ADHD is the new education
by Jon Rappoport
May 18, 2016
(To read about Jon’s mega-collection, The Matrix Revealed, click here.)
“There is a form of mind control that is really mind-chaos. It shatters the processes of thought into, at best, vaguely related fragments. There is no direction, no development, no progress along a line of reasoning. This is how you disable a person. You disrupt his ability to move from A to B to C. At that point, he becomes passive. He’s willing to be programmed, because it’s easier. He wants to be programmed.” (The Underground, Jon Rappoport)
“I learned twenty-four new things today at school,” the child said. “One right after the other. I felt so happy. My teacher told me I was learning accelerated. I wrote on my iPad. I saw pictures. I did group harmony. I added. I divided. I heard about architecture. The teacher said we were filled with wonder at the universe. We solved a problem. We’re all together. I ate cheese. A factory makes cheese.”
The new education is ADHD.
It’s a method of teaching that surrenders ground on each key concept, deserting it before it’s firmly fixed in the mind of the student.
It hops around from idea to idea, because parents, teachers, administrators, students, departments of education, and educational publishers have given up on the traditional practice of repetition.
Repetition was old-world. For decades, even centuries, the time-honored method of instruction was: introduce an idea or concept or method, and then provide numerous examples the student had to practice, solve, and demonstrate with proficiency.
There was no getting around it. If the student balked, he failed.
There were no excuses or fairy tales floated to explain away the inability of the student to carry out the work.
Now, these days, if you want to induce ADHD, teach a course in which each new concept is given short shrift. Then pass every student on to the next grade, because it’s “humane.”
Think of it this way. Suppose you want to climb the sheer face of a high rock. You know nothing about climbing. You engage an instructor. He teaches you a little bit about ropes and spikes and handholds. He briefly highlights each aspect and then skips to the next.
So later…while you’re falling five hundred feet to the ravine below, you can invent stories about why the experiment didn’t work out.
Since the advent of organized education on the planet, there has been one way of teaching young children…until recently. Explain a new idea, produce scores of examples of that idea, and get the students to work on those examples and come up with the right answers.
Subtraction, division, decimals, spelling, reading—it all works the same basic way.
For the last hundred years or so, however, we’ve seen the gradual intrusion of Teacher ADHD.
School text ADHD.
Not enough examples. Not enough exercises.
Education has nothing to do with a full frontal attack to “improve the self-esteem” of the student. It has nothing to do with telling children they’re valuable. And it certainly has nothing to do with trying to embed social values and team spirit in children.
No matter how many fantasies educators spin, schools can’t replace parents.
If what I’m writing here seems cruel and uncaring…look at the other side of the picture. Look at what happens when a student emerges from school with a half-baked, “dumbed-down” education.
He can sort of read. He can sort of write. He sort of understands arithmetic. He tries to skate through the rest of his life. He fakes it. He adopts a front to conceal the large territory of what he doesn’t know.
He certainly can’t think straight. Give him three ideas in succession and he’s lost. He goes on overload.
He operates on association. You say A and he goes to G right away. You go back to A and he responds with R. He’s up the creek without a paddle.
That’s what’s cruel.
Forty years ago, I was on the verge of landing a lucrative job with a remedial education company. The owner gave me a lesson plan and told me to write a sample program.
I did. He looked at it and said, “There are too many examples and exercises here. You have to move things along faster.”
I told him the students would never comprehend the program that way. They had to work on at least 20 exercises for each new concept.
He was shocked. “That’s not how it’s done now,” he said.
“Oh,” I said, “you mean now the student and teacher both fake it?”
And that was the end of that.
Several years ago, I explained much of what’s in this article to a sociologist at a US university. His response: “Children are different now. They don’t have patience. There are too many distractions. We have to operate from a new psychology.”
I asked him what that psychology was.
“Children are consumers. They pick and choose. We have to accommodate them.”
While I was laughing at his assessment, he capped his display of wisdom with this: “There is no longer a division between opinion and fact.”
Perfect.
I know all about how the Carnegie and Rockefeller Foundations torpedoed education in America. But their major effort was cutting off teachers and students from the history of the nation and the meaning of individual freedom.
What I’m talking about here is a different perversion. The unhinging of the young mind from any semblance of accomplishment and continuity. This goes far beyond the agenda of outfitting children to be worker-drones in a controlled society.
This is the induction of confusion and despair about what used to be called thinking. This is the imprinting of “gaps” that make it very hard for a person to operate, even as a drone.
In addition, seed children with all sorts of debilitating psychiatric drugs, and you have a profound mess that only dedicated parents can undo, one child at a time.
