“I’m just a poor boy, from a poor family. Scaramouch, Scaramouch, can you do the fandango?”
Well, I dunno, about you, but I just can’t find it in myself to do the fandango. I’m not a fan. I am however, just a poor gal, from a poor family. But yeah, I’ve always been unable to fandango. I don’t do fandom. I don’t do blind obedience or following others. Sometimes, I attribute this to my early childhood. I know I tried to conform and to fit in, but it didn’t work. Sometimes, I wonder if I am just genetically programmed to be a non-conformist. Either way, I can’t do the fandango. Can you?
Turns out, 50% of people can. Well, more specifically 50% of people will chose blind obedience to something they know is wrong, just to fit in. (1) I’m talking about peer pressure. It’s a major reason why we are, where we are. Most of us were probably told that peer pressure was an adolescent thing. Parents everywhere are warned, “Gotta watch out for those teen years, the urge to fit in is a problem!” A 2013 University of Maryland study shows that peer pressure begins much, much earlier. “This is not just an adolescent issue,” said University of Maryland developmental psychologist Dr. Melanie Killen, the study’s lead researcher. “Peer group pressure begins in elementary schools, as early as age nine. It’s what kids actually encounter there on any given day.” (2) However, a Nature study from 2016 shows that peer pressure is present as early as 6 years old.
The Nature study from 2016 asked children aged 5 to 6 years old to rate photos of faces on attractiveness. Just like the 2014 study of adults conforming to peer pressure, the researchers found that children 6 years old changed their answers from their initial personal preference to fit the group ideology. The percentage of children who altered their responses increased when their peers could see their choices. (Similar to the effect of social media.) Very interesting though, was that children 5 years old, generally held true to their initial opinions and did not alter their opinions to fit with the group. 5 year old children in China, where this study was conducted, have not yet spent time in a public school setting. 6 year old children however, have. Further according to the study, the 6 year old children, appear to have permanently altered their opinions so that they conform with their peers.
Isn’t it handy that it is right at this age where children are malleable enough to be easily coerced into conformity that we are sending them into a pressure box of social strife? Isn’t it handy that we are sending them off, without the tools they need, to hold onto their individuality, before they are even able to understand the importance of individuality? Funny how teachers are now openly complaining that parents might interfere with their brainwashing of children. (4) Seems, we all thought school was a safe place to learn, history, reading, math, etc. Despite the instances of child abuse in schools (1 in 10 children are sexually abused by a teacher, (5) there are, however, no clear metrics for other forms of abuse) our culture has blindly maintained public school fandom. They can do no wrong. We luuuuuuuv them. There is no other way. To question the norm is unacceptable.
YES, there ARE good teachers. Most teachers are generally, good people. Heck at the very, least 9 out of 10 kids aren’t being sexually abused. However, do I want someone that is generally kind, but perhaps worships Satan, to teach my child? No. Think this is an unlikely example? Well, in my experience, it’s not. Even 30 years ago, I had more than one teacher provide free time coloring pages with demonic images (yes, literally), ya know… for fun. Did my 8th grade history teacher teach history? Yes. Was she an intelligent teacher who cared about her students? Yes. However, when doing a project on the most influential person in the history of the world, I chose Christ. Despite being a straight A student, all of a sudden, my efforts only amounted to a B-. When doing a paper making project in 7th grade science class, I made two fish and five loaves of bread and explained the importance of these to my class. Again, my work was suddenly sub-par. When our 3rd grade teacher taught a section on what debates are and how they function, the topic she chose “for practice” was abortion. The teacher and 95% of the students were “pro-choice”. My inexperienced, super shy, introverted and just socially awkward, self and two others were the sole voices for pro-life. Surprise, surprise, our side lost the debate and we received low grades on the assignment. Or my 5th grade music teacher that insisted that all “white” American Christians were racist bigots.
But but… Perhaps this was just one school? Nope, I attended 4 schools in three different regions from Kindergarten to 8th grade. Well, that was then, surely things don’t happen like that now. Spring 2020, I had the opportunity to read the Mayville, North Dakota 11th grade history text book. Turns out, the KKK is and was (according to the text) entirely populated by protestant Christians. There’s no chance that a Catholic, or a Mormon, or a Hindu, or a Muslim, or a Satanist was ever present in the KKK. There’s no text or in-class discussion of the fact that any person who claimed to be a protestant AND a member of the KKK was surely either out right lying or in complete ignorance of what the Bible has to say on the subject of equality or even the idea of races. (BTW, there’s *one* human race, that was created by God. Why we cede the field on such simple issues like the definition of words, is beyond me. We’ve already lost when we allow the topic to be discussed with lies.)
