see I think there are two ways in which people are controlled first of all frighten people and secondly demoralize them an educated healthy and confident nation is harder to govern and I think there's an element in the thinking of some people we don't want people to be educated healthy and confident because they would get out of control the top 1% of the world's population own 8% of the world's wealth it's incredible that people put up with it but they're poor they're demoralized they're frightened and therefore they think perhaps the safest thing to do is take
orders and hope for the best American citizens are more uneducated than ever Jen Alpha is performing behind their grade levels the average American adult reads on a seventh to e8th grade level and America's test scores are woefully behind other countries including developing countries despite the fact that we are the richest country in the world a recent study by the University of Pennsylvania revealed that just a quarter of Americans can name all three branches of government what is the the weirdest thing about America they're kind of stupid what's the most annoying thing about Americans that they
just like don't know anything what do you think are some of the biggest American stereotypes that they're stupid the perception that Americans are uneducated has persisted for decades but what if I told you that that's all by design that those in power have an incentive to keep Americans uneducated let's talk about how a lack of education is a Cornerstone of American culture and it's not an accident [Music] in my last video I talked extensively about how Jen Alpha is performing behind their grade levels and I attributed it to this sense of anti-intellectualism that is so
prevalent in American culture but I want to dive a little bit deeper into how the United States has made a very deliberate attempt to undermine education in an effort to maintain the status quo the US was built on the foundation of the self-made man made Popular by the likes of men like Adam Smith who's often dubbed the father of capitalism in his 1964 Book anti-intellectualism in American Life Richard Hoff Strat notes that Americans have always placed greater value on physical prowess practical training and industriousness over intellect he discusses how government leaders and Wealthy tycoons were
always wary of intellectuals fearing that their knowledge would be disruptive to the social order he states that intellect is always on the move against something some oppression fraud illusion Dogma or interest is constantly falling under the scrutiny of the intellectual class and becoming the object of exposure indignation or ridicule 20th century philosopher John Dewey once wrote If we once start thinking no one can guarantee what will be the outcome except that many objects ends and institutions will be surely doomed every thinker puts some portion of an apparently stable world in Peril and no one can
wholly predict what will emerge in its place and so in the early years of the US those who held power and influence in society prefer the man who used his Brawn over his brain because education was reserved for the elite ruling class when Horus man who's often dubb the father of American public education visited Prussia he was so enamored by how orderly and docile the students were in their schools he took these observations with him back to Massachusetts and the compulsory education system was born he wrote in the comment School Journal quote order is essential
in all business and none more so than keeping in school and so poor children were sent to Public Schools not to gain intellect but to prepare them to become the next generation of docile worker bees to boost the American economy meanwhile the children of wealthy Elites attended private schools and Alonzo Potter who was the bishop of the Episcopal Church of the United States once said in the mid 1800s that the purpose of public education was to quote make men more industrious more active system atic more economical as producers and preservers of property the efficiency movement
of the 1890s to the 1930s influenced by mechanical engineer Frederick W Taylor further solidify the Divide between the intellectual Pursuits and the corporate business ideals in Taylor's efforts to enhance economic efficiency and labor productivity he segregated General workers from those that He deemed to be capable of becoming managers one day and Taylor himself once said quote one of the very first requirements for a who is fit to handle the pig iron a worker in other words is that he shall be so stupid and fmatic that he resembles in his mental the makeup of the ox
and by the 1960s prominent figures like Irving Crystal argued that a new class of intellectuals was negatively impacting capitalism President Eisenhower frequently used anti-intellectual rhetoric during his campaign characterizing intellectuals as individuals who quote take more words than necessary to tell more than he knows and president lynon B Johnson also com commented that self-proclaimed intellectuals were more concerned with trivial and superficial matters than with the foundational elements of what truly Built America and today we're seeing a public education system that seems almost designed to fail not unlike what we've seen in America's anti-intellectual past it's because
those in power know that education is the key to social mobility and when you don't have social Mobility guess what you stay within the service industry they have an incentive to keep Americans uneducated so that the rich they rich and the poor stay [Music] poor Public Schools across the country especially those that are in low-income neighborhoods which I discussed extensively in my last video are poorly funded which causes a large swath of the American public to be either completely uneducated or poorly educated today 80% of America's economy is built off of the service industry and