People may wish it weren’t so, but that doesn’t change the facts of the matter.
The upside is, when you explain a concept to a child, and you then take him through a great many exercises designed to help him understand that concept, he’ll achieve a victory.
When you see the lights go on in his mind, it’s very satisfying.
Jon Rappoport
The author of three explosive collections, THE MATRIX REVEALED, EXIT FROM THE MATRIX, and POWER OUTSIDE THE MATRIX, Jon was a candidate for a US Congressional seat in the 29th District of California. He maintains a consulting practice for private clients, the purpose of which is the expansion of personal creative power. Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, he has worked as an investigative reporter for 30 years, writing articles on politics, medicine, and health for CBS Healthwatch, LA Weekly, Spin Magazine, Stern, and other newspapers and magazines in the US and Europe. Jon has delivered lectures and seminars on global politics, health, logic, and creative power to audiences around the world. You can sign up for his free NoMoreFakeNews emails here or his free OutsideTheRealityMachine emails here.
Another great article, Jon.
Although, I feel the old system had flaws. Repetition, if not managed carefully, can lead to the production of robots. ADHD needs to be overlaid on a firm grounding. Old and new must fuse to complete the objective – education and not “programming”.
Best
OT
Jon, do you have any thoughts on the force feeding of abstract mathematics to every student that makes it past the eighth grade? It always seemed like we had to learn it simply because it was difficult and had an unequivocal right answer. What purpose does it serve? The calculator has been around for a long time.
I’ve historically felt that the learning of abstract mathematics aids in the development of abstract thought and analytical ability. Algebra is deductive in its reasoning, hence its practice develops that cognitive skill. Mathematics is taught piece-meal; it’s learned disparate parts do not coalesce to form an integrated and useful ‘whole’ until calculus and higher math, where all previously learned aspects are fully utilized. As for using a calculator, it has been shown that using the brain for these functions, particularly as a child, will enhance and proliferate its neural connections.
Now, having said that, I’m not so certain mathematics is as critical to science as it’s been made out to be. Tesla stated that mathematics contributes a bunch of gobbledy-gook to merely muddy the waters, and we know his comprehension of ‘how things work’ here on Earth vastly exceeded that of all but a few. Einstein stated that most of his work entailed asking a question and then observing. Greg Lisi, a ‘surfer dude’ quantum physicist occupied his mind with the Theory of Everything while surfing and skiing year round. When he solved the problem of the Theory’s ‘missing pieces’ by using ‘high school algebra,’ as he stated, the scientific community reacted wildly and negatively; after all he was not a part of that congealed group. Their vested interests in their own theories was threatened, as well as their achieved scientific status, by one having reached a solution through such a simple means.
In concluding, I’ve found all aspects of mathematics to be greatly useful in understanding, or finding flaws, in accepted scientific constructs and research, as well as in its basic applications in everyday life. But in stepping outside of that contrived limitation of thought is where the smallest, and most ‘earth shattering,’ of discoveries are to be found. One provides function within the human system, the other freedom from it.
This approach to education was already occurring in the 90’s; I called it the ‘shotgun approach’ – vast tidbits of information with no relationship to one another (sound bytes, if you will). No ‘big picture’ forms. All useless and a waste of time.
As a special education advocate, I spent much time observing classrooms. A sixth grade class, after having read a wonderful novel, took a multiple choice test which merely required a recall of incidents which occurred in the story; no open-ended questions requiring that paragraphs be written in order to assess interpretation and comprehension. There never even was discussion surrounding the parallel to be drawn between the main character’s life and how it could appropriately relate to similar situations in the students’ lives.
The most unsettling incident occurred when I was representing a mentally handicapped child who was fully included in middle school. I was taken to the computer lab where all the children were ‘writing’ poetry. The aide just beamed and told me that, for this lesson, no adaptations were necessary for the full participation of the included student. It turned out that the ‘poetry’ being ‘written’ was nothing more than fill-in-the-blanks in a pre-written poem. My response to the aide was, “So you’re telling me that all of these regular ed students are engaging in learning directed towards a 50 point IQ?” I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
Learning is similar to building a structurally sound house. One acquires the basics and learns them well; additional skills are added and assimilated during the schooling years until the house is completed. But then, with life-long learning, aspects of that house continue to be changed and improved over time.
Common Core makes a mockery of ‘education’ – the terms are in no way synonymous.