Why is this important? The environment of the classroom, is lead by the teacher. 20-30 children all the same age, are packed together with their matching desks, chairs, lockers, No. 2 pencils, kleenex boxes and, now, masks. (The most stringent of all conforming devices, the removal of one’s face.) The teacher sets the tone, the children follow. Public school is focused not on equality, but on equity. Equity is not equal attention, equal access, or equal rights, but equal *outcomes*. That means that all students need to graduate. It does not mean that all students should be assisted in reaching their full potential. It does not even mean that all students need to learn how to read. If some make it through 12 grades without mastering reading at a 7th grade level, that’s perfectly okay, as long as all students appear to move ahead, *with their peers*. Classroom equity means that all students conform.
The most important thing for the student is to not deviate from the expected norm. Deviation, causes ridicule and alienation. I remember being identified as a student who needed extra help learning my left from my right in 1st grade. I was pulled from my class room to attend additional right/left instruction, in a dark, basement hallway. I remember the fear of being different. I remember thinking I had something relevant to add to the discussion in Kindergarten only to be laughed at by my peers. Ever wonder why people don’t participate in discussions as adults? That’s why. When we were 5, we were ridiculed into submission. Gaslighted by public school so thoroughly that by the time we were 6, we’d given up our own thoughts. The voice of the individual is no longer valued. Even one’s own voice is unimportant, if it doesn’t align with our peers.
This is where we have gone astray. Way back when, a group of 5-10 families, met and organized a local school. These families were intimately involved in all aspects of the school and the teaching, because they paid for it themselves. Really, paid for it. Not like a slice of taxes taken off the top before you even see your paycheck. More like taking a chunk out of your food budget.
“Soon, schoolhouses which previously had only a single teacher instructing all students in all grades, were being replaced with classes and a system which mirrored Mr. Ford’s assembly line — the first grade teacher stayed in place while students would travel on the “production line” into the second grade, then the third grade, etc. until they reach the end of the line and by then, it was hoped, the final product would be a “well learned student”.” (6)
Today, parents are 58% more likely to be conservative than democrat. (7) While at the same time, 87% of teachers are democrats. (8) This difference, is ignored. We are all desperately doing the fandango over public school because we too, were taught to above all else, conform. We are probably 5 generations into the experiment of assembly line education. The goal is still equity of outcomes, not equality. Until we, as a whole nation, move away from producing adults from the spare parts of childhood in the same manner as model T’s, available in “any color, so long as it is black” (9), we cannot expect anything other than willful, blind, conformed fandom.
(1) https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/am-i-right/201404/the-astonishing-power-social-pressure
(3) https://www.nature.com/articles/srep39588
(4) https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=teachers+complain+about+parent+overseeing+brainwashing&ia=web
(6) http://appalachianmagazine.com/2019/08/06/the-story-of-americas-one-room-school-houses/
(7) https://www.fatherly.com/health-science/republicans-have-more-children/
(8) https://www.pacificresearch.org/why-are-teachers-mostly-liberal/
(9) Quote often attributed to Henry Ford
JUSTAMOM 
Here, here! Even among my own family, I was called a “wet blanket” and a “killjoy” for not getting a kick out of popular culture. To this day, I’m the odd one out for foregoing the family’s annual pilgrimage to Ikea and the Mall of America in Minneapolis. How much more rat-in-cage does it get than bottlenecking through Ikea on President’s Day weekend?
And speaking of teachers’ influence, I saw that among several “protesters” arrested in Portland on charges of felony rioting last week were 1) a preschool teacher; 2) a high-school band teacher; and 3) a social-work grad student. So it’s obvious that we have radicals seeking access to every level and facet of our children’s development. And it doesn’t matter how thoroughly we think we’re instilling our values into our kids when they’re not in school. Eight hours a day, five days a week of social indoctrination cannot be counterbalanced during evenings and weekends.
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Excellent. Keep ’em comin`
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