"Where suspicion fills the air and holds scholars in line for fear of their jobs, there can be no exercise of the free intellect. Supineness and dogmatism take the place of inquiry. A problem can no longer be pursued to its edges. Fear stalks the classroom. The teacher is no longer a stimulant to adventurous thinking; she becomes instead a pipe line for safe and sound information. A deadening dogma takes the place of free inquiry. Instruction tends to become sterile; pursuit of knowledge is discouraged; discussion often leaves off where it should begin."
by:
William O. Douglas
(1898-1980), U. S. Supreme Court Justice
Source:
Adler v. Board of Education, 1951
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Reader comments about this quote:
A perfect explination of socializim,or communizim. There is never, a stronger thing than the truth, it passes all lines, crosses all boundries, makes evil men run, and leads the free. Sometimes, people only seek the truth, when things get tough. Such is it now. The forefathers, sought, and found it, and found it to be good, and instituted it.
 -- Kimo, U S A     
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    One of the reasons most of 'education' is in fact indoctrination. Once conditioned to obedience to 'authority', the sheeple are more easily fleeced.
     -- E Archer, NYC     
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    That case (teacher tenure) was decided wrongly. A teacher is not a scholar. They have no higher rank than a gardener. And like a gardener, they provide a service to a customer. Customers determine the content of the service just as much as the provider. The word scholarship is nebulous enough to intimidate the parent into relinquishing control of how a child should be raised; you hand the future to whoever decides what scholarship is. Is it what the state says? The union? Or should it be more like the way art and fashion are decided; an intricate and beautiful dance of customer and provider where both are equally free in finding a different partner?
     -- Walter Clark, Fullerton     
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    Not shooting the messenger, the over all message rings accurate. The occupying statist theocracy infesting this land, with its seminaries (government schools) ecclesiastical propagators (MSM) as well as the rest of the prognosticators of totalitarian religionist's (pc) diacetylmorphine hold truth, intellect expansion, and free speech at bay, hostage or in a completely unknown realm so that, their dogma of choice becomes the adhered to national establishment of religion.
     -- Mike, Norwalk     
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     -- jim k, austin      
    Like to touch on the last clause by the judge. I've written thousands of posts with a pretty fair original, in quality, flair.  I believe it's been frustrating for many wondering where these thoughts originate. Anyone of my so called "mentors" I've conversed with in the past, as in the present, and being aware of their identity, the conversation as I tried to listen intently, stupidly as it turned out as it turned out, maybe involving myself in an hour long or two diatribe was as the judge alluded, my interviewee talking excessively in a very long erratic circle to no apparent conclusion being reasonably drawn.
    Those, on the other hand, "listening" where just in attendance just looking for a vulnerability to exploit. I get the original portion, which much of my input humbly entails, pure originality, of my posts, "because they tried that in Russia," China, Cuba, or wherever, was not in the least true, from my own sincere heartfelt sensitivities, my heart.  Socialism is the challenge of socialized behavior to create the Socialist. 
     -- Fredrick William Sillik, Anytown     
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