A fundamental idea affects people’s values and behavior. This shapes a society’s culture and politics and thereby determines the course of the nation. Fundamental ideas (i.e., philosophy) cause history.
The field of education must rest on an underlying philosophy. An objective foundation leads to teaching rational ideas based on observation of nature, on observable fact. We can demonstrate that one plus one equals two. We can show that there is a necessary order of learning by pointing out that you must first teach a child to count, then teach him addition and subtraction, then multiplication, then algebra. This is called hierarchy. If you switch the proper order, the logical hierarchy, when teaching a child, you destroy his ability to think rationally. He can only memorize the “facts” presented to him by the teaching authority. This is memorization, not true learning. This is how you indoctrinate a child.
Is your child being educated or indoctrinated? One test is understanding. Can your child explain why he believes something, or does he hold that “truth” as dogma, a belief without a rational explanation? Does he say that his reality is different than yours? Does he say that something is true for him, even if it is not true for you? Is he satisfied with an approximate answer to a math problem (fuzzy math) rather than insisting on an exact one? These are signs of subjectivity, not objectivity. The subjective is the opposite of the objective, full of irrational opinions but devoid of knowledge. Would you be comfortable in a rocket to the moon if you knew that the engineer who designed the rocket simply “guessed” at what he thought were the “right” answers? Does he even believe that there are right answers, or that they are just a matter of opinion?
The bottom line is whether or not your child can give a rational reason for what he believes. Does he understand logical hierarchy? Can he think logically? Does he understand cause and effect? Or does he assert that his opinion is valid simply because it is his opinion? The latter is blatantly subjective. It is a sign that he doesn’t really “know”. There is a big difference between knowledge and belief. One can be rationally defended, the other cannot.
Some current programs in Education like Common Core are so blatantly irrational that sensible parents are up in arms against it. Other programs are more subtle and insidious. They sneak-in the underlying ideas that will eventually lead America to a Statist-Collectivist tyranny. Many of you see that we are already well down that road.
If you control the educational system in a country, you control its political direction. This is the reason I am against government (public) education. All schools need to be private and completely free from government control. This is the only guarantee that education will be objective. Some schools will initially teach subjective lessons, but their students will be at a disadvantage in a free society. Competition will weed out students who cannot rationally validate their knowledge. Schools that do not teach reason will be lose to better competition. Only the better schools will flourish.
Please note that the underlying theme in the articles below is the importance of education, the importance of the ideas being taught or implied.
Obama, Ayers, and the Muslim Connection to Common Core
http://freedomoutpost.com/2015/08/obama-ayers-and-the-muslim-connection-to-common-core/
Gun Regulation, Mental Health, & Marxist Utopians…Oh My!
http://freedomoutpost.com/2015/08/gun-regulation-mental-health-marxist-utopians/
Statism 101: State-Run “Education” makes a State-Dependent Population