those who are less educated inevitably end up in these service industry roles America's economy depends on there being people who do not get to have a high quality education because inevitably they'll be the worker bees and a lot of public schools offer a very low quality of Education because they were built on a framework of a 20th century factory model by wealthy Elites like John D Rockefeller and Frederick T Gates both Rockefeller and Gates established the Rockefeller education board in 1902 which shaped much of the modern American public education system they intentionally trained students in
public schools to develop skills that would make them fit to work in factories rck Tates said in 1913 that in our dream we have Limitless resources and the people yield themselves with the perfect docility to our molding hand we shall not try to make these people or any of their children into philosophers or men of learning or men of science we have not to raise up from among them authors Educators poets or men of letters we shall not search for embryo great artists painters musicians not lawyers doctors preachers politicians Statesmen of whom we have ample
Supply the task we set before ourselves is very simple we will organize children and teach them to do in a perfect way the things that their fathers and mothers are doing in an imperfect way and today this framework is still prevalent we all know that service industry workers are severely underpaid even though they are responsible for literally building this country they're overworked and underpaid and America's economy depends on their labor the less educated that someone is the more susceptible they are to believe in the state believe in propaganda not question their government not question those
in power because they don't have the critical thinking skills to do so and so now you're seeing an ongoing push to privatize public education why because they want to run these schools like businesses for profit instead of as a public education service that is available for everyone Federal initiatives like school choice are a great example of that school choice vouchers allow children to attend private schools and charter schools using federal funds this Federal money is being taken away from public school and the lack of funding is why Public School teachers aren't paid enough and public
schools are deprived of resources to teach kids in the same level as private schools and Charter Schools I mean teachers are literally having to purchase their own supplies what other industry requires the employee to have to purchase their own supplies that are required for them to do their jobs we don't ask Pilots to pay for Airplane Fuel we don't ask cops to pay for guns bullets or handcuffs and we don't ask doctor or nurses to pay for medical or surgical equipment so then why is it okay to ask teachers to supply their own classrooms I
will always say that teaching is one of the most important roles within our society and yet we provide them little to no resources to effectively do their job and to educate one of the most important populations within our communities which are young people Everyone is always talking about Legacy this and Legacy that but real Legacy lies in teaching our children to to be able to properly participate in society that means giving them a quality a high quality accessible education from birth but in America they want you to birth children but all of the resources you
need in order to develop and educate a wellestablished child are few and far in between too many teachers are drowning in debt trying to provide a high quality education to students with which is not their sole responsibility it is our Collective responsibility as a society many teachers are also drowning in debt because salaries are so low and the vast majority of them are living in cities where they can barely afford to get by why is this important because how can you expect teachers to inspire the next generation of thinkers and doers and teachers if they
themselves can barely afford to keep food on the table and keep their lights on and they're expected to provide supplies for their classroom like make it make sense if you're not in education you you do not have a full picture of just how broken we are and you know this none of this is new it was broken before Co but Co has exposed cracks that are undeniable and honestly irreparable at this point I'm not saying it's hopeless but we have to Chuck the whole system but we're not going to do that because we've been treating
public education like a business with for-profit testing the way funding is distributed everything about it is capitalism but public education was intended to be a socialist construct it's to serve the collective not individual interest parents were never meant to be customers we shouldn't have customer service that's not the intention of public school and when Public Schools fall and when Healthcare collapses what exactly is left a study by the network for public education found that Charter Schools cost school districts over 400 million in funding each year resulting in reduced resources for public schools and because private
schools and charter schools are highly selective on who they admit children with disabilities and those from other marginalized backgrounds are often not given a chance to be admitted in fact a report from the National Council on disability found that students with disabilities are often excluded from charter school and voucher programs with many schools claiming that they lack the resources to provide the appropriate accommodations in other words these charter schools and private schools don't want to make their schools accessible for students with disabilities therefore students with disabilities are not able to attend and so they inevitably
