The backdrop of the Obama address to the schoolkids

Actually, isn't there a side of U.S. public schools as envisioned in the 1800s and early 1900s that is ripe for questioning and even rejection or repair? The social Darwinists or reform Darwinists, or whatever these social engineers are called, were trying to figure out a way to rapidly change a population, even applying the manufacturing assemblyline method to human beings in order to create a homogeneous consumer market for propaganda of all kinds.

The idea AT ITS WORST really did smack of a grand plan to separate children from the circle of family and family influence and family participation and family continuity (few if any hours left in the day for a child to help with, learn from the family's business/work/farm, etc.). The result is a child molded to have more connection to the institutions of the state and business world than to the family institution. Afterall, the school substitute for family is only a temporary 'community' for the child.

Actually, isn't there a side of U.S. public schools as envisioned in the 1800s and early 1900s that is ripe for questioning and even rejection or repair? The social Darwinists or reform Darwinists, or whatever these social engineers are called, were trying to figure out a way to rapidly change a population, even applying the manufacturing assemblyline method to human beings in order to create a homogeneous consumer market for propaganda of all kinds.

The idea AT ITS WORST really did smack of a grand plan to separate children from the circle of family and family influence and family participation and family continuity (few if any hours left in the day for a child to help with, learn from the family's business/work/farm, etc.). The result is a child molded to have more connection to the institutions of the state and business world than to the family institution. Afterall, the school substitute for family is only a temporary 'community' for the child.

When I first read about this stuff, I was surprised, as I was smack dab in the school institution and enjoyed all the learning it makes possible. But the school is not necessarily a 'community' that one participates in building and remains a part of (even if one does go into education as a profession). Schools are indeed an institutional SURROGATE for what one is expected to enter when school ends: The corporate-created institutions of higher learning, business and commerce, and the state institutions of bureaucracy and military.

Like I said, when I first read about this, it was not understandable. But it became clearer when suddenly school was "over". That's when one realizes it all is not about learning itself, but what the powerful institutions outside school want you to learn.

Unfortunately, if the Left is unwilling to acknowledge the history of our schools, the Right is not so squeamish. (This could be the source of the gap in the current polarization.)

This issue is kept alive today in the awful aspects of what has happened to public schools via the removal of 1/ civics and 2/ art and 3/ vocational classes from the curriculum, and also (and most disgustingly) the domination of textbook content by a few (like that faction in Texas), and as a moneystream for Bush Crime Family schemes via their "testing" scam called "No Child Left Behind". Oh, and add to that the attempt to remove biology via the assault on reproduction/sex education and 'evolution'. Now the school envisioned as a "factory" is not only standarizing its assemblyline 'product', but the 'product' is showing numerous additional defects.

Asking why the society's institutions outside school want a student/graduate (product) devoid of artistic aesthetics and training, vocational skills and governmental/community understanding can only lead to musings about a greater sinister game taking place. Because these three areas have so much to do with a one's sense of self expression and independence; without them one becomes a mere 'consumer' in a Consumer Culture. However, with these one is equipped to be a citizen in one's community (from civics), make one's own art (from art classes), and barter one's way to make a living in a pinch (vocational training). And to remove an understanding of biology/nature too?! Here one is heading into some kind of creepy sci-fi culture where a Corporate Theocracy of Technology overwhelms everything else! Indeed, if huge numbers of Americans are expected to 'languish' unemployable, why make them 'products' of any viable education whatsoever? Contemplating the answer to this is additionally disturbing, and takes one into substandard schools in poverty-ridden areas and inner city ghettos -- and the possibility that there is an approach that says, "Why bother? Why invest? We don't need an unemployable class that's educated." Contemplating this makes one grapple with the possible lack of values here that learning and education are not respected and valued for their role in bringing richness and meaning to the lives of individual humans, that education only has worth if it results in eventual profits for those who rule.

Our President Obama is really good at instilling "hope" and I think our kids could use some too, because we know they are viscerally picking up a lot of adult stress right now in this Bushcession, and these kids need all the inspirational direction they can get. I would feel more hopeful if, in conjunction with a peptalk to the kids, Obama were simultaneously going to present to us adults a plan to REPAIR (and, Heaven help us -- rename) "No Child Left Behind", to RESTORE civics, art and vocational classes, and to RENEW an understanding of biology on the human level (organic farming, green living low-tech, human health like wholesome food and responsible personal hygiene of all kinds (human reproductive understanding would be just one of many ways of choosing to be responsible and hygienic), applied appreciation of the natural world, skills in reforestation and habitat restoration, and so on).

The point is, our school system is a means of cultural indoctrination. It was conceived that way and if we deny that source, how can we ever use it applying ethics or change it to become something better?

Obama needs to take this challenge presented by the Rightwing Culture War Crowd and, rather than REACTING to it defensively, to take it as a springboard for transforming our schools. Dang it, if Bush could use the Federal funding system to paralyze and regress our public school system, Obama should be able to step in to reverse that damage and more! That's what presidential leadership is about.