Working as Planned

I have pointed out the “failings” of the “public education” system for many years, noting that they’re only failings if the actual goal of the system is to actually educate. It’s obviously not. At its actual goals it’s succeeding beyond the wildest expectations of its creators.

Back in 2004 John Ringo published his novel “The Road to Damascus.” I saved an excerpt from that novel that seems appropriate here:

“(The party) is composed of two tiers. The lower tier produces many outspoken members who make their demands known to the upper tier. The lower tier is derived from the inner-city population that serves as the base of the party. The lower tier’s members are generally educated in public school systems and if they aspire to advanced training, they are educated in facilities provided by the state. This wing constitutes the majority of (the party’s) membership, but contributes little or nothing to party theory or platform. It votes the party line and is rewarded with cash payments, subsidized housing, subsidized education, and occasional preferential employment in government positions. The lower tier provides only a handful of clearly token individuals allowed to serve in high offices.

“The upper tier, which includes most of the party’s management, virtually all the appointed and elected government officials, and all of the party’s decision-makers, is drawn exclusively from suburban areas where wealth is a fundamental criterion for admittance as a resident. These party members are generally educated at private schools and attend private colleges. They are not affected by food-rationing schemes, income caps or taxation laws, as the legislation drafted and passed by members of their social group inevitably contains loopholes that effectively shelter their income and render them immune from unpleasant statues that restrict the lives of lower-tier party members and all nonparty citizens.

“(The party) leadership recognizes that in return for supporting a seemingly populist agenda, they can obtain all the votes they require to remain in power. Even the most cursory analysis of their actions and attitudes, however, indicates that they are not populists but, in fact, are strong antipopulists who actively despise their voting base. This…is proven by their efforts to reduce public educational systems to a level most grade-school children (in other countries) have surpassed, with the excuse that this curriculum is all that the students can handle. They have made the inner-city population base totally dependent on the government, which they control.”

Exhibit 90,145:

City student passes 3 classes in four years, ranks near top half of class with 0.13 GPA

8 thoughts on “Working as Planned

  1. It is not only Baltimore obviously, I did gig as a substitute teacher in Jersey City, NJ and found that they were not interested in teaching just social promotion. There was a kid in the 4th grade who could not read but was interested as he was into gaming and could only read the pictures of the gaming magazines. I showed him how much more information there was in the written part and he was excited. But try to get him some individual help – forget it. That would require someone to actually care and I was there only a few days.

  2. And furthermore, the deck is entirely stacked against the many principled teachers who sincerely value advancing their charge’s capabilities.
    ———–
    Ultimately, societies are driven by the cast iron facts of the bell curve: The bottom 15% are literally unable to generate any economic value, and will literally die if no one intervenes. The top 15% will always be massively outnumbered, will always be key to 80%+ of the productivity, and will always have the lions share of the wealth. In a democratic context, the bloc carved out by bribing the bottom 50% + 1 will prevail in any electoral contest, even if it’s “fair”. This is why in America, the outcome of electoral contests always pivot around the 6% of the “centrists”, who explicitly believe that the bottom tail of the distro should be bribed as a “safety net”, various details that adorn their particular version of that belief notwithstanding.

    1. “…The bottom 15% are literally unable to generate any economic value, and will literally die if no one intervenes…”

      I’ve long considered the percentage to be closer to 50, and for the more important point, I consider the coddling of our (mentally) weak, that’d be the “intervention,” bit, to be our greatest failure as a species. NO OTHER species does this.

      The cull needs to happen.

      1. “The cull needs to happen.”

        Wow. Eugenics, anyone? Are you going to go around giving Down’s Syndrome patients lethal injections? Or bullets? I did Nazi that coming.

        I read somewhere that Mary Leaky, the anthropologist, was asked what the first archeological evidence there was for civilization. Expecting an answer like “cities” or “agriculture” she said, instead, “compassion.” She gave as evidence the discovery of the burial of an old man who had obviously suffered – and recovered from – a badly broken thigh. She noted that the society in which he lived had to work very hard to take care of this man in order that he could recover, and after he recovered he was obviously not as useful as he had been.

        But they didn’t abandon him to die.

        If you’re in favor of a “cull,” get off my side.

        1. Kevin,

          No, that’s not what I mean, and I think you know that.

          There is a contingent of able people in this world who simply refuse to work, and insist on living off of others’ work.

          I’m sick of it.

  3. I can almost agree with Geek, with one small exception. I think there is a group around the center of the curve, maybe 5% either side of center that are the ‘independents’ that have to be swayed. They are at the top of the ‘public education’ curve, and tend to be small business owners or mid-level managers. So they know ‘enough’ to think for themselves, and know the real values of work and what it takes to succeed.

    1. Old NFO:

      I think that there is in fact a centrist bloc that matches your description: they have property at risk, and understand the value of work and reward & etc. They also don’t question a bunch of stuff, (like the value of public education, safety nets, the actual limits of ethical governance, etc etc etc) and so will not electorally sanction the radical action necessary to bring government run amok to heel. Because this radical action is not electorally palatable, it will never be placed on the electoral menu.

      And so, in conclusion, we’re not voting our way out of this, in part because of what I just illustrated, but also because captured institutions will not allow their own mechanisms be used for recapture.

  4. “He’s a good kid. He didn’t deserve that.” Said the mother who made no effort whatsoever to properly raise the eldest of her three children. The kid passed three classes in four years. He missed 270 of 720 school days. His GPA of 0.13 places him near the median of his peer group. This is typical for Bodymore, Murderland. The kids have little drive to learn, and the parents raise holy hell if little Le’monjello (along with his twin brother O’rangejello and sister Female – these are real names) get held back. On the rare occasion when a parent (almost always the mother or grandmother) shows up at school, they verbally and often physically threaten the teachers.

    Meanwhile, in nearby Mordor on the Potomac, back in the brief period when honest statistics were being published (they fired that administrator after just two years), just one in six kids who finish 8th grade will go on the graduate high school. And only 40% of the graduates can read at a 3rd grade level. A mere 15% of them can do math more complicated than adding single digits without a calculator.

    My daughter was molested by another student (black Muslim) while standing in line in the hallway in 3rd grade. The principal (black Muslim) blamed her. My son was the only white boy in his class at preschool and Kindergarten, and even the teacher picked on him. And we didn’t even live in the city.

    I’m so glad I could afford to move my family away from there after only two years.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *