TOS Review- IndoctriNation

Today I am reviewing IndoctriNation: Public Schools and the Decline of Christianity in America by Great Commission Films.

Sobering, eye-opening, educational, provocative.....

This documentary hit home for me.  I have undergraduate and graduate degrees in Education and taught in a "blue ribbon" public school before having my children.

Although discouraged then by the "system" and promising myself that my future children would never step within those walls, I learned so much from watching this program that college and my many years teaching never taught me.

Did you know that the structure of our current school systems today are based upon the Prussian Model (under Nazi control) and was originally proposed by Karl Marx?

The first mandatory public schools in this country were in the 1800s.  Their purpose was to train huge numbers of children as quickly as possible for factory work.  Quality was not an issue.  They produced a large number of students with the minimum amount of knowledge to get by.  Has much even changed?

The film was made by Scottish filmmaker Colin Gunn.  In it, he interviews everyone from scientists to pastors, teachers to superintendents and he got an earful about the American school system.  There were students who candidly told him that even in the "best" of schools, they were exposed to drugs, violence, alcohol, sex and more at impressionable young ages.  Their parents have entrusted their safety and welfare to a system that does not provide it in so many ways.  Sad and very scary indeed. Many expressed being scared on a daily basis and how dangerous bullying has become.  There is an emotional plea from the father of a Columbine victim that profoundly touched me.  In addition, there are the issues that concern many Christian parents-- removal of even the mention of God, prayer, and Bible clubs from schools.  And let us not forget about the microphones being turned off during graduation speeches because Jesus was thanked.

Also mentioned is the pressure in schools (I witnessed this first hand) to medicate children without a true diagnosis to the point  of them being practically sedated.  Kids are not "good" unless they sit perfectly still for hours on end, not moving, not speaking, not thinking.  Other than being told what to learn and how to learn it, no matter their own individual learning style, interests or abilities.

I learned in college and in my own classrooms over the years that real learning takes place when a student sees, hears and DOES.  Hands-on, tactile learning stimulates parts of the brain that promote retention of material.  Sitting in a zombie-state for hours on end is not only unnatural, it is not conducive to real learning.  What kind of learning is taking place in the schools today?  Is the history revised according to political correctness or whatever tides the winds will bring?  Being told what to learn and how to learn and teaching to a test strips children of innovation, creativity and imagination.

These are many of the reasons why some of the best and brightest in this country and abroad (Gates, Jobs, Zuckenberg, even Einstein and Churchill) had not done well in educational settings.  Most of them even dropped out.

Do not forget the controversial Common Core issue, where classic literature (anything written before the 1900s) was for all intents and purposes removed and more "modern" even grossly explicit and inappropriate material substituted in its place.  Let us not even begin to address the mathematics under Common Core.  It boggles the logical mind.  Truly.  I have seen it.

This documentary is well worth your $19.95 and 102 minutes.  You will be changed.  You will be outraged.  You will be empowered.

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