Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Quotes by Public Schooling Founders and Leaders

"I believe that . . . [public] education is the fundamental method of social progress and reform . . . this conception has due regard for . . . socialistic ideals." and "There is no God and there is no soul. . . . There is no room for fixed . . . or moral absolutes." — John Dewey, father of modern public education and signer of Humanist Manifesto (1930)

"Education is thus a most powerful ally of humanism, and every American school is a school of humanism. What can a theistic Sunday school's meeting for an hour once a week and teaching only a fraction of the children do to stem the tide of the five-day program of humanistic teaching?" — C.F. Potter, signer of Humanist Manifesto (1930)

". . . [E]very child in America entering schools at the age of five is insane because he comes to schools with certain allegiances toward our Founding Fathers, toward his parents, toward a belief in a supernatural being, toward the sovereignty of this nation as a separate entity. . . ." — Chester Pierce, professor of education at Harvard (1970)

"The old order is passing. . Social controls cannot be left to blind chance. . . . Man must be the builder of new forms of social organizations. . . . Here [public] education must play a stellar role." — Dan W. Dodson, professor of educational sociology at N.Y. University (1970)

"We are the biggest potential political striking force [union] in this country, and we are determined to control the direction of [public] education." — NEA President Catherine Barrett (1972)

"Public schools promote civic rather than individual pursuits. . . . We must focus on creating citizens for the good of society. . . . Each child belongs to the state." — William H. Seawell, professor of education (1981)

". . . [T]he battle for humankind's future must be waged and won in the public school classrooms by teachers who correctly perceive their role as proselytizers of a new religion. . . . The classroom must and will become an arena of conflict between the old and the new — the rotting corpse of Christianity . . . and the new faith of humanism. . . ." — John Dunphy, Secular-Humanist (1983)

"We do not need any more preaching about right or wrong. The old 'thou shall nots' simply are not relevant. Values clarification is a method for teachers to change the values of children without getting caught." — Dr. Sidney Simon, creator of "Values Clarification"

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