John Adams Quote 

"Children should be educated and instructed in the principles of freedom."

by:
John Adams
(1735-1826) Founding Father, 2nd US President
Source:
"Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America," 1787
http://www.constitution.org/jadams/ja1_00.htm
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Reader comments about this quote:
Today,I think that children are getting instructed in the principals of involuntary servitude to a system that no longer works towards or for the best interests of it's people.Of Life,Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness,ask yourself:What is their state of health in 21st century America? It's Very Sad.
 -- Guess Who?		 
Today,I think that children are getting instructed in the principals of involuntary servitude to a system that no longer works towards or for the best interests of it's people.Of Life,Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness,ask yourself:What is their state of health in 21st century America? It's Very Sad.
 -- Guess Who?		 
Our 14 y/o boy says that they don't "teach" us how to think. They tell us what to think and ask us to regurgitate it for the tests....bright boy!. He learns a few things at home though. :) Its a strong argument for home schooling as we can expect that a "state" education is designed to produce little "loyalists", and not free thinkers or free men.
 -- J Carlton, Calgary		 
State schooling seemed to work well in Nazi Germany, and Carl Marx was all in favor of it. We now have a system of public "education" that's so bad that it requires remedial reading classes in our colleges.
 -- jim k, austin,tx		 
Well if this quote wasn't ignored there would be no state education, complimentary of this: "People have it generally in their power to communicate their ideas to their children; but they are still better able to transfuse their passions...." -- Baron de Montesquieu; "The Spirit Of The Laws" Pg. 6/7 "Book IV: Of Education In A Republican Government." -- "The Portable Enlightenment Reader. (Penguin Books)" Pg(s). 410 & 411.
 -- Gölök Zoltán Leenderdt Franco Buday, Vancouver, GVRD(Paine Cnty), Coastal Lwr Mainland BC(State of Neo Sumer), U.S. of Eh!		 
Adam's concept is lost on today's propaganda ministers.
 -- Mike, Norwalk		 
Most of all that you guys and gals are saying was said about my schooling in the late '50's and look how great some of us turned out. Old folks criticizing the youth while bragging about their own experience as superior is nothing new. Carlton please read my blurb about Kindergarten in a comment to one of the other quotes. Basically history says that Kindergarten contrary to being a state propaganda machine was and is a methodology that creates in children a sense of initiative and self-directedness. Its' effects were so profound that it was outlawed by the Prussian government who preferred a traditional and regimented type of education..
 -- Waffler, Smith, Arkansas		 
BTW, the source for this quote, Defense of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America, 1787, is excellent (link above). It should end the rhetoric about a Democracy v. a Republic -- in this 'treatise' Adams looks at many different republican forms of government. It is a brilliant work.
 -- E Archer, NYC		 
Children should be educated in the principles of freedom, primarily by their parents and then by themselves. The government schools certainly have no interest in teaching them freedom.
 -- Ken, Allyn, WA		 
Ken what do you think about a scenario where several groups of parents work together and take turns in teaching all of their children at the same time. You know modern America was built on separation of labor. The group of parents might even hire one or the other of the parents to teach permanently. I mean the view of each parent having to retreat to their long house several evenings a week and the various families never talking to each other about these things is quite a spectacle to contemplate.
 -- Waffler, Smith, Arkansas		 
A co-operative educational system is just fine, as long as each parent has the option to withdraw their children from it.
 -- Ken, Allyn, WA		 
I think withdrawal is okay as long as the parent educates their child up to an acceptable standard. I suggest that is exactly what we now have. All parents are free to send their child to a private school or perform home schooling or to avail themselves of the co-operative schools run by the local school board, or start a new school as long as they all meet acceptable standards.
 -- Waffler, Smith, Arkansas		 
 -- warren, olathe 
 -- eufemia lina, corella,bohol 
children are being educated too much but i still think that children should be educated because its their right to be educated. children have to be educated because they can move into better high schools and get a job what they wanted to be
 -- maisha, london		 
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