Disinfo starts with schools

Hi, I created this thread because i was thinking about my experience in American public schools. And I was concerned that information is taught to young childeren that is either theoretical and being passed off as truth, or it is just flat out wrong. When I was in elementary school, i was taught that Christopher Columbus discovered America. I could understand schools teaching this in the late 1400's, but in the 1980's??? Now that I'm older and have learned alot more, I am aware of Vikings that are known to have traveled to North America. Even A chinese explorer, The Peri Reyes map, etc. As well as the most obvious fact there were already people here...So why was I taught Columbus discovered America? I was also taught about the Big-Bang and Evolution. Very interesting subjects to learn about, however they to this day are still being debated and are not fully accepted as universal truth. Theorical subjects were never presented as:
"Ok kids, today we're going to discuss theories that are not really 100 % prooven",
it was always presented in a way that made us all believe that it was prooven and true and that's how it is, learn it wheither you like it or not, or you'll fail the class.
when I was taught about George Washington, it was mostly rubbish about wooden teeth and a cherry tree, Can anyone else think of some things taught to childeren that probly shouldn't be considering we live in 2007 and know these things to be untrue? I'm mostly concerned because I am a father and my young child will soon be old enough to attend school.



[edit on 12-9-2007 by cynical572]

I left school in the early 80s and for the life of me I still don't know why we were taught the subjects we got. Fourth year history was crop rotation in the 15th century. ??? Logarithms, sine, cosine and tangent, I still have no idea what they are but they made me want to cry, and I never wanted to learn German. It's not that we were taught lies, it was just rubbish.Try home-school for you son. I can recommend some great web-sites.



[edit on 12-9-2007 by wigit]

Yeah I agree...but it wasn't like I was taught: "Christopher Columbus sailed into the West Indies, for several centuries he was credited for discovering America, but he really didn't." I was flat out taught he discovered America. I'm sure there's some other doozies too. But i guess the main point I wanted to get across is as you said "It's Rubbish" American schools have for a long time now been teaching rubbish. This is my humble opinion but as i said, my young child is almost old enough to attend school so i'm concerned.

I'm from Scotland and I remember being taught that Christopher Columbus discovered America too, and in modern studies I learned that an atom bomb killed the same amount of people you could fit into two football fields, or was it six? Sounds like we were taught the same bumph. Most of the stuff taught in schools nowadays is information to be remembered so that one can have a pass at the end of it all, so the teachers can show they've done their jobs. It's mostly useless information and I can honestly say I can't remember most of the stuff I was taught. I've learned far more since leaving school and I think it was a waste of about 12 years, in my opinion. As for reading and writing, I learned that before I went to school. The most important thing is that a child learns to read well, and reads often. The rest will take care of itself. A home-school kid learns to find the answers and the questions.

It starts with parents , media, other folks , etc. Schools aren't until they are 4 or 5 years old, I think. Before that time children learn quite a bit from non-school sources.

You're right Sytima it DOES start with parents and since children's mind's
can be easily manipulated its just very easy to make them believe what you want them to and then only a small percent actually grows up wanting to know the truth,huh that actually makes me kinda sad

Parents start it off, teaching the child a religion, telling them what's right, what's wrong. They tell their kids what the real world is like, what will and won't work.

Then school comes in. Filling the child's head with a bunch of trivia, and mostly worthless stuff that they will not use. I know tons of people who have even gone to colleges, and have worthless degrees that won't get them jobs, yet, they have some enormous debt that got them what? zilch and much less information on their major than they could have attained if they spent the same about on books, and travel. Ah, but they have a piece of paper that basically says "I'm smart now."

Then of course, there's media, everyone spreading the gospel on their own affiliation. Especially when politics get involved, yeesh.

Or if you join the military you are assulted with pure propaganda.

Then there's work, and the possibilities for disinfo that may exist there depending on the field you're in.

It's really a shame. From the moment we're born, everyone is programing us to think and feel a certain way. But who are these people? The same morons that were programed themselves?

Many people are well intentioned, however when someone looks for some insidious plot in life, it's easy to find one at every turn.