You have put in to words exactly what I have witnessed regarding my childrens’ education in schools in the UK. Recently my son was ‘studying’ Journey’s End. He did it in a term. When I studied English Literature at school we studied Macbeth and Journey’s End for two years. Each lesson, 1 hour 10 minutes, we worked through a small passage. We covered the meaning of every word and sentence. Throughout the two years we also studied every major character. We didn’t do any fluffy stuff like …imagine you are Captain Hardy or Private Mason writing a letter home…. We studied the text and what the writer was saying. I can still quote lines from both of those plays and remember the different characters. I wasn’t turned off literature by this approach, quite the reverse. Knowing that i could learn to comprehend what at first appeared incomprehensible writing on a page made me want to read more. Of course, we just went to school to be taught subjects, not to have our confidence and self esteem raised, although they were definitely raised due to our education and achievements. The approach now in schools and colleges appears to me to introduce students to a subject and then ask them to give opinions and write essays on something they know little about and understand even less. Of utmost importance seems to be the students’ opinions, not facts, knowledge, ability to analyse, or put historical events into any context. My niece, a lovely girl, is a good example of what this approach to education leads to. She would definitely score A+ for the ability to speak utter nonsense, on numerous subjects, with complete authority.
Common Core was piloted in my children’s schools 14 years ago, when it was announced that we had a new curriculum method. They called this lightly touching upon many subjects and quickly moving from one to the next, a “spiral curriculum.” They assured us parents that they would be “spiraling” back again to touch over and over (once per year) (lightly) upon the subjects. This is a “repetition” of the same shallow treatment, never going deeper, just mindlessly repeating on an endless loop (NOT spiral) the same topics…. it is training the mind to expect nothing more…. and is in fact what is shown on the news. It is a sound bite education.
Lucky for my kids and some other kids, they have parents who actually received a real education years ago, and quickly realized this train had left the station (many other parents were distracted by the endless “stakeholder” meetings to gauge feedback for “continuous improvement” but what was really happening was the schools checking off the boxes of stakeholder feedback achieved, now let’s proceed with our plan anyhow, regardless of anything the parents want). So some of us caught on, and just educated our kids at home, on the side. No, I don’t mean homeschooling because that is not an option for a lot of parents. But yes, we undermined the indoctrination every chance we got and taught our kids to use their minds as designed. I am the one who taught my children math and logic and writing. Not the schools. My poor kids were confused by the school’s methods, and they are pretty high IQ kids.
Fast forward to today, and now we have this same cohort on college campuses stating that there is no difference between a man and a woman, and besides gender doesn’t matter, what a stupid question! I would say…. mission accomplished of Common Core. I just wonder who on earth my children can possibly marry. They feel terribly alienated from their peers who are completely brainwashed into believing, as my son puts it, “2 + 2 = 5.”
I do not have any first hand experience on how children are being taught these days but I can tell you young adults have an interesting view of history. In a neutral tone, I ask college graduates some simple questions and I get the most amazing responses.
Q: Who was the first President of the United States? A: George Washington. Q: Who was the second President? A: Abraham Lincoln. (note: Lincoln was born after Washington had died).
Q: When did Columbus discover America? A: 1882. Q: When was the Declaration of Independence written? A: 1776. Q: How was it that the Declaration of Independence was written before America was discovered? A: I dunno.
Q: Who was the President before George W Bush? A: Kennedy.
Q: Of the three religions: Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, Which is the oldest? A: Islam.
It is difficult to have a conversation of current events with people who have a remedial comprehension of history. The strangest thing is that they think that they are well informed. This is not just one or two people. Try it yourself.
Nice one, Jon.
Today’s ‘educators’ see their clientèle from the consumer society, with its butterfly-minded population, and what do they do!?…. they go with an accommodating approach to educating them!!
Why??… Possibly partly because it would appear to be easier, but also possibly because the elite overlords(well above puppet politicians!) think that confused, restricted people in need of direction, will be much easier to mould at later stages!
Most of the hands-on educators are also probably unaware of the overall agenda, and find that their only success is that of perpetuating a general mindset that cannot concentrate on any one thing for long enough to master it!!
Hence both ‘educators’ and ‘educated’ finish up tense, and stressed, and insecure, and lacking in self-confidence/esteem…. a deficit in attention, and hyperactive!
They also finish up either trying to make up, or catch up, or worse still.. trying to cover up, deficiencies that they can’t even understand themselves…
You’re right on the money with your conclusion that educators are creating and perpetuating a generation of ADHD people, even though in their heart of hearts, they know darned well that they are leading students down the wrong road!
The unfortunate products of all this, are bemused by the fact that they are anxious, stressed, depressed, fatigued and struggling with relationships, and very confused!…. particularly if they have left school/college with a fistful of papers with ‘A’ stamped on them!!
