A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. I decided to do a non-scientific poll, asking students what they thought life in the U.S. would be like under communism. The ignorance of their answers did not surprise me, I expected that, given the current state of indoctrination of our students, it was how far off from reality they truly were. Answers ranged from "middle class would be huge and the rich would disappear" (wrong) to "everyone will be wealthy and have all their wishes fulfilled" (also wrong) to "what is communism?"(?!!) These very same students had worn t-shirts the entire semester promoting communism and extermination of people through gulags. The level of ignorance and the lack of desire to enlighten themselves to the truth is astounding. Yet, these very same students will not hesitate campaigning for a cause or an individual without ever bothering to ask themselves, what do I know and understand about this platform or this person that I am going to so avidly campaign for that I am giving up precious study time and my personal safety sometimes, especially when I sit in the middle of a busy intersection, accosting motorists. This was the phenomenon that drove 66% of Obama voters, young people, to promote him as "historical" without asking themselves what kind of history and was that good for our country? There were many historical events that were transformative for all the wrong reasons.

These students may have been people with high IQs and high ACT scores but short on common sense. It could be that their frontal lobes don't develop fully until 25, have not paid taxes, or held a real job yet. Thus their opinions are not driven by real world experience or knowledge but by indoctrination and feelings.

Parents have no idea what kind of education (read indoctrination) their hard-earned dollars is purchasing in college and are also clueless about public schools.

Tom,

Brilliant as usual. The fact that parents have no idea what their children are learning schools is frightening beyond belief. The fact that the parents seem not care what their children are learning is more frightening still.

My wife and I have two sons who are now grown, married and living with their own family. When they were in school, we knew everything that every teacher was attempting to teach them. If my wife or I disagreed with the assignment or the class philosophy, I told my son(s) this. I also contacted each teacher with whom I disagreed. I explained our thoughts about the class. I was usually told that the curriculum was mandated by the state and the teacher was powerless to change it.

I then told each teacher that I talked to that the state had no right or duty to tell me that I had to let the state teach my children. My wife and I were the primary educators for our children; and, eventually grandchildren, etc. Each teacher somewhat agreed with me but explained that since I was out of touch with reality, I should leave well enough alone.

The education system in this country is concerned with two things: 1) the expansion of the mindless propaganda that the union structure wants to force feed our children; and, 2) to try to get the children in the schools to be able to pass a standardized test to prove they can graduate 12th grade with and 8th grade education.

The worst parts of this situation are that many, too many parents don't care what the children are taught as long as the parent(s) don't have to care for the children on a 24 hour, 7 day per week basis; and, when those parents that do care raise objections to the local Boards of Education and/or their respective legislators; they are ignored and/or told that they really don't understand the situation fully.

Our children have become productive wage earners and we are very, very proud of them. I am terrified for our grandson and I don't know what the solution to this catastrophe should be.

Duke

For the last forty years the teaching profession at all levels of education from first grade to the doctorate level have been filled with academic leftists who are dedicated to indoctrinate the minds of our children in the progressive leftist mindset. This has culminated in the election of the Chameleon we call POTUS and his sycophants in Congress, who like the elitests in education want to lead the "sheep" to the new world of marxist socialism! And if the ram through Obamacare they will be half way there!

Mr. Sowell is right, but none of this is accidental. This indoctrination is deliberate, as is the lack of teaching kids HOW to think. If people use facts, evidence and reason combined with moral intuition to reach conclusions, they'll tend to come down on the Conservative side of things. If they use emotional, anecdotal, irrational leaps to reach their conclusions, they'll side with the Left more often than not. Especially when the lack of critical thinking education is combined with far-Left indoctrination.

I've actually heard from young people who sincerely believe that I am literally destroying the planet because I drive an SUV. Nevermind that it gets better mileage than an "economy" car got 20 years ago. Nevermind that its emissions are a microscopic fraction of what cars emitted when I was a boy. The young people have been taught that SUVs are planet-killers and that "green" cars are saving the planet, so that's that. The facts are IRRELEVANT.

Same with politics. Hardly a week goes by that I don't run into some youngster who insists that Fascism was Right-wing, as though everyone on Earth knows that. When I point out that the National Socialist Workers Party implemented Marxist labor reforms, national health care, fitness mandates, environmental mandates, state control of industrial production, and so on, the concepts are so totally alien to everything they've been taught that their eyes typically glaze over and they're left with no response better than "Nuh uh, you're stupid!"

The trouble is, lacking the ability to reason, they can't even re-assess their indoctrination when evidence refuting it obtains. All they can do is pull the covers over their heads and sing a happy song. Frankly, I don't know what to do with them at that point, since reason and facts simply cannot penetrate. How do you impart reality to them when they've stuck their fingers in their ears and have started singing "La la la la!" at the tops of their lungs?

I've heard it said before that if you want to truly control a people, you must keep them ignorant. I've also heard it said that an educated people will fight for freedom. You can see the real-world implications of this anywhere in the middle east. The people who are subjugated are the uneducated. They don't *know* that they are supposed to be free. This is what government run education is doing to our children. And the loss of critical reasoning is just sad. Our children only know what they are told, because that's all their parents know. My parents raised me to look at all sides of an issue before making a decision. Nowadays, parents don't even want to raise their children. They expect the state to do it for them. Hmmm...sounds like the early days of the Hitler Youth Camps.

I completely agree. I am a recent college graduate but have been on the conservative side of the fence most of my life. My father owns his own business and I worked all throughout college...I didn't make a ton of money, but still when you don't make a lot of money and you see your hard earned money go to the government, it is enough to make you see the light.

Here is a perfect example of how schools are trying to indoctrinate students. I am a business major, and as such my college was more conservative. More so than the rest of the University. Anyway, in one of my classes my teacher asked us if we believed in Global Warming. About 5 out of 40 said yes, 10 said maybe and the other 25 of us said no. My teacher than went into a rant about how Global Warming was real and if we weren't serious about ending the problem and listened only to a certain political parties talking points the Earth, as we know it, wouldn't be there to enjoy in the future. In my opinion my should teacher should have taken their own advice and not listened to only one parties talking points.

It was also really sad how many young people voted for Obama because of his charisma and how he is going to change America, but they never asked how he was going to do this or if what he was proposing was even feasible. He was Obama...He could do anything. I can't tell you have many people planned to vote for him, and when I would try to engage them in debate about his ideas they had no idea what I was talking about.

Many years ago when in grammar school, my 7 year old son brought home a brand new reading book. After reading it through, I was not pleased with its content. None of the stories were particularly suitable, I thought, bu the main story I recall was one about two little boys who lived in the inner city and played in a junkyard. My main concern was that junkyards should not be presented as fun places to go. They're dangerous in more ways than one. (We don't have a junkyard nearby, but that's beside the point). At any rate, I went to his teacher, and she was very pleased that I had complained as she too thought the book inappropriate. There was no problem at all returning the books for something different.

Today is a whole new ballgame, and I am thankful my grandchildren are able to go to a Christian school where life's values are taught in addition to the "regular" subjects. They are thriving, and I wish all children could have the same opportunity.