(Excerpted from The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America by Charlotte Thomson Iserbyt, Ravenna, Ohio: Conscience Press, 2000, ebook)

“Americans forget that the present government education system started as a Prussian import in the 1840’ s–’ 50’ s. It was a system built on Hegel’s belief that the state was ‘God’ walking on earth.” (Loc 41 of 17059)

“The only way to restore educational freedom, and put education back into the hands of parents where it belongs, is to get the federal government, with its coercive policies, out of education.” (Loc 41 of 17059)

“Obviously, something is terribly wrong when a $ 6,330 per pupil expenditure produces such pathetic results. This writer has visited private schools which charge $ 1,000 per year in tuition which enjoy superior academic results. Parents of home-schooled children spend a maximum of $ 1,000 per year and usually have similar excellent results.” (Loc 69 of 17059)

“In 1971 when I returned to the United States after living abroad for 18 years, I was shocked to find public education had become a warm, fuzzy, soft, mushy, touchy-feely experience, with its purpose being socialization, not learning.” (Loc 96 of 17059)

“When I returned to the United States I realized that America’s transition from a sovereign constitutional republic to a socialist democracy would not come about through warfare (bullets and tanks) but through the implementation and installation of the ‘system’ in all areas of government—federal, state and local. The brainwashing for acceptance of the ‘system’s’ control would take place in the school—through indoctrination and the use of behavior modification, which comes under so many labels: the most recent labels being Outcome-Based Education, Skinnerian Mastery Learning or Direct Instruction.” (Loc 96, 106 of 17059)

“In the 1970s this writer and many others waged the war against values clarification, which was later renamed ‘critical thinking,” which regardless of the label—and there are bound to be many more labels on the horizon—is nothing but pure, unadulterated destruction of absolute values of right and wrong upon which stable and free societies depend and upon which our nation was founded.” (Loc 106 of 17059)

“…read the entry under 1946 concerning Community-Centered Schools: The Blueprint for Education in Montgomery County, Maryland. This document was in fact the ‘Blueprint’ for the nation’s schools.) When asked to write a paper expressing our views on the goals of education, I wrote that, amongst other goals, I felt the schools should strive to instill ‘sound morals and values in the students.’ The superintendent and a few teachers on the committee zeroed in on me, asking ‘What’s the definition of ‘sound’ and whose values?’” (Loc 125 of 17059)

“To withhold the tools of education can kill a person’s spirit just as surely as a bullet his body. The tragedy is that many Americans have died in other wars to protect the freedoms being taken away in this one. This war which produces the death of intellect and freedom is not waged by a foreign enemy but by the silent enemy in the ivory towers, in our own government, and in tax-exempt foundations—the enemy whose every move I have tried to document in this book, usually in his/ her/ its own words.” (Loc 189 of 17059)