, nonexistant money as debt and it's problems, etc.

- real skills like farming, animal husbandry, simple mechanics and health
How to farm, cross pollination, treat injured animals, hunt?, etc. (Life-Skill course)

- teach politics not as it is but as it could be
All the theories and different types of governments, and maybe no-government theories

- make chemistry applicable and not simple memorization
An Arab would be sent to jail for even thinking this
- promote health and fitness
- have a real spiritual program that explores all forms of theology and incorporate philosophy in the cirriculum
Absolutely agreed.

- explain economics and banking
- explain the effects of vaccines, food chemicals GMOs
- challenge the students to think for themselves and ask questions

[---]

there was a school in west germany that parents made - got bust officially this year after almost two decades. Otherwise parents having priority control over the education of their own children is an imprisonable offence here in liberal germany.

put prison is the worst they have got to wield officially.

[daniel9]

it wouldnt last long in this society. there'd be lots of snitching neighbors

[mastermg]

JR- if you believe the study of theology is a waste of time, what do you call art or history? Ignorance is something we should learn not to do.