have to attend public schools where they also don't have resources there to accommodate them because they're so poorly funded what we're witnessing is the gutting of public education and we're witnessing it in a slow spiral of Doom right you see the rise of charter schools over the last few years found out the charter schools do not feel obligated to teach English as a second language students students who have IEPs students who are struggling in some way charter schools have such great numbers because they boot kids out who need more assistance meanwhile the funding of those
Charter Schools means they are gutting other public schools which are required to take kids who are struggling and cannot kick them out there's a reason you see so many young teachers on here talking about the kids struggling it's not just that the parents aren't doing enough the young teachers some of whom are going to be Teach for America teachers have also not been given the tools to help kids who need extra assistance with learning to read the system is failing everyone kids parents and teachers included and that is a deliberate choice we also of course
have politicians who are Banning books left and right because they don't want people to be informed because again a less intelligent population means you're more easily manipulated they're also of course killing diversity equity and inclusion initiatives in schools and universities Nationwide that allow students of color the opportunity to learn because they certainly don't want people of color to be traversing up the social hierarchy either when education isn't accessible to all all people are more susceptible to manipulation think of legal documents for example have you ever wondered why legal documents are written in this old English
legal jargon that the vast majority of people don't understand it's because it's by Design right it's meant for a select few to be able to decode it it's meant for you to have to hire an attorney in order to decode this language because you couldn't do it on your own and not many people could afford to hire a lawyer and so they just end up being duped and manipulated think of medical documents everybody needs medical care so why isn't that written in plain language where most people can understand it's by Design author and physician Michael
kton once said that medical writing is quote a highly skilled calculated attempt to confuse the reader the US Department of Education and the national Center for Education statistics found that over 90 million Americans have trouble understanding health information this not only includes interpreting print information but this also includes tasks like following medication instructions identifying your signs and symptoms of your illnesses and engaging in self-care behaviors and so when people don't understand medical information it then leads to a greater hospitalization rate lower reported health status greater mortality feeding the Health Care System right making the Health
Care System more and more money keeping people coming back because they don't have the medical literacy and so they end up feeding into a healthare system which often puts profits over patients financial documents are also written in very complex jargony not easily understood language not to mention most public education does not even prepare you for financial management they're not teaching kids about credit scores they're not teaching students about how to purchase a home they're not teaching students about loans and interest rates this makes people more susceptible again to predatory loans and just bad spending habits
spending back into the US economy unnecessarily governments want you to be financially uneducated because when you're financially uneducated guess what you are an employee and you're a consumer who pays the highest taxes employees and consumers you see politicians using these culture War subjects in order to distract from the fact that they're not doing what they said that they were going to do they're not taking care of the American public they're in fact taking care of themselves because the vast majority of these politicians are in fact beholden to Big Pharma the healthcare industry to the oil
and gas industry to all of these corporations they're ultimately going to enact laws and shape civilization in a way that is in the best interest for these powerful entities and not for the American public it makes me think about how like for example in corporate jobs how they don't want employees speaking to one another about their salaries they don't want employees airing grievances with each other about the workplace you know they want us to instead compete with each other similarly to how politicians want us to compete with each other in these culture wars because when
we're competing with each other we're not competing with them they want us to be at war with one another because they know that if we wise up we will rise up oo I feel like I'm a rapper wise up then we rise up they're also shutting down libraries left and right last year Missouri's House of Representatives voted to approve a state budget that would eliminate $4.5 million in funding for public libraries it's all a very deliberate attempt to keep the American public in line nearly 85% of juveniles who face trial in the juvenile court are
functionally illiterate this proves that there's a close relationship between literacy and crime a lack of Education also fuels the prison industrial complex over 70% of inmates in America's prisons can't read above a fourth grade level the US has the largest prison population in the world and because federal prisons are so overcrowded inmates are being moved to private prisons which are owned by corporations who have contracts with the government and many local officials are incentivized to get more people arrested and wrapped up in the jail system not to advance Public Safety but to advance the interest
