Speaking of the public school (D) system...

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redrumloa

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Dad Furious After Finding This Crayon-Written Paper in Florida 4th-Grader’s Backpack: ‘I Am Willing to Give Up Some of My Constitutional Rights…to Be Safer’

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They're the words that Florida father Aaron Harvey was stunned to find his fourth-grade son had written, after a lesson in school about the Constitution.

Aaron Harvey's son wrote as part of a school lesson, "I am willing to give up some of my constitutional rights in order to be safer or more secure." TheBlaze has redacted the child's name.

Harvey's son attends Cedar Hills Elementary in Jacksonville, Fla. Back in January, a local attorney came in to teach the students about the Bill of Rights. But after the attorney left, fourth-grade teacher Cheryl Sabb dictated the sentence to part of the class and had them copy it down, he said.
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well, that's florida :D

no one seems to know for sure what happened in that school - but if the parents are doing their job no school can "brainwash" a student
 
In a sense, the sole purpose of a school is for brainwashing students. Considering this is a public school I'd say your political system is in a sorry state.
Here many public schools give media trainings to show students what kind of techniques there are being used by the media to manipulate them.
In the UK, students have to discuss subjects and have to take a position they do not necessarily agree with.
If you want to beat the freedom drum, you Americans should have introduced these kinds of 'brainwashing' well before any other country.
 
“math” problem in the fifth-grade “Everyday Math” textbook:
A. If math were a color, it would be –, because –.
B. If it were a food, it would be –, because –.
C. If it were weather, it would be –, because –.

 
@Metalman, Thanks for the reminder that Constructivism = 'No Child Left Behind'
 
metalman said:
“math” problem in the fifth-grade “Everyday Math” textbook:
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Yes, I've noticed this sort of stuff in math texts. Fundamentally I don't see anything wrong in this sort of number play except that you need to spend some time relating the play to why stuff works and then spend the bulk of the time on best practices. To many options is a big source of confusion for kids and once they are confused they zone out and aren't there when you show them the "good" way of working the problem.

On the other hand, it's true - if you are adding/subtracting/dividing/multiplying numbers a lot these days you will be using a machine of some kind to get the answers. There is a difference, of course, between mathematics and arithmetic.
 
What a polarizing topic education is. The fact that both the politically-left and politically-right thinkers have a long list of issues with the education system indicates to me that the education system is probably on the right track. It's one of those things that can't possibly please everyone so the right metric to shoot for is to make sure everyone is equally unhappy.

As for brainwashing, it's not that easy. Conformity just doesn't really exist anywhere. Even in a place like North Korea we know that North Koreans have a vibrant black market based on the exchange of Chinese and South Korean goods, much of which is entertainment based like music and movies. The North Koreans know better than anyone else the lies they are fed by their government because they actually do see what it is they are missing and they know what's going on when the lies don't match the facts. In Western culture we're appalled by the very thought of conformity mainly because we value individuality - but it's not a universal virtue. Meaning, it's a learned trait taught to us by the system that is apparently putting all it's energy into our conformity. Sure conformity exists even in the West, but it's certainly not the West's defining feature. And conformity can be good when it's not coerced.
 
Glaucus said:
What a polarizing topic education is. The fact that both the politically-left and politically-right thinkers have a long list of issues with the education system indicates to me that the education system is probably on the right track. It's one of those things that can't possibly please everyone so the right metric to shoot for is to make sure everyone is equally unhappy.
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It's interesting the European parties support the Gov paying for University education. In the US it appears it's become a big business.
 
Glaucus said:
In Western culture we're appalled by the very thought of conformity mainly because we value individuality - but it's not a universal virtue.
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Today I expressed my individuality by parking my car in a non-conforming way. It cost me $80 to get it out of impound and I still owe $50 to the city for the ticket!
Conformity is just a matter of degrees. If you go with the crowd you won't notice what you can't do - it's when you think or say something different that you will find out just how much people value individuality. (Like when you contradict a politician at a public speech, get tazed by security and hauled off in cuffs to a beating outside - while said politician chuckles into the microphone, "isn't it great we have free speech". Every German was always free to show their love for Hitler and applaud his speeches.)
 
I did say conformity isn't bad so long as it's not coerced. Bringing up Hitler in the context of schools is a bit suspect as Hitler didn't waste his time trying to educate the Germans, he just straight up bullied them.

Looking up "conform" in a thesaurus you're likely to see words like "accommodate", "harmonize" and "reconcile" which are all important words for people to understand if they wish to live productively along side other humans. I guess what I'm trying to say is that the word "conform" has a bit of a negative connotation although undeserved much like other words such as "compromise", "socialism" or "liberal".
 
Glaucus said:
I did say conformity isn't bad so long as it's not coerced. Bringing up Hitler in the context of schools is a bit suspect as Hitler didn't waste his time trying to educate the Germans, he just straight up bullied them.
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It's always fun to bring up Hitler, in fact Godwin's law requires it. However, Hitler didn't need to coerce people as much as he needed to create followers who were willing to coerce people. In the end it wasn't that many people who needed to be coerced ... unless you count those people in the prison camps and everybody knew they didn't count. Most of the Germans just wanted to be good Germans and being told that they were better than everyone else was all they really needed. Go along to get along - the motto of the coerced.
 
@Glaucus,

One thing I've learned from my kids is how innate mathematics can be. My daughter just turned 5. She can do addition and subtraction. However, she doesn't know those words or the concepts of what's going on, for numbers about 12 and under. For example: She's good at figuring out that Dad's 2 toys and her 6 toys will make a pile of 8 toys. Or that if we have 10 apples and she eats one, her brother eats one, and I eat one there will be 7 left for visitors. Enjoy playing with your kids. It's awesome as they become people and interact with the world.
 
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