A Competent Society from the Ground Up

US Government Schools Designed to Destroy Young Minds

A monstrous zombie bureaucracy in Washington DC controls the government school system, and strongly influences education throughout the US.  Over the decades, the zombies have destroyed young minds by the millions.  But now, alternative pathways are emerging which substitute the teaching of genuine knowledge — and practical and profitable skills — in place of the mainstream zombie methods of groupthink indoctrination and learned helplessness.

We have already looked at the exceptional US Basis Charter School system, whose students often test higher than students in the vaunted school systems of Singapore, Korea, Germany, and Shanghai. Today we will look at charter schools that build real-world skills that are immediately applicable in the workplace.

Utica Shale Academy
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The Utica Shale Academy provides a unique and vigorous learning environment through a specialized academic program which responds to employers’ and industries’ current and emerging and changing global workforce needs and expectations through business/school partnerships.

The school’s overall goal is for students to develop work habits that foster independence, self-awareness, and commitment to personal growth, as well as achieve competency in industry and academic standards. USA’s mission statement is backed by their oil and gas industry centered curriculum. The following is an example of a course in the program:

Introduction to Well Control. This self-paced interactive multimedia program takes a rig hand through the basic concepts of well control in an easy to understand, straight-forward manner. Course objectives include: Well Control Equipment, Units of Measure, Hydrostatic Pressure, Pressure Balance, Causes of Kicks, Controlling the Well, and Restoring the Well.

Other sample courses, each with unique objectives, are:

IADC Rig Pass: A basic orientation of rig operations and safe work practices. (IADC RigPass certificate available).

Introduction to Petroleum Industry DIT: This course is designed for individuals that are interested in a comprehensive understanding of the upstream and downstream operations of the petroleum industry.

Introduction to Petroleum Industry DIT Drilling Focus: This course is designed for individuals that are interested in a comprehensive understanding of the upstream operations of the petroleum industry with a focus on drilling.

Introduction to Petroleum Industry DIT Production Focus: This course is designed for individuals that are interested in a comprehensive understanding of the downstream operations of the petroleum industry with a focus on production.

USA students graduate with a high school diploma, but the school’s specialized and other related courses lead students to a number of certifications necessary to enter the oil and gas marketplace. The photo at the top of the article shows USA students visiting a well site.

USA opened its doors in 2014 with an initial enrollment of 43 students; by its second year, 71 students had enrolled. The oil and gas industry is taking note of USA’s program, which was recently recognized by the trade publication, Pipelines Connection Magazine. More information on the Utica Shale Academy can be found on its website.

Another Ohio charter school, the Ohio Valley Energy Technology Academy (OVETA) in Jefferson County, is a year younger than USA, but has a similar education program tied to the oil and gas industry. In its 2015-2016 annual report, OVETA explains how it meets its educational challenges:

The structure of OVETA is very student driven and provides a blended learning atmosphere that incorporates core courses with added education to prepare students for the workforce…. Students punch a time clock and learn the importance of knowing and keeping a schedule just like on a job site.

OVETA held its first graduation ceremony in May 2016, when five seniors were awarded diplomas.

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Practical Skills Training Prepares Youth for Immediate Substantive Income

Most US youth are subjected to a “college prep” curriculum, although only roughly 25% of them are suited for a rigorous 4 year college degree. We have revealed how well trained, competent 18 year old welders can make well over $100,000 a year from their 18th birthday onward. But welding is only one of the much-in-demand skills which do not require an expensive 4-year college degree, and which pay a high enough salary for a smart youth to begin investing for the future in earnest, from a relatively young age. Contrast such a positive start to adult life with the more common decades of debt that confront the average youth who attempts to complete a (worthless) 4 year degree for which he is not suited.

This Type of Program Should be the Rule, Not the Exception:

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Jason Gresham has been shaping the lives and careers of high school students in DeSoto County for 15 years. Gresham averages between 30 and 40 high school students every school year. The students range in age from 16 to 18, with the majority of his class members either juniors or seniors looking for a career in industry-rich Mississippi.

He teaches the basics, starting students with stick welding and cutting torches because he believes a good foundation is the start to a career in welding. As the semester continues, the students progress into MIG and then TIG processes.

But in today’s multi-faceted world, his class does not end with welding alone. To ensure his students are sought-after prospects in the real world, Gresham’s high school class is a revamped collection of disciplines that include machine shop, sheet metal work and welding.

“We focus on these high school students to give them a real sense for what type of skills are marketable, what they must have in the workplace,” says Gresham. “Metal fabrication calls for more than one skill today, unlike what it used to be. We teach these kids how to do it all inside the Career Tech Center Metal Fabrication shop.” __ Source

Because of their zombie groupthink indoctrinations, too many modern students and graduates are drawn to a thuggish destruction of property, physical beatings of innocent bystanders, and denying of free speech to those with whom they disagree. This herd-like zombie behaviour is a direct result of a deep lack of personal competence and total absence of any independent, internal moral compass.

Rather than a zombie indoctrination, young people need to be given a foundation of competence as they set out to live their lives. Instead, they are set up for a lifetime of debt and a lifelong dependency on regimented directions and talking points from above.

Government schools in the US destroy more lives than they help. This tragedy results from a corrupt ideological system of educational bureaucracy that has been badly in need of overhaul for the past 55 years. Perhaps a President Trump can “drain the swamp,” kill the bureaucratic zombies and lobbyists of DC, and begin to build a system that instills competence and earned confidence.

Young people with practical skills remain fully capable of obtaining higher level degrees and professional training if they choose. By entering adulthood at the age of 18 fully capable of fending for themselves financially, professionally, socially, and emotionally, Dangerous Children represent a potentially revolutionary phenomenon far more threatening to the established order than a brigade of Donald Trumps would be.

But a mere battalion of Donald Trumps scattered through the US executive, congress, judiciary, bureaucracy, and military/intelligence/law enforcement organisations could help open the door to an abundant and expansive human future of Dangerous Children.

Zombies delenda est. 😉

The above article is adapted from posting previously published on the Dangerous Child blog.

Update: A new sheriff in the US Department of Education may pave the way for serious zombie-killing

And none too soon: Under Obama, the official US Government policy was “No Thug Left Behind!”