Joyful Saint

To all those who put so much work and effort into public education:  I respect your intentions, but I believe you have a master you do not quite understand.  I know I take a risk in posting this, but I believe that a cultural shift demanding education be done at a more local level would greatly improve our chances for maintaining liberty.  You who cry-out in opposition to the "Health-Care Bill," what do you think public education is...?

Humanists on Education:  quotes from the founders of today's educational system...


"I am convinced that the battle for humankind's future must be waged and won in the public classroom by teachers that correctly perceive their role as proselytizers of a new faith: a new religion of humanity that recognizes and respects the sparks of what theologians call divinity in every human being. The classroom must and will become an arena of conflict between the old and new -the rotting corpse of Christianity together with all its adjacent evils and misery, and the new faith of humanism, resplendent with the promise of a world in which the never-realized Christian ideal of 'love thy neighbor' will finally be achieved." ~John J. Dunhey in his essay, "The Humanist"



"Education is thus a most powerful ally of humanism, and every American school is a school of humanism. What can a theistic Sunday school's meeting for an hour a week and teaching only a fraction of the children do to stem the tide of a five-day program of humanistic teaching?" ~Charles F. Potter, in "Humanism: A New Religion"



"The children who know how to think for themselves spoil the harmony of the collective society which is coming, where everyone would be interdependent." ~John Dewey, signer of the Humanist Manifesto, Architect of the Modern Public School System



Every teacher should realize he is a social servant set apart for the maintenance of the proper social order and the securing of the right social growth. In this way the teacher is always the prophet of the true God and the usherer of the true kingdom of heaven." ~John Dewey, Pedagogic Creed statement, 1887



"We who are engaged in the sacred cause of education are entitled to look upon all parents as having given hostages to our cause." ~Horace Mann, "Father of the Public School System"



"Our schools have been scientifically designed to prevent over-education from happening. The average American [should be] content with their humble role in life, because they're not tempted to think about any other role." ~William T. Harris, U.S. Commissioner of Education, 1889



"In our dreams... people yield themselves with perfect docility to our molding hands. The present educational conventions [intellectual and character education] fade from their minds, and unhampered by tradition we work our own good will upon a grateful and responsive folk." ~John D. Rockefeller, General Education Board



The Underground History of American Education by John Taylor Ghatto is the source for many of these quotes.

Credit to Jasmine Bauchman of joyfullyathomeblog.com for gathering these quotes.