Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #655811 in Books
• Published on: 2005-03-30
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 387 pages

Customer Reviews

An eye-opening look at the pitiful reality of the U.S. public school system
In Public Schools, Public Menace, author Joel Turtel unleashes a veritable full-scale assault on America's public school system, calling for nothing less than its complete disbandment. He then proceeds to describe a number of low-cost ways to fill the ensuing educational void. We all know the sad state of our public education system today, but I for one had never taken a step back to look at the whole picture. My own pet issues are political correctness, historical revisionism, and illiteracy, but Turtel shows these important areas of concern to be nothing more than the tip of the iceberg. The heart of the problem is the fact that our children now exist to serve the public school system instead of the public school system existing to serve our children. Turtel is spot on time and again in his descriptions of the many problems with public schools today, and his information on alternate, parent-driven means of education are of great value. If nothing else, parents will be much more aware of their options after reading this book, and that makes it invaluable -- even if you don't agree with all of his conclusions. Personally, I would not make any decision based on this one book alone, and Turtel has supplied readers with a great storehouse of additional references. The public school system has obviously degraded a great deal since my younger days, and I don't have any children, yet I now plan on reading much more on the subject of public education -- that's how eye-opening this book is.

There are basically two parts to this book. The first part details the problems plaguing public schools today -- and they are legion. First and foremost is the fact that significant numbers of high school graduates are functionally illiterate. There is no excuse for this whatsoever. Turtel's resources indicate that the average child can learn reading, writing, and basic arithmetic in one hundred hours, yet far too many young people never learn these skills over the course of twelve years of schooling. This problem has only been exacerbated in recent years by a move toward whole language teaching rather than phonics. What, you ask, are these schools actually teaching our kids, then? In increasing numbers of cases, and we've all heard examples of this on the news, public schools are indoctrinating kids with anti-American, anti-Judeo-Christian, and anti-parent values. Political correctness has run amuck in the public schools, replacing facts with "feelings," immersing children in foreign and pagan religions while forbidding the very mention of Christianity, dumbing down the textbooks, rewriting the history books, sending sixth-grade girls out to drugstores to buy condoms, etc. It just goes on and on. What we are talking about here is a policy of mind control, oftentimes literally with the increasing use of Ritalin among our children. Turtel argues that ADHD is a bogus medical condition -- I don't know about that, but I do know that Ritalin (which can have serious side effects) is prescribed for far too many children today. Oftentimes, it's the smarter kids who are bored out of their minds in class because they aren't actually learning anything. What I did not know is the length educators will go to force Ritalin down the throats of any student they choose -- to the point of threatening to hold kids back a grade (despite passing grades) or charging parents with child abuse and neglect if they dare resist giving their normal children mind-altering drugs. This, to me, is the scariest, most alarming section of this altogether shocking book.

Basically, Turtel describes a public school system that is increasingly circumventing parents and asserting its own right to shape the mind of every child in America -- brainwashing them into a liberal way of thinking while teaching them next to nothing. What is to be done? Turtel's unequivocal answer is to take your children out of public school. In his eyes, the public school system is too far gone to save. Despite large numbers of educators who truly want to educate our kids, the system itself prevents them from succeeding. His solution? A free market educational system that puts all the power in the hands of parents. He has his own answer for the many objections raised by such a plan. For example, he discusses ways in which the poorest of students might be given aid for private schools and spends a considerable length of time extolling the virtues of Internet schools and home-schooling, listing resources that many parents could use to teach their own children. This second part of the book is filled with valuable information that all parents should take a look at. For me, though, Turtel's bold ideas and counter-arguments are born more of passion than empiricism. Maybe I'm just too pessimistic, but Turtel's brave new world can sometimes sound quite utopian in nature, a world where all children want to learn and basically determine what they choose to study, professionals come into homes to teach specific job skills and welcome young apprentices into their businesses, extensive socialization of home-schoolers takes place naturally, etc.

Parents definitely need to take a cold, hard look at the state of public schools in their local area, and this book is a very good place to start your quest for giving your child the best education possible. If you're stuck with sending your child to a failing school, you will learn that you may have options after all. Personally, I don't agree with a number of Turtel's conclusions, but that doesn't take away from the impact this book had on me. Public Schools, Public Menace has definitely inspired me to learn more about the state of America's public schools.