It's easier to lead and to dominate those who have been taught to follow and who have been taught not to think. This becomes an institutionalized doctrine of stupidity and of follow the leader for the undertaught masses when the entire educational system is designed to teach people to not think on their own, but instead to naively and blindly follow the leader. This has been the brand of American education since the beginning of the 20th century.
There is nothing wrong with American teachers. There is something wrong with the system they teach within.
American teachers are as much at the mercy of the system as are the students they teach.
We continuously bemoan and criticize teachers for putting out a shoddy product yet we refuse to provide them the tools necessary to do so.
A maxim states "the definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over and expect different results." Isn't this what we are doing with the system? Isn't this what we are doing with students? Isn't this what we are doing with teachers?
If we truly seek to graduate individuals able to think, decide and act and take their place responsibly in society, we must address the reasons why this isn't happening now. It was happening, it did happen - in the one room schoolhouse.
This may be an extreme example, yet it worked. Perhaps we should study what made it work and bring those elements and concepts into the present. At the turn of the century, calculus was being taught to 7th grade students. The text they were using was by Silvanus Thomson; "Calculus Made Easy" which, regardless of the title, certainly wasn't easy.
If this advanced education could be taught in small little schoolhouses across the country a hundred years ago, why can't we do it today? It's not the teachers who are at fault. Nor, in a sense, is it even the system. Those who know the truth know better. Our schools are turning out dumbdowned individuals intentionally because those who have power want to keep it and an educated population would threaten their hold on power and perhaps even change the world for the better - for the good of all. It is possible, it can be done, but those who hold the reins of power won't permit that to happen.
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