"How many Catholic schools do you think teach the students to question
the authority of the Pope? Do you believe Christian schools teach
students to question or challenge the authority of Jesus Christ?
Do military schools teach the cadets to challenge the authority
of superior officers? Well, why should we then expect government schools
to teach children to question the authority of government?"
by:
Neal Boortz
(1945- ) Radio talk show host, columnist
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Reader comments about this quote:
So true! So obvious! And yet so needed to be said! Public Education is the foundation of all lasting tyrannies. Does anyone wonder why Marx identified public education as one of the ten necessary attributes of Communism? Because without it people might get smart and throw off their Communist oppressors. By the same token, why has our government taken over the education system? Because otherwise people would throw off their oppressors in their supposedly free governments.
 -- Johnson, Gainesville, FL     
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    Johnson, said very very well.
     -- Mike, Norwalk     
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    That is why Hillary will do what she can to end home schooling.
     -- warren, olathe     
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    5 stars for accuracy, not for my approval of such a system. If we want a real education, we will have to study on our own. If we want freedom, we have to exercise Independence -- that is the responsibility required for liberty.
     -- E Archer, NYC     
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    And yet, those with a true mind of their own will learn under public education systems... but rarely under these other systems. Just because the weak minded fail under all of these systems, does not mean that the system that does teach questioning is a failure.
     -- Anonymous, Reston, VA US     
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    Neil Boortz is a flaming rightwinger who once tried passing himself off as a libertarian. He is wrong in dismissing public education as somehow stifling free thought. It does no such thing. How else does he think that he and I and millions of others became independent thinkers?
     -- A.Jurgensen, Stuart, FL     
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    I went to a public school that still taught the Constitution and the Constitution requires you to question the government.
     -- Mary, Largo     
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    I am a victim of a public school education, and I am continually trying to overcome that handicap. I applaud all the rest of you who are as well by taking the initiative and teaching yourselves. It seems that some have a little more learning to do than others, however............"A professor is a mediocrity that is an expert on the works of great men."---Ellis Washington.
     -- Ken, Allyn, WA     
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    I went to school in the 50's and 60's and we were taught to question the government and were taught as well the constitution. You had to learn how the constitution and government worked to graduate high school. The down slide started in the early 60's when prayer was eliminated in school by the Supreme Court’s ACLU types. Prayer in and of itself doesn’t mean much in the school but it was the first step towards the removal of any type of moral instruction in the class room. Now you are taught that morality is up to your personal preference and truth is what ever you decide it is. Our system of government was created for a moral populace and will not function as originally designed with out strong moral character being its cornerstone. Destroying the moral fiber of the country was Roger Baldwin's first step towards bringing this country to Communism (his stated goal for his organization - the ACLU).
     -- warren, olathe     
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    I went to public school and I learned that if you are a conservative you have to be better prepared in discussions and had to have much more well researched and supported papers to get the A I was looking for. I think some of that is human nature...when you agree with the paper you are reading, it is harder to notice if the claims are not supported. But it certainly was not the intention of the teachers to strengthen my conservatism through opposition to it.
     -- Dana, Lincoln     
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    very true
     -- Anonymous     
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     -- Anonymous      
    I, too, was educated in government school in the 50s and 60s, and I agree with warren, olathe's comment 100 per cent. I give this comment a five star.
     -- James, Crossville, TN     
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    The Boortz quotation is a non-sequitur at best. Parochial schools, whether Catholic or other, and military academies are by definition rigidly authoritarian and demand personal submission of one form or another to that authority. All public education offers a more open forum for free discourse, critical thinking, and challenge to authority. My public school education, in the Midwest, graduating HS in 1967, was a model of such freedom and liberty, as was my public university undergrad & grad setting . Further, the comments of Warren, Olathe in re ACLU are factually wrong.
     -- Citizen J, Peoria IL     
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    Ditto, Johnson of Gainesville, FL!!!
     -- Byron, Fort Collins     
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    5 Stars to the truth of the quote, thumbs down to indoctrinating children.
     -- J Carlton, Calgary     
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    Mary,Largo, I think you miss Boortz' point. He 's suggesting that you would be stupid to expect government schools to teach school children to question government authority.
     -- jim k, Austin, Tx     
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     -- Anonymous, Reston, VA, US      
    When JFK started the Dept. of Education it spurred even more federal interferrence into state and local affairs. Our education system has become POLITICAL. No more needs to be said for the fall of it.
     -- cal, lewisville, tx     
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    I graduated in 65. I liked saying the pledge of allegiance to the flag. I liked bowing my head for silent prayer. I liked my Economics class & Civics & 2nd year algebra. I didn't like World History because we had a class of 80 in the firing range & a little new teacher that couldn't teach or control the class. I should have went to College. But would I have been indoctrinated by a bunch of Liberals. Something tells me I would have and I would have quit. My brothers & sisters went to college. All my cousins on my Dad's side went to college. One of them tried to make a profession out of going to school. He is a complete Liberal & almost intolerable.
     -- Anonymous, USA     
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    A pretty good quote as far as it goes, but incomplete in the sense that Boortz fails to delve into the important subject of what Jewish schools teach their students. Which is patterned along the lines that as "Gods chosen people", who's duty it is to rule over the nations of the earth, they must strive to become the commanding officers and the high government officials who's authority is beyond question.
     -- carroll price, waynesboro, georgia     
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    In the Hindu-Indian Teaching-Learning Prescriptions it is stipulated that .."The Master shall wish that his students surpass him in Learning"...Shishyaad Ichchet Parajayam.. 
     -- Vedapushpa, Bangalore - India     
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    It would be foolish to do otherwise. would it not ? 
     -- Ronw13, OR     
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    Love it!
     -- E Archer, NYC     
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    I went to several schools in the 60's & 70's, public, parochial, private.  The greatest shift was from a Catholic elementary school in the north east to a public school in the deep south.  History was taught differently — I hadn't learned until then that it was the South that was fighting for their sovereignty and that the North had been the aggressor.  There was indeed more emphasis on the Constitution than in the northern schools.  But the rest of the education system in the South was abysmal.  Schooling in the 80's & 90's took a noticeable turn and by the year 2000, George Orwell's 1984 couldn't have predicted it any better.  'Education' is liberalism almost exclusively now.

    I later switched to a private prep school for a more formal education in the 'classics.'  Of course, we had to pay for those programs and facilities.  Most every graduate would continue to university, where they would pay much more.  But times have changed, and most private schools receive subsidies from government in exchange for promoting the government's interests.  As with any good idea eventually, education has become a racket.  The truth is not broadcast, it must be sought after.
     -- E Archer, NYC     
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