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Paul Aijian MD's avatar

This is why many parents have decided to home school their children. The ideology of the public school system can be dated back to John Dewey, (of library filing system fame) who proposed that public education would be the means to “bury the rotting corpse of Christianity”. He died in 1952. Since then, education has gradually transitioned from being largely run by people of faith to people who are atheists. The goal of the Marxists has been to take over education, and thus control the nation, without needing fire a gun, in their conquest of what used to be a Christian nation. The success of this coup is seen in the incoherent nonsense written in the manifesto of the thieves at the dining commons. Borrowing a fortune to send your children to UCSB, and most other similar institutions, seems not just a bad investment, but a form of societal suicide.

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Steven Jonathan Rummelsburg's avatar

Dr. Aijan, the number of homeschoolers has more than doubled in the last 5 years, but I thought after the plandemic when the schools piped their brainwashing into the homes that more would be revolted and pull their children out- but at least the movement is afoot! I do believe that there is no possible way to reform our rotten public schools. I spoke at the Santa Barbara Conservative Republican’s meeting on Friday and your words echo several things I said, as if you had been there, but I must conclude we share a mind on these things! Suicide indeed!

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Thomas John's avatar

Societal suicide aside - why is a UCSB degree a bad investment?

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Steven Jonathan Rummelsburg's avatar

Thomas John, if it is a suicidal agenda, that ought to do it.

However, it is much more comprehensive than that- we would have to begin with a true definition of the word "education." I do know one or two professors who know what that means, but the vast majority at UCSB have no idea. Still, if you were to indulge the consensus of the last 2400 years, you would learn that an education is a spiritual endeavor primarily aimed at perfecting the intellect and forming the free will. It also has very important bodily and practical aspects, but they are secondary. Intellectually and morally, the UCSB diploma, of which I am in possession, is not worth the paper it is written on if we are honest about a true education. As an economic proposition, it can be materially lucrative, but less and less so, and the very agendas inculcated in the universities will eventually ensure even its purely material value in the work force before too long. So truly, a bad investment in a real sense, but by appearances, very attractive.

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Montecito93108's avatar

That piece of paper is essential to accessing any government job. Therefore, if conservatives continue to homeschool and become society’s ostriches, communities will continue to be governed by bureaucrats holding diplomas.

Avoidance is not the answer. The home schooled live in a surreal cocoon isolated from interaction, from reality, that is even more limiting and restrictive to the education of those in private schools.

Is your and Dr Aijian’s goal to have mini-communities of like minded evangelical Christians; or to teach youth analytical thinking skills - to question authority - to decider right from wrong, which will enable full participation in their life on Earth?

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TheotokosAppreciator's avatar

Evangelicals form a tiny minority of Christians globally and Christians are more than capable of questioning secular authorities and engaging in critical thinking. Don't be that person who thinks that faith and reason are incompatible. Don't be that person who thinks that the Church is somehow opposed to science (the Gallileo incident has been misinterpreted by atheists to fulfill their own agendas).

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Montecito93108's avatar

I do not think faith and reason are incompatible. The topic is educating youth which includes religion. Comparative religion instruction is a critical part of learning about the world we live in. Faith is a source of hope; and the source of interpreting life for those living faith-based lives. Non-practitioners pay attention to statements made by - and the beliefs of - religious people. The double rainbow when Queen Elizabeth died was noteworthy for those studying the religious history of the English monarchy.

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Steven Jonathan Rummelsburg's avatar

Montecito,

I am afraid your post is full of fallacies and fables.

There are many government jobs that do no require that "piece of paper."

Homeschooling is nothing comparable to ostriches sand burying- surely it will surprise you to consider that to send children to public school where they actively engage in brainwashing, the ostriches awards go to the public schools. There is nothing about the public classroom that "socializes" a human being in a healthy way.

I will agree with you that avoidance is not the answer, but homeschooling is not avoidance, continuing to send our children to public schools is the true avoidance, at least from a moderate realist worldview- I can see how from a secular humanist worldview all of our respective answers will be contraries-

An authentic education at home is the opposite of what you describe, it is liberating, integral, and edifying, while the public school is narrow, alienating, and deforming.