of these private prisons AKA these corporations and to get more profits for them we also have to talk about the fact that the one place that slavery is still legal is in prisons inmates are performing very menial labor making pennies on the dollar or absolutely nothing at all in fact seven states Alabama Arkansas Georgia Florida Mississippi South Carolina and Texas Pay prisoners absolutely 0 and0 for their labor and in states that do pay their prisoners some pay as low as 8 cents per hour to have prisoners spend their days doing field work not unlike slavery
in the Antebellum South so there is an incentive to have the population be uneducated because they end up being inevitably wrapped up in the prison industrial complex making more money for corporations producing labor for the American economy it's all interconnected if we invested more money in our communities and particularly in public education we would see a decrease in crime but unfortunately the public good isn't being prioritized the prevalence and domination of big Tech is another reason why the American Amer public is so uneducated social media is sound bite culture we talked about it in the
last video how we are raising a generation of quote iPad kids and nowadays kids are getting Smartphones at a super early age whereas us Millennials as well as older Generations didn't get that kind of Technology until later in life technology itself is obviously not inherently bad and in moderation it can provide lots of benefits entertainment information all of the above but in excess it can be a distraction and thinking about about it even further you know you're on the internet the internet is filled with information that could theoretically make you smarter right but social media
in particular has the ability to actually impede our ability to think critically the algorithms of social media feed you content based on content that you've interacted with in the past based on your behaviors right so on the positive side if you're already looking at educational content that the algorithm will feed you more of that kind of content but if you're looking at less than inform of content if you're looking at fake news if you're looking at pseudo science it's only going to feed you more of that kind of content based on your past behaviors you
end up in this bubble where you're only exposed to this very specific kind of information that is giving you a very shortsighted surface level way of thinking and this isn't a uniquely American thing because of course social media is a global phenomenon but in America in particular because of our loss of things like third places right there's been an erosion of third places for people to gather so people are spending more and more time indoors more and more time stuck on social media more and more time in isolation being lonely not exposing themselves to different
Outlets that provide you a well-rounded form of information and knowledge there are some people that will believe anything with a bold font and like lowquality shoty graphics and pictures that they read from a gossip blog on Twitter or Instagram and so you see big Tech controlling our lives and controlling our minds spell check and audio dictation which are all convenient and wonderful to have but do you think about how you're not Reaching For Your Dictionary at least those of you who are old enough to have reached for a dictionary or encyclopedia when you were growing
up we don't need to do that anymore because we have that on our phones we have the phone correcting us and telling us how to spell how to write that really impedes on our ability to learn and the advances in technology also o make it harder for us to store our own memories ourselves Nicholas Carr explained in the shallows that memory comes in two types transient working memory and long-term memory which is more permanent information needs to pass through from the working memory into the long-term memory in order for it to be stored and any
break in the processes of working memory like for example stopping to check your email or to send a text message in the middle of reading an article that can erase your information from your brain before that transfer occurs the domination of big Tech on our lives is a key apparatus to surveillance capitalism which tracks every moment of our online activity so that corporations can sell us products that aren't making us smarter but instead distracting us and making them richer technology corporations want Americans to rely on their devices which provide them with easy access to information
instead of actually learning to think critically which also really contributes to keeping the American population uneducated it's clear that powerful entities and institutions stand to benefit from Americans being uneducated from the healthcare industry to the pharmaceutical industry to the government to corporations the sooner that we're able to take our power back the more that we become hip to the ways in which we're being manipulated the more that we can band together to demand more funding for our public education system to allow kids to learn and thrive in school to allow us to mobilize together to
repair these systems that have been so broken that are failing all of us what's that old saying when you stand for nothing you fall for everything that's what they want so don't fall for everything stand for something be empowered seek out the information think critically think independently I'd love to hear from you all though in the comments down below about how you think we can overcome this other ways that you feel that we're being manipulated and if you like this video definitely give it a thumbs up and if you really liked it and you want
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