Education or Indoctrination (What have we learned?)     Karl Marx wrote about education in his manifesto over 150 years ago (1). The further you look into the idea that education holds the key to controlling the masses, remember one thing: Children are raised from sunrise to sunset in many cases, knowing their school system better than their parents. This leads to a fundamental self-to reader question: My God, what have we let happen all of these years? Maybe I can relate to Neil in the movie The Matrix, when Morpheus asks him “the blue pill or the red pill?”, finally waking up to what’s been going on. What you are about to read is the introduction to what I hope will lead you to the right pill, so you too can see the disaster in the making. You will need to think outside the box, reading what the PSC site has to offer. Connect the dots, read the articles, and question the maxims you have been taught. My perspective comes from being a NYC teacher for ten years. If there is one thing which I have learned, it is that the Progressive (Marxist) education machine is more entrenched than ever before. The culmination of 100 years of systematic control is almost complete, with the “Race to the Top” agenda (4) of Obama and his merry band of socialists. The program is part of the "spread your wealth" economic recovery act (How is this supposed to create jobs anyway?Governments don't create jobs... private enterprise does!).   If we let it, the end will see the federal government in total control of what your child receives from kindergarten to college, how much a teacher gets paid, how swift the penalties will be on you as a parent, when you don’t comply with “Big Brother”, etc. The focus model for this article will be the New York City school system… the epitome of social failure.  To further the point, New York State is financially broke. The “welfare” state spends more than it receives in revenue: This told, the only alternative is to take handouts from the federal government, which is all too happy to print more, with the state education department an eager recipient. With jobs at a loss and taxes skyrocketing, people have moved out of New York, as evidenced by the population decline and subsequent loss of one Congressional House Seat (2). Many teachers in The NYC school system have told me they too would exit the system as soon as possible, if it were not for the economic downturn. They are forced to bid the doing of a failed system, putting up with over crowed class rooms, less overhead from the system, out of control social statistics (students & neighborhood), and an ever burdensome mandate of regulations (Obama’s “race to the top” being the latest, enticing compliance with federal money). Subsequently, they are threatened with the loss of job security (tenure is being eroded in favor of impossible mandated accountability), having to comply with a system, against what many have stated is completely flawed and failing, facing the prospect of a limited job market in the event of finding another career. New York is not alone in this most egregious of socialistic schemes.  Though public education started out as noble concept, the original intent by Thomas Jefferson, after analysis, to keep people informed and aware of government, to question leaders and keep them honest, was corrupted and hijacked by the Progressives. Just like the hijacking of the Democratic Party, Progressives have taken the reigns of public education to further their cause of total government control. Many NYC schools serve as soup kitchens and day care centers, further highlighting the focus on the “cradle-to-grave” ideology of socialism. After all, your big cities are the model of social engineering, right? Therefore, the education systems they promote should also be a model, right? The unfortunate truth is the big cities are a socialist-progressive failure and emphasize that failed ideology right down to the education systems they foster.   The following quotes by Thomas Jefferson give an insight into his idea of what public education should have been: "A system of general education, which shall reach every description of our citizens from the richest to the poorest, as it was the earliest, so will it be the latest of all the public concerns in which I shall permit myself to take an interest." (to Joseph C. Cabell, 1818) "Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day . . . . I believe it [human condition] susceptible of much improvement and most of all, in matters of government and religion; and that the diffusion of knowledge among the people is to be the instrument by which it is effected." (to Dupont de Nemours, April 24, 1816) For now, let’s start with the grand re-distributor himself. Karl Marx wrote in his Manifesto the following: Free education for all children in public schools. Abolition of children's factory labor in its present form. Combination of education with industrial production. The following is quoted and can be found at <http://www.libertyzone.com/Communist-Manifesto-Planks.html> [Americans are being taxed to support what we call 'public' schools, but are actually "government force-tax-funded schools " Even private schools are government regulated. The purpose is to train the young to work for the communal debt system. We also call it the Department of Education, the NEA and Outcome Based "Education". These are used so that all children can be indoctrinated and inculcated with the government propaganda, like "majority rules", and "pay your fair share". WHERE are the words "fair share" in the Constitution, Bill of Rights or the Internal Revenue Code (Title 26)?? NO WHERE is "fair share" even suggested!! The philosophical concept of "fair share" comes from the Communist maxim, "From each according to their ability, to each according to their need! This concept is pure socialism. ... America was made the greatest society by its private initiative WORK ETHIC ... Teaching ourselves and others how to "fish" to be self sufficient and produce plenty of EXTRA commodities to if so desired could be shared with others who might be "needy"... Americans have always voluntarily been the MOST generous and charitable society on the planet.]   The rapid advance of “social” education was taken to the next level early in the 19th century with the founding of The Progressive Education Association in 1919, by John Dewey and his band of humanists (3). From this point on, the only “race to the top” has been how fast the Progressives can complete total control of the education system. One of the ways which they carry out this progressive mandate is: Schools can’t survive without federal Dollars and the regulations accompanying them, the American federation of teachers, and The NEA... we will go more into detail during later articles on these. The agenda of this article is to give a general summary of the history of public education and what subjects we will approach in detail. There are teacher testimonials, data, and cross-referenced articles from other writers showing how the above is true. I will expose many of the lies you are being fed by school boards and the government, showing in real life the stark contrast between what is shown and what is really happening! Next: Social Promotion (a Progressives dream comes true) Jeff Bruzzo   Citations: 1.  < Marx and Engle, "Communist manifesto"> 2.   http://gothamist.com/2007/12/28/slow_population.php> 3.   http://www.oise.utoronto.ca/research/edu20/moments/1919pea.html> 4.   http://www2.ed.gov/policy/gen/leg/recovery/implementation.html>