I just noticed on Amazon that a review of my book [THE INDEPENDENT HOMESCHOOL}, though kind about my YouTube channel, they dissed my book because of my criticism of Mass Education (and Social Justice Warriors). While it’s totally cool to disagree, I think the complaint was taken out of context…so let’s see what you think and what we can learn.
Here’s the review:
1. I don’t like you?
The reviewer starts out with a conclusion that I don’t like them. This is an error of identification, where one concludes their view is equal to who they are. It cuts both ways because they also, I assume, that I can’t like people I disagree with. Naturally, I can even love people I disagree with; proved by the fact that I am a part of a family!
2. Illogical?
I may be illogical, but it would need to be demonstrated. Basically, I made a claim rather than a logical proposition. It could be that I have an outlandish assumption about Mass Education, but I don’t think ‘illogical’ belongs here.
3. Can’t Absorb Tips
I get not enjoying the book, as mentioned, but why can’t a person learn from someone they disagree with? This is part of the challenge with SJW’s…they can’t seem to think independently (sort of my point). If your ability to learn is crashed by thinking in terms of black-and-white categories, then you are sort of doomed. I went to Alabama, so my mortal foe is Auburn. If I find out a book I want to learn from was written by an Auburn grad, I’d at least say, “A broken clock is right twice a day,” and see what I could absorb. This is what I actually mean by insecurity; another person one disagrees with must be dismissed or disregarded because it’s safer. True?
4. Personally Responsible for the education of their children?
Okay, so now logic. Given that one gives their children’s education over to a Mass Education (Public, especially) method, how are they personally responsible? The raging debate in the land is from countless teachers and boards of education that are challenge parents’ rights to be involved at all.
5. What I really Said:
Here’s my full quote with context from THE INDEPENDENT HOMESCHOOL book:What’s so bad about mass education in America? Well, it varies from one area to the next, but basically it’s about the environment and the education. The environment is morally unsupportive in our way of thinking. Most of us are cautious about the kinds of kids we like our own to befriend. We all know that ‘you’ll never be like the people you don’t hang around’, true? Drugs, violence, promiscuity, weak academics, all of these are a part of the concern, but we aren’t naïve. We do know that some kids wind up in AP classes, and some make friends with moral and academic leaders. We know in any environment we are all going to have to determine who we want to model and what we want to accomplish. Mass education environments, however, turn the odds against us. Mass education, as we all know, is also a social engineering experiment growing an army of insecure social justice warriors who neither understand nor honor free speech and individual responsibility.Lybrand, Dr. Fred Ray. The Independent Homeschool: How to Cheerfully and Peacefully Educate an Independent Learner without Getting Stressed Out, Burned Out, or Constantly Irritated (p. 10). Kauffman Burgess Press. Kindle Edition.
First, I think there is plenty of evidence to show that there has always been a social agenda with education, but more so in the past few decades. The reviewer is right about a need to give evidence, but that really isn’t the point of my book. Instead, I’ll offer the Wikipedia definition (stared by an Auburn grad):
Social engineering is a top-down effort to influence particular attitudes and social behaviors on a large scale—most often undertaken by governments, but also carried out by media, academia
or private groups—in order to produce desired characteristics in a
target population. Social engineering can also be understood
philosophically as a deterministic phenomenon where the intentions and
goals of the architects of the new social construct are realized. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_engineering_(political_science)
I’d say that is close enough to what is blatant (a claim!) in public mass education these days. Educators and systems are clearly trying to influence particular attitudes and social behaviors, in fact, they were doing the same when things were more ‘patriotic’ in the past.The key is that that the output demonstrates what the system is doing. It is ubiquitous that graduates cannot handle conversations with those they disagree…seeking to shut down or avoid discussions. This is contra-academy, which has always allowed for the discussion. The mere example of demanding what one calls another (him, her, they, etc.) is an example of what I would understand the SJW’s attack against free speech. Yes, the 2nd amendment is about the government, but it is the principle we are concerned with here. It’s the equal to burning books. I get that we should be careful which books we allow the immature children to read, but when they are old enough, they can read what they want. Going so far as to burn books is the very thing America worked against from the lessons of history in Europe. In particular, I’m thinking that free speech is actually all about free thought (See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpB6eDG5WnY)Finally, I’ll note that I said, “Mass education environment, however, turn the odds against us. I never said (or think) mass education is ‘only designed’ to create SJWs, etc. I mean that if you are wanting to produce an independent thinking, then the odds are greatly in your favor with education your child in an independent homeschool. Am I wrong? -Dr. Fred Ray Lybrand
