Was Lincoln right?

[Trailrider1951]

10. That clause is absolutely the key to the rest of the quote

I'm nearly 70 years old, and I have seen first-hand the downgrading that has happened to Public Education in this country, beginning in the early 1970's. Science and Math were once the Holy Grail of Education in the USA, back in the 1950's and early 1960's. The English language was taught in great detail, along with French, German, Latin and Spanish in my high school. Art and Music were required of elementary students, and offered as electives in high school. Things really began to change around 1968, with the Civil Rights upheavals, the student unrest over Vietnam, and the assassinations of our liberal leaders. The Powell memo in the early 1970's was the blueprint for what we have now: a large part of American voters who have been uneducated and miseducated all their lives, and when exposed to the propaganda of Fox "News", Newsmax, and One America "News", are ripe for manipulation by emotional hot-button topics like abortion, crime, guns and the like.

And that's where we are today. Public school teachers now have to teach to the test, instead of guiding the children's innate intellectual curiosity. Scientific method now stands on the same level as creationism. University students whose families are not wealthy are having to mortgage their futures in order to educate themselves. And that present-day education is now more of a training ground for the job market, instead of the exploration of ideas that it should be. It's vulture capitalism to its core.

OK, I'll get off my soapbox now.