Is 'education' a misnomer?

To the editor: Lately we have been reading about the scandalous behavior of U-46's superintendent and now we have District 211 teachers asking for more money. Meanwhile in the background we are continually told we need to spend ever and ever increasing amounts of money so that the schools can provide only the highest level of education possible. Because we certainly must not let "the children" suffer from inadequate funding. But is this really the case? Let's look at our history. (For all recent graduates this is the study of past events.)

The Rockefeller's General Education Board (1906) when referring to the general populace said: "We shall not try to make these people or any of their children into philosophers or men of learning or men of science." To this end by design school curriculums were slowly changed to allow lower standards, a procedure that is still going on today. The long-term goal of those in power was that there should be two cases of people, the elite and the workers, the goal being that an uneducated individual is much easier to control. Thus the graduate who is barely able to read his diploma becomes a person who can easily be told what to do and what to think. They will believe how lucky they are to have a dull boring job, and that they must not question authority.

It would seem that the dumbing down of America is working quite well. From the "Army Admissions Tests" Illiteracy in:

1900s was 2 percent

1940s it was 4 percent.

1950s it was 19 percent.

1970s it was 27 percent.

It appears that our current education system is working just the way it was planned. If you approve, then by all means keep those nickels and dimes rolling in. They will certainly take all that you have to give them and then ask for more -- all the while telling how dedicated they are to providing your child with the proper education.

Richard Gideon

Schaumburg