The Origin of Education and Mandatory Schooling
Prior to the late 1800′s, education was a private practice that took place in private institutions or through home schooling. That all changed in 1902 when John D. Rockefeller created the general education board in conjunction with Frederick T. Gates. Frederick T. Gates was a close friend, business and personal advisor to Rockefeller. The general education board was responsible for funding the American public school system, and provided over one hundred million dollars in 1902 while continuing their support beyond 1902. If we follow the money, the general education board was responsible for the creation of the American public school system. Does education not play a large role in manipulating the consciousness of human beings? By consciousness manipulation I mean trying to influence the way that the human being perceives the environment around them. In order to implement this system, teachers need to teach, and somebody needs to teach the teachers, and somebody needs to teach them too. It’s time we start questioning the real purpose of education and who exactly is putting human beings through this system, and for what purpose?
“So who made all this up? What’s with all this structure? Do we need to play this structure? Are we limited? No” – Franco DeNicola
From an early age, we are forced into a mandatory school system that requires and encourages youth to attend for a large portion of their human life, for six hours a day. Each child is required to learn the accepted version of reality in order to fit into the specific mold desired by the elite. Just like television, a large part of school is simply programming. It’s ironic how the same families behind the funding are responsible for many inhumane atrocities that took place throughout history. They are also behind big oil, big pharma, food and other industries that are becoming more transparent as of late. Kids who do not fit into the system and do not resonate with it are usually labelled and medicated. Essentially, the whole point of school is to shape the reality of the student. We are taken from a very early age and put into the institution, from there we are shown how the world works and what we need to do to survive in it. School literally paints the perception that we need to do well in order to have a job so we can make money and pay our bills. It has nothing to do with the type of growth the human being needs. The concept of grades and marks do not signify any level of intelligence. In school we are shown the idea of an authority figure, how the world works and what intelligence is.
“Never confuse education with intelligence.” – Albert Einstein
“I don’t want a nation of thinkers, I want a nation of workers.” – John D Rockefeller
“In our dream we have limitless resources, and the people yield themselves with perfect docility to our molding hand. The present educational conventions fade from our minds; and, unhampered by tradition, we work our own good will upon a grateful and responsive rural folk. We shall not try to make these people or any of their children into philosophers or men of learning or of science. We are not to raise up among them authors, orators, poets, or men of letters. We shall not search for embryo great artists, painters, musicians. Nor will we cherish even the humbler ambition to raise up from among them lawyers, doctors, preachers, statesmen, of whom we now have ample supply.” – Frederick T Gates
The Following Timeline is From “The Origin Of Compulsory Schooling” By Foster Gamble
Pre 1840: Literacy Rates High, Schools Predominantly Private and Locally Controlled
Up until the 1840’s, the American school system was mainly private, decentralized, and home schooling was common. Americans were well educated and literacy rates were high.
1852: Massachusetts Passes First Mandatory Attendance Law
1902: John D. Rockefeller Creates the General Education Board
At the ultimate cost of $129 million, the General Education Board provided major funding for schools across the nation and was very influential in shaping the current school system.
1905: Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching is Founded
1906: NEA Becomes a Federally Chartered Association
1913: Frederick T. Gates, Director of Charity for the Rockefeller Foundation, Writes “In our dream…the people yield themselves with perfect docility to our molding hand”
Frederick T. Gates wrote in The Country School of Tomorrow, Occasional Papers Number 1:
“In our dream we have limitless resources, and the people yield themselves with perfect docility to our molding hand. The present educational conventions fade from our minds; and, unhampered by tradition, we work our own good will upon a grateful and responsive rural folk. We shall not try to make these people or any of their children into philosophers or men of learning or of science. We are not to raise up among them authors, orators, poets, or men of letters. We shall not search for embryo great artists, painters, musicians. Nor will we cherish even the humbler ambition to raise up from among them lawyers, doctors, preachers, statesmen, of whom we now have ample supply.”
1914: National Education Association (NEA) Alarmed by the Activity of the Carnegie and Rockefeller Foundations
At an annual meeting in St. Paul Minnesota, a resolution was passed by the Normal School Section of the NEA. An excerpt stated:
“We view with alarm the activity of the Carnegie and Rockefeller Foundations—agencies not in any way responsible to the people—in their efforts to control the policies of our State educational institutions, to fashion after their conception and to standardize our courses of study, and to surround the institutions with conditions which menace true academic freedom and defeat the primary purpose of democracy as heretofore preserved inviolate in our common schools, normal schools, and universities.”
1917: NEA Reorganizes and Moves to Washington DC
The NEA is the largest labor union in the U.S., representing public school teachers and other school faculty and staff. It generally opposes merit pay, school vouchers, accountability reforms, and more.
1918: Every State Requires Students to Complete Elementary School
1932: “Eight Year Study” – Largely funded by Carnegie Corporation of New York and the General Education Board
This laid the groundwork for education reform and the schooling system we have today.
1946: Rockefeller Foundation grants the General Education Board $7.5 billion
1953: Reece Committee of the US House of Representatives Reveals Agenda of Carnegie Endowment and Rockefeller Foundation on Education
“It seems incredible that the trustees of typically American fortune-created foundations should have permitted them to be used to finance ideas and practices incompatible with the fundamental concepts of our Constitution. Yet there seems evidence that this may have occurred.”
-Norman Dodd, Director of Research, Special Committee to Investigate Tax-Exempt Foundations, 1954 [2]
1968: Edith Roosevelt’s Article “The Foundation Machine” Indicts Carnegie Funded Textbooks
Carnegie funded “Programmed Textbooks” were distributed to “culturally deprived areas.” Edith Roosevelt stated that “these young children are being indoctrinated with a pattern of anti-social ideas that will completely and violently alienate them from the mainstream of American middle-class values.”
1979: US Department of Education Created
1986: Carnegie Teaching Panel Charts New Teacher Framework & Provides $900,000 in Grants for Reforms
2003: 14% of American Adults are Illiterate
The National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL) administered tests which revealed 14% of US residents would have extreme difficulty with reading and written comprehension. In 2003, some 30 million American adults had Below Basic prose literacy, 27 million had Below Basic document literacy, and 46 million had Below Basic quantitative literacy.
Sources:
http://www.thrivemovement.com/follow-money-education
http://www.scribd.com/doc/3768227/Dodd-Report-to-the-Reece-Committee-on-Foundations-1954
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