Claire,

I greatly enjoyed your article.

I’ve promoted it on my blog.

Keep up the good work.

Henry Cate III

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Hello Ms. Wolfe,.

I just wanted to contact you to say I really enjoyed your article. We have a 2 year old and planning a 2nd this fall. We have always considered homeschooling.

A peculiar phenomenon has happened as we our daughter grows older…friends and family seem more apt to give their unsolicited opinion on homeschooling which is usually negative.  Secondly, the more research we do on homeschooling the more we are impressed and excited to continue their learning with us.

Rob Burke

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I subscribe to your magazine and look forward to each issue. I especially enjoyed the most recent article on the Coming Dictatorship. I agree with you, and that is why I am deeply concerned about the future of our country.

There is a huge machine (U.S. Government) that is out of control. This machine is consuming everything in its path, but mostly it is consuming and wasting our hard earned tax dollars, and borrowed money (T-Bills, etc.). I fear for my children and grand children. They most definitely will not spend their lives in the same country you and I grew up in.

I’ve been thinking about how to bring this machine to a halt, non-violently, before it is too late. The machine runs on a lot of tax dollars. Without those tax dollars it would be slowed down, and maybe stopped. Would it work to organize as many people and companies as possible to quit sending tax dollars to D.C.? This might be a really bad idea, but something along these lines must be  done.

People in other countries hold worker layouts and strikes to cripple a country for a short period of time. Sometimes it works. Do you think it would work here?

What if truckers shut down their rigs for 24, 48 or 72 hours? Think what that would do, especially if the trucks going into Washington D..C. did this. We the People have the power to bring this machine down if we organize. My guess is that would be the problem. Getting enough Americans to agree to stay home would be very difficult.

I hope I don’t sound desperate. I want the best for our country and all of those that will have to live in it. I don’t really think of myself, only my family. I do not want to exclude anyone, harm anyone or discriminate against anyone either. I realize not everyone will agree with what I have said here. All I know is that those who were elected to represent me are not representing me. They are completely disconnected. I can only imagine who really controls this country now.

By the way, I am a military veteran, and I took an oath to uphold the Constitution and defend it from enemies both foreign and domestic, and I will do so. I am afraid there are those Americans who also took similar oaths who will not do what they swore to do. I just wanted to share with you that I recently found an organization called OATHKEEPERS.org. I think this is a step in the right direction, if this is a legitimate organization.

Thank you for listening to me, and thank you for your magazine.

Thomas Wilson

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Claire,

Loved your article about homeschooling. My son and daughter were homeschooled, and are now continuing the tradition with eight grandchildren. The grandchildren are so far beyond the “normal” level of education that many people feel they must make excuses “well, your children are obviously geniuses.”

One scene from Alexis de Toqueville’s Democracy in America stood out in my mind: a high school class engaged in debate in the town square, in classical Latin and Greek.

If the event was held in the public square, does this not suggest that the public could appreciate classical Latin and Greek? This was not the geeks speaking to the geeks; this was a set of bright students speaking to the public of which they were a part. Elsewhere, Alexis de Toqueville remarked on how widespread was the understanding of the Constitution.

We greatly underestimate the desire and capacity among children for learning. I taught my 6 year old grandson how to add a series of consecutive integers, starting with an explanation of that old formula n(n+1)/2, which was taught in high school.

I wanted to know how well he could generalize, so I asked the sum of the even numbers from 2 to 50. He had the answer while I was still putting my mind in gear. In the future, I shall have to pre-compute answers to my little test questions, lol.

Thank you for your articles, which I always enjoy.

Regards,

Terry McIntyre

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Dear Ms. Wolfe,

I read your article with great enjoyment and approval. I agree with everything you said. I have two personal observations.

One is that far from being a failure, the public indoctrination system (why grace the system with the word “schools”, which has a very positive connotation) is a brilliant success. The object never was to teach literacy, but to inculcate the qualities of an obedient and docile underclass, unable to think critically, intellectually dead, subservient, and worshipful of authority.

There is a brilliant young 6th grade student who lives across the street. I talk to her occasionally, and a few days ago we discussed what the children were learning in school. It happened to be the “Civil” War (I explained what a civil war is and disabused her of the notion that the War for Southern Independence was fought to wrest control of the central government), how Lincoln “freed the slaves” (again, another discussion),etc. Our conversation illustrates that what the children learn in the indoctrination camps is propanganda, pure and simple. That and worship of the State (the Pledge of Allegiance, the deification practiced by the Lincoln Cult, etc.) and the habit of subservience and obedience (“Teacher, can I go to the bathroom?”).

My second point is that once the indoctrination is complete, it takes a massive effort to reverse it. After all, the basic tool to do so, the power of critical thinking, has been suppressed almost to the point of disappearance.

My own view is, that is largely responsible for the fact that in the midst of the greatest economic catastrophe in modern times, mos
people remain cheerfully distracted by “American Idol”, the latest football team standings, and the latest Hollywood celebrity scandal, none of which personally impact most of us in the least extent.

So keep up your good work. A quality education is the path to liberation.

John Sampson

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Dear Claire:

I am an information technology consultant who has moved out of America to the Czech Republic.   Six months ago, I met a Russian sociologist, Tatyana Kosyaeva, who spent three years in St Louis on post-doctoral research on American education.

She confirms John Taylor Gatto’s evaluation of America’s educational system.  She confirmed yours.  She never heard of either of you; she drew the conclusions independently.

Regards,

Robert B. Slobins

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