ADHD is the only possible result that can come from today’s approaches to ‘education’, and it plays right into the hands of the few who don’t particularly want them to understand any more than is necessary for their turning their own little cog in the machine!!
Hi Jon,
Another article with which, as a retired ‘educator’, I entirely concur.
I placed the following in your ‘Comments’ section, but thought you would like a copy in reply to your email:-
“Today’s ‘educators’ see their clientèle from the consumer society, with its butterfly-minded population, and what do they do!?…. they go with an accommodating approach to educating them!!
Why??… Possibly partly because it would appear to be easier, but also possibly because the elite overlords(well above puppet politicians!) think that confused, restricted people in need of direction, will be much easier to mould at later stages!
Most of the hands-on educators are also probably unaware of the overall agenda, and find that their only success is that of perpetuating a general mindset that cannot concentrate on any one thing for long enough to master it!!
Hence both ‘educators’ and ‘educated’ finish up tense, and stressed, and insecure, and lacking in self-confidence/esteem…. a deficit in attention, and hyperactive!
They also finish up either trying to make up, or catch up, or worse still.. trying to cover up, deficiencies that they can’t even understand themselves…
You’re right on the money with your conclusion that educators are creating and perpetuating a generation of ADHD people, even though in their heart of hearts, they know darned well that they are leading students down the wrong road!
The unfortunate products of all this, are bemused by the fact that they are anxious, stressed, depressed, fatigued and struggling with relationships, and very confused!…. particularly if they have left school/college with a fistful of papers with ‘A’ stamped on them!!
ADHD is the only possible result that can come from today’s approaches to ‘education’, and it plays right into the hands of the few who don’t particularly want them to understand any more than is necessary for their turning their own little cog in the machine!!
At best, they become bemused ‘A’ students, and at worst.. bemused disruptive students!!
….perfectly useful putty for future purposes that most of them will never become aware of.”
Cheers…
Andrew(Rolls).
(andrewgallowayrolls.com)
>
Charlotte Iserbyt’s ‘The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America’ book and it’s title were spot on. From what I perceive the goal is to prevent the individual from being able to ‘think’. To prevent the use of reason, logic, intuition, critical thinking skills. To turn the individual into simply a ‘stimulus-response’ machine. The person just consumes and then responds as directed. A person who is unable to think is easily controllable. A person who cannot think will be unable to question, and hence challenge tyranny.
Parents. One of the most dangerous places in the world today is the school, especially a US public school. I am not criticizing teachers as a whole. For the ones who are trying to educate they either are fighting a losing battle, or are simply clueless as to what is happening. Your local ‘Independent’ School District is nothing of the sort. It has become dependent on State and National Govt, and thus is controlled by said entities.
This is certainly no accident. Although I find this new type of education insidious, I do not think rote and testing is the way to go. It produces robots. The best system I’ve seen is that of having the students do their own research, even during a “test.” information learned by rote leaves the brain as soon as summer vacation comes. It is not an experience. However, subjects learned by experiencing research with the student becoming involved last a lifetime.
on what age of students should the ‘rote’ method stop being used?
The rote method of learning is but a small sliver of learning, and should occupy only that sliver of space within the larger scope of learning. As an example, rote learning is necessary for remembering the sounds of the letters of the alphabet; once acquired, that rote information is used to decipher newly encountered words, along with contextual content, to autonomously expand reading skills. Conversely, we see rote’s failure as the sole tool of learning when attempts were made with the ‘whole language’ approach to reading, which required the memorization of ‘sight’ words; it was limiting in that, upon reaching the 1,000 word mark, a ‘saturation’ point is reached and it becomes difficult to add new words to the ‘sight’ repertoire. When assessing teaching modalities, it’s helpful to remember, and apply as a measuring stick, the old adage: Give a man a fish, and he’ll eat for a day; teach him to fish, and he’ll eat for a lifetime.
Jacqueline: You are right on in everything you shared here. Teaching rote has its place. With students that “get it” there is little point in boring them with more exercises to keep them down with the ones who don’t get it. Start them on the next step.
Yes, this was the basis for success of the Montessori model – learning through self directed exploration and its experiences.
“I definitely agree with the incorporation of research and discovery learning, with some of the basic ‘tools’ being tucked away for later use, by rote learning, once the logic and mechanics are understood… I am still massively grateful for having the multiplication bonds drilled in… I can still instantly produce the product of any multiple up to 12×12, and it makes all the difference to the other 3 functions too. Unlike a calculator.. I know the ‘why’ and ‘how’ of all these number-bonds, as well as being able to produce instant answers. When I was teaching agricultural science, animal-husbandry, horticulture, and farm-economics in a large comprehensive school(UK), most of our learning constituted following leads and ideas, trying and testing various methods, animal and plant husbandry, etc.
