Tuesday, February 21, 2012

The One Book You Should Read This Year

Still relevant to this day, by a former high-ranking staff member in the Department of Education under Ronald Reagan.  Once I started reading I could not put it down.  Horrifying as it is enlightening.




16 comments:

Unknown said...

I'd give this one of those google plus thingys but I don't see an icon.
Here's a manual one
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Timeshadows said...

Nice to see another post here. :D

I'll download the pdf.

Chad Thorson said...

Yeah, I'm surprised that more people don't question why we pay more per student for education than any other place in this world and yet achieve less results.

Geffyl said...

Y'know, it's got to be quantity over quality. Sometimes we don't even get the quantity thing down right either. :(

Tedankhamen said...

You know, since I've started reading OSR blogs, I have not only been educated about D&D in particular and roleplaying in general, but have accumulated a ton of info and links about current events and issues that have helped me at work as a university instructor and my studies in a PhD program. This blog and a few others consistently challenge the mind. Who says you can't have fun and learn at the same time?

Unknown said...

And it's not even political - it's about maintaining civilization.


(ZOMGMYEYES!!1eleven! is it just me or have these captcha's gone all Phil Spector?)

Geffyl said...

Who says you can't have fun and learn at the same time?

Our corporate overlords who would gladly see America dumbed down as much as possible.

"IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH"

"Don't you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it. Every concept that can ever be needed, will be expressed by exactly one word, with its meaning rigidly defined and all its subsidiary meanings rubbed out and forgotten."

Oh, where is my beloved drug of bliss? Oh, coffee. Where for art thou, coffee?

Jeremy Murphy said...

Umm, the foreword violates Godwin's law, so I won't be reading it. But good luck with the international conspiracy to make you all idiots. From what I've seen, America is more than capable of making itself stupid... but then, I didn't read the book.

Geffyl said...

Who suggested an international conspiracy?

Of course America is more than capable. We've been doing it to ourselves. We've trusted our government too much. Guided by the special interest groups that have rewritten our laws with their money, we've played ourselves for fools.

The answer was as plain as it is on a one dollar bill: "In GOD We Trust". Trouble is, we trusted in man.

Rob Kuntz said...

The citations and chapter footnotes that are made in this book alone account for 27 sections in the Appendices! This is not only a scholarly work but almost over researched at that. The conclusions from her very wide range of accumulated evidence is more than damning. And that conclusion is no where near conspiracy theory; conspiracy FACT, yes. One can never form an unbiased view unless they read the book, so making such statements without such input is illogical and biased.

Rob Kuntz said...

@ Tedankhamen...

Well said (your ending question). The accumulation of knowledge has always been part of the joy of living for many in the history of mankind. Now, in America in particular, this has been abandoned, or exchanged, for an "Education" and more often a mere Vocation that translates into having enough money to Gain a "living" and no more.

Aaron E. Steele said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Aaron E. Steele said...

My favorite part is where she reveals that George Bush, Ronald Reagan and other right wing Republicans are secretly communists. Great stuff. Thanks for sharing this.

Rob Kuntz said...

Cool beans, Aaron. I hope you have a good read and then, perhaps, some commentary on it all.

Cheers!

Sir S said...

You know ... it's funny to see all this scorn for modern education from someone who puts a grocer's apostrophe in the title of one of his posts, and can't match case to subject in a simple sentence in comments. Or spell "atheist." Keep up the good work.

Brian MacKenzie said...

I love fantasy in games, novels and movies. I hate it when fantasy pollutes politics, history, and other purported works of nonfiction.

My least favorite species of fantasy? The deluded ravings of paranoid conspiracy fanatics.

Bright side: The book is passable source material for GURPS Illuminati.