A long while ago I made a thread concerning school systems getting away with teaching things that are flatout untrue and students being unable to fix that.

I found that to be especially true in middle school and elementary school, and quite a bit into high school. But I've noticed something interesting happening lately in my area. As more and more people move in it's put a strain on the school system and as a result the schools have had to hire more teachers. I've noticed that the vast majority are younger than the previous generation of teachers. And oddly enough they've assigned quite a few of them to teach the junior/senior classes, possibly an effort to have teachers that can relate to the students better. And coolest of all, they've got them teaching the langauge arts and social studies classes. Everyone of the social studies teachers has been at my school less than three years but they're amazing at what they do.

During both my psychology class and the government class that I'm a teacher's aide for, we go through current events at the beginning of class. And there's been days where we've spent the entire day simply discussing and debating the current events. The best part is that the teachers really encourage debate and discussion. Sometimes if things get one sided they play devil's advocate a bit to keep the mind thinking, but they still remain very unbiased overall. Although they admit that they do have their own political leanings, no one can actually guess what they are since they do an excellent job of staying unbiased in class.

The other interesting thing is that if you sit and talk with them and chat they're very knowledgeable about the subject. Something that's nice about many of the newer teachers is that they remain enthusiastic about their job and don't have a problem having a discussion over various current events. Just the other day I had a good discussion with my gov teacher over China building up, and you'd think he does nothing but read the news he knows so much.

So I can't tell you if this applies to all schools, but younger teachers can be highly beneficial to the classes where it's good to have an open opinion. So a high growth area might not actually be that bad of a choice if you've got education in mind, particularly in high school.

Wow, great feed back, thanks...If you get a chance to link your old thread I'd love to check it out.... I think if schools taught in a manner that required "sources" like the way ATS is ran, more people would think for themselves and not just accept the first thing they're told. Also text books should make it very clear when some thing is nothing more than a popularly accepted guess, theory, and let it be known that that particular topic is not yet 100% understood. Kind of like how wikipedia pages tell you something isn't proven, although I'm just usinf wiki as an example i would definetly not recommend trusting everything from wiki but hopefully you get my point. I really think it would encourage people to more more effort into pursuing knowledge. It's almost to the point where no one wants to learn things any more because there's always some one else who can do the hard part and spoon feed you the jist of it. but when you blindly swallow everything other people feed you, it creates the opportunity to be "poisoned" (by misinfo). I strive to be the best parent I can and will definetly be VERY involved in her education.

Originally posted by cynical572
Hi, I created this thread because i was thinking about my experience in American public schools. And I was concerned that information is taught to young childeren that is either theoretical and being passed off as truth, or it is just flat out wrong.
[edit on 12-9-2007 by cynical572]

I guess younger children are likely to believe anything from their teachers. It's when you evertually grow up and start to questions "facts" that you start to develop the ability to start analysing problems and questions.
I go to a senior student in a public school in Australia and thats how it works here. I do agree that there are alot of rubbish being taught within many of these american schools.

School gave me zero education on what is important in life. The failed to provide me with:

Financial Education
Love & Sex Education
How to think independently
How to communicate
How to train my imagination & creativity


Instead they taught me nonsense like "Columbus discovered america". I applaud all those who flunked school but made it big time after school. School does not educate but indoctrinate. It produces corporate slaves, not free spirits or enterpreneurs.

Listen, Cynical, I understand where you're coming from, but here's where you can make a difference for your child. You can show your child how to be observant, perceptive and analytical.

School taught me that Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492. My dad told me about the Vikings. School taught me the named of the planets in our solar system. My dad bought me a big ole' animated picture book about the solar system that helped me to realize the bigger a planet is, the more you would weigh (gravity). Just two examples.

The school system sucks because it is run by the government. That's not to say the government is evil, the fact is that there's no incentive for educators to improve. If Ron Paul is elected president, he'd like to see the Department of Education dissolved and left to the private sector where schools would have more funds and motivation to teach what their parents support. At least that way i know what my children are being taught.

Until then, i think we all need to take an active role in the education of our youth. Teach them how to build on the things they learn in school to make their own conclusions. Teach them that there are answers elsewhere as well as in school.