Student Explains Brainwashing to Macleans Mag

The following is a letter to the editor of Macleans Magazine that I helped my step-daughter craft after she came to me for help (with her teachers permission) to write a response to an article about schools brainwashing children. Needless to say it was not published.

Dear Editor,
I agree that kids are brainwashed by their schools.  Schools should teach kids how to think or learn instead they teach kids what to think. H.L. Mencken said the aim of public school, “... is simply to reduce as many individuals as possible to the same safe level, to breed and train a standardized citizenry, to put down dissent and originality.”
Public schools are this way by design, based on the Prussian model that was developed to create a class of obedient factory workers and military men. How else would you describe an institution where the people (yes us kids are people) are compelled to attend, required to sit still in desks oriented towards a power figure, required to learn what the authority figure dictates, conditioned to turn our minds to a new subject and think a different way when a bell rings, segregated by age into classes that exist nowhere else in the real world, and trained that achievement is based on the judgment of an external authority figure who grades us? We are trained in obedience and conformity, we don’t even have control over our own biological needs, when we eat and use the washroom is controlled by an authority figure. What we are not taught is how to learn, to think rationally, to obtain self-knowledge, or to engage in critical thinking.
The predictable result of 12 years of government school is generations of grown-up children who appeal to mommy and daddy government to solve their problems. To think they are doing something important when they engage in popularity contests that determine who rules them. To tolerate the ruling class owning up to half their labour by way of taxation. To consume products and popular culture until they die.
Slaves that ran away from the plantation and refused to work were diagnosed with Drapetomania and prescribed lashes, and children that can’t sit still or listen to authority figures are diagnosed as defective (ADHD, ODD etc.) and drugged.  It is my hope that one day children will be afforded the same rights that slaves and women eventually gained. To be viewed as the freeborn humans we are, to have our interests and preferences be noticed and nurtured and to no longer be viewed as clay to be molded to the masters vision. Btw if you can’t figure out a major root cause of bullying after this letter you may be the product of a public school.
Sincerely,
Summer
Grade 10 student

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

leadership for Libertarians

Image
As Leader of the Libertarian Party of Canada it is my job to be the public face of the party and assume the role of Prime Minister if our party forms government. My formal title of Leader is kind of flashy and it’s an honor to hold this position, but it isn’t nearly as important as the job I share with everyone reading this and that is leadership. We all know Leaders who aren’t leaders and we also know leaders who have no official title or organizational authority. It is the small “l” leaders that make organizations effective, that inspire action, that change the world. Today I want to discuss how we can up our leadership game and become more effective leaders and how this relates to creating the kind of change we want to see in the world around us as libertarians who are also Libertarians. The Purpose Driven Life I think that far to many people view the pursuit of happiness as chasing a sustained feeling of joy, or immediate gratification, or finding a safe space devo...
Read more

Tribute to My Mom

Image
Before she died my mom asked me to speak at her memorial. I must've written and deleted 4 or 5 speeches. I was on the verge of deleting this one but I just ran out of time to write another one and so I went with it. Seems like there are no words that would do her justice and a big part of our relationship had to do with a conflict between her faith and my atheism. If you know for a fact someone is going to hell you do whatever you can to try and save that person if you love them and that was my experience of my mother. I went through a militant anti-theist phase for awhile but softened considerably in the past few years and would go to church with my mother occasionally when visiting her. I'm still an atheist with respect to the idea of a magic person in the sky, but I realize now that this is probably a mischaracterization of my moms faith. Reading back over this memorial tribute I realize that it is fairly self-indulgent. Its all about my experience of my mother and maki...
Read more

Response to Activist Teacher

On Oct. 7, 2015 Denis Rancourt, PhD offered an analysis andcommentary on my blog post, ’ 10 Lessons I Learned Running for Parliament .’ I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Rancourt in Kingston several days earlier at a Libertarian Party event and found him to be simultaneously provocative and intensely curious and was delighted that he found time to critique some of my writing. It is important to me that my beliefs are congruent with reality and so I value being challenged, especially by someone who I believe is well intentioned and equally open to revising their beliefs if presented with appropriate reason and evidence. Response to Criticisms The first criticism Rancourt has is, “ Moen avoids the fact that the fears themselves are manipulated and manufactured by governments, and by corporate entities that also fund political parties. ” I also avoided the fact that gravity exists and keeps voters firmly planted on terra firma. It’s not so much that I avoided this f...
Read more