Not only did the (often mentally challenged… I dare not use any other terms!!) students enjoy the process of working on farms, attending livestock auctions etc. etc., (not to mention our own small-holding(pigs, poultry, goats, geese, rabbits, Guinea-pigs, and a host of greenhouse and outdoor produce); they also actually finished up with great exam-results too!… basically as a bonus bi-product of the whole process; which in turn boosted their confidence and self-esteem. These were kids that had never had a “result” in any other subject! And the life-skills and interpersonal skills came as an integral part of the package along with the incidental exam-result bonus!
I always felt so grateful to be able to use my subject in the way that gave these kids what they really needed.. a rounded education through the approach to the subject material. They used to tell me the stories of their lives as we dragged each other’s boots off in the potting-shed!????Many other subjects could work this way, if teachers were given the permission to invoke their own professional judgement in the methods of arriving at the desired destination.
I found that my own work and enthusiasm engendered the same in the most unlikely kids, and I loved my job right up to retirement, even though the whole shebang was, by then, being forced on to its present sinisterly slippery slope by things such as a National Curriculum, SATs, the removal of most practical experience(health and bloody safety!!) and the following of instincts and working together.
Today’s educators are now mostly working AGAINST their own instinctive judgement, to produce what??!…
Yep…. ADHD!! It’s a crying shame, and a criminal treatment of today’s educators and their students.
But at least we now know what the ‘powers that be’ are up to!!
Awareness of that, is half the battle to win back our right to a properly conducted and positively all-round effective education.
“Education” is not the word I would use for what’s going on at the moment!!”
I agree with this article, it is not only elementary schools but now college. My son had failed a college math course and I asked why. He said they introduce 5 different ways to do the same problem then want us to show proficiency in all 5 ways. I looked at his college text(which was written by the teacher). It was true they introduced 5 ways to solve the problem instead of choosing the best one and then testing all 5 ways to the extreme. There was not enough time in the world to become proficient with so many different mathematical solutions to the same problem. It was confusing and I agreed.
When I spoke with the math professor he said well this is mathematics and the direction the school is going is every person taking any math course needs to be treated as if they are going to get a degree in mathematics. Which is great if you love math then its really cool to learn all these different ways to get the same answer, because to that math loving person “its all good”! The way I went through college we were given problems and expected to get the answer not show work on the 5 ways that you could possibly get the same answer.
I thought it was crazy adhd at the time and it parallels the findings of this article. It is this way of thinking that is crazy, skidding across the tops and peaks of education learning nothing and getting a real wicked brain burn.
There are other factors bombarding school children and teachers (all of which I disdain), besides the obviousness of poor subject matters: over-crowded classrooms, poor texts with too much confusing and fluffy information, budget cuts so no field trips, peer association in one grade (peer socialization), military drills & bells, rules that make no sense – just shut up and obey, parents who are too tired and busy to help with confusing homework that even they can’t figure out, poor food and nutrition in the schools, too much time spent on useless activities (sit down, line up, be quiet), and the list goes on.
The whole system has gone awry starting with the school systems that prep most people to work in jobs that they don’t like as if they are machines and not people. It becomes obvious to many people that this system is designed to make these outcomes, while putting people in this position: how does one get out of this mess when they depend on their jobs to pay the bills? It becomes a crazy cycle. Eventually, people find ways out and around it when they are truly sick of it enough, and what I see coming from that are a lot of (young) people going around these systems and creating their own lifestyles, learning new skills, going in new directions, etc. in spite of it all.
I just don’t see any of us changing these systems. I don’t suggest trying. I think if we all become less interested in cooperating, that alone will make them keep changing the systems to eventually meet what does work for human beings, not the other way around. At which point, the obvious answer will be: we don’t need these systems.
I often suggest to parents to read John Taylor Gatto.
If your curious about what is going on now with the new common core, listen to the anti-common core information by Dr. Duke Pesta on Youtube.
SPOT ON LAURIE!
And yet no one seems to connect the rise of feminism with the degradation of society? Not one person has mentioned this. No one has associated or correlated the supplanting of male by female and the appalling consequences. Dumbing down might be more extensive than you think?
No one in the media. I’ve been saying this for years. When mom goes to work, she leaves the well-being of her children in the hands of people who don’t care like she does. Feminism has destroyed the integrity of the family and marriages. I watched it when it started back in the 70’s.
Younger people weren’t there so they have no perspective of all the intricate ways it has destroyed women and the heart of the family unit. In my opinion and observation, the solidarity of the family is the core of any society.