Review: Public Education against America

reviewed by T. C. Pinckney                                                                      Vol. XX, No. 6, June/July 2007

In short, an excellent and convincing book. Marlin Maddoux (1933-2004), the well-known radio talk show host, recounts how he became convinced of the major failings of our government schools and cites many, many striking examples drawn from personal accounts, frequently of people who called in to his show whose accounts he checked and then often had as his on-air guests.

In the first sections of the book Maddoux gives the background of some of the shapers of American government schools. But because of John Dewey’s overwhelming influence, still dominant today, I quote extensively from pages 97 and 98:

  It’s important to note that Dewey was an atheist and a socialist who fit the mold of other atheistic socialist engineers of his time. He was effusive in his praise of Vladimir Lenin in Russia and believed that socialism was the ideal organization for society. Like the communist dictator, he believed that the goal of public education was to bring about “state consciousness.” He and his socialist friends knew that, in order to get the masses to turn their backs on freedom and embrace socialism, they would have to revolutionize the entire educational system.

To accomplish their goals, Dewey knew they would have to de-emphasize traditional education and concentrate on the children's beliefs and values. It was more important to condition children to conform to the wishes of the government than to educate them to think as individuals. Reflecting his determination that education would no longer be about educating the mind or teaching useful skills to individuals, Dewey wrote this in his essay "My Pedagogic Creed":

I believe that the social life of the child is the basis of concentration, or correlation, in all his training and growth ... I believe, therefore, that the true center of correlation on the school subjects is not science, not literature, nor history, nor geography, but the child's social activities.

!t was under Dewey's influence and guidance that American education was redirected from teaching educational basics such as reading, writing, and math to the new goal of shaping social values. Believing that basic education for the masses was a barrier to socialism, some of Dewey's disciples actually praised illiteracy as a way to more easily bring about the desired societal changes.

Contempt for Christianity

John Dewey was defiant in declaring his contempt for the very concept of God. He wrote in Teacher Magazine in 1933, "There is no God and there is no soul. Hence, there are no needs for the props of traditional religion. With dogma and creed excluded, the immutable truth is also dead and buried. There is no room for fixed, natural laws or moral absolutes."

But Dewey was not content to stop with mere criticism of Christianity; he wanted to see it disappear from the face of the earth. In its place, he wanted to see a new materialist religion in which mankind was venerated instead of God. Reflecting the same German philosophies that gave rise to the Nazi and communist movements, Dewey declared that the State would be god, the public schools would be the church, and the teachers would be the prophets. In fact, he commissioned public schools teachers to spread the message of a new religion, leading them to believe that they were the vanguard of a new civilization. Just so you won't think I'm making this up, let me give you his exact words. Dewey wrote in "Mr Pedagogic Creed,"

Every teacher should realize the dignity of his calling; that he is a social servant set apart for the maintenance of proper social order and the securing of the right social growth. In this way, the teacher is always a prophet of the true God and the usherer of the true kingdom of God."

And remember, John Dewey has probably had greater influence on government education in America than any other individual.

My recommendation: Read Public Education against America. It is an easy read but thoroughly convincing.

[Marlin Maddoux, Public Education against America (Whitaker House, New Kensington, PA, 2006) 287 pp.]