I think the good Dr. and I advocate recognizing that parents are the first educators of our children and it is our responsibility to protect our children from the malevolence in the public schools. It is true that the inculcation of the true liberal arts and sciences and true moral formation allows for a soul to live a full life on earth, it doesn't matter where they get this education, but they will not get it in our schools- while on the other hand, as can be seen starkly on this thread, those most "educated" by the public schools are the least likely to live a fulfilling life.

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Montecito93108's avatar

I respectfully disagree with the lens in which you view public education. The best education comes from parents and others. Youth learn much about life from other students, adults and families unlike themselves. It’s the parents job to navigate the system, and to ensure academics and critical thinking skills are learned.

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Steven Jonathan Rummelsburg's avatar

Fair enough- Montecito- I can't disagree with this post too much- but I must say, I have been in the public schools since 1970- and as a teacher I have spent most of my years in low socio-economic settings- and also many years in affluent areas, and I have seen, as you suggest, that good families mitigate most of the damage the public schools intend to do- but in poor areas with broken families, no such mitigation takes place and the devasting effects of the public schools on vulnerable communities is jaw dropping. Public schools are intentionally intellectual and moral cesspools meant to break down the building block of civilization, the family, and to brainwash students into the material dialectic and worse.

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Montecito93108's avatar

Other than high level appointed exempt government positions, will you please list a sampling of the “many government jobs that do not require ‘a piece of paper’” to access? Most all local listings require a a piece of paper to be considered for employment. Automation of government parking lots has even eliminated need for human attendants. (AI has and will continue to reduce labor needs making networks even more important to the educated a d skilled.)

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Steven Jonathan Rummelsburg's avatar

There are countless people who work in public schools without degrees.

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Ranger's avatar

Excellent article. Parents of these pampered children are the problem. They were too busy worrying about themselves, so they let the government raise their kids or let the TV/media do it for them. To be a responsible parent is hard work, and most Americans now days think "Hard Work" is for losers.

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Steve's avatar

Marx would be proud how the useful idiots are still in use today.

Liberalism is a mental disorder.

Have a nice day!

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Troy Greenberg's avatar

Let's be action oriented. Much ink has been spilled describing and identifying the problem. The time has come for a restoration, not a revolution. We must personally confront the revolutionary's everywhere. At work, at school, in the grocery store. Don't keep your opinions to yourself. We need to actively push our positive vision of the future; ie a return to our interested rights, traditions, and morality.

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Paul Aijian MD's avatar

We need to ask people some uncomfortable questions. The other day a woman said she was going to vote for Biden. She was shocked to learn that he and his entire evil party endorse abortion from conception to 9 months. This is what Gore called an “inconvenient truth”

Pro life Democrat is an oxymoron

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Stephen H Siemsen's avatar

I would be even more "shocked" if someone out there could show me PROOF that "abortion at 9 months" is the endorsed position of ANY political party. Any person who opposes abortion because he/she is "pro-life" and does NOT support day care, infant nutrition programs, pre-school education, and early childhood development and healthcare is NOT "pro-life", they are just "pro birth".

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Aimee Smith's avatar

Dear SHS, Nice to see someone else with different views posting here. I am a registered Green for nearly 25 years (Go Ralph Nader!) b/c as someone who is pro-life, I oppose unjust wars and the death penalty, and as someone who is pro-democracy, I oppose unchecked corporate power. (The Green Party is very coopted by the climate tyranny and the rainbow tyranny, but lets leave that to one side for the moment.) Some Greens support big government programs like national health care, but others fear it gives the government too much power over individuals. For example, I know someone who in order to get WIC assistance with her infant in the early part of this century, had to submit to a retina scan! Would there be any hesitation for a government run health care program to require mRNA injections and refuse to prescribe safer, time tested medicines like ivermectin? There is also the concern that the government policies of providing can undermine the values of society. Some think it is better to have local, human-scale charitable organizations support getting single mothers on their feet instead of a corrupt bureaucracy that one might think is incentivizing the destruction of families like was credibly claimed by Daniel Patrick Moynihan. Conservative Catholics would like to see more support for the idea of preserving sexual relations for the confines of a committed sacramental marriage between one man and one woman to vastly reduce the rate of pregnancy outside of marriage. What I would love to see is more actual conversations and explorations of ideas and policy options and opinions rather than trying to box someone in based on an assumption of their values and motivations (part of the ad hominem fallacy that has been warned against for more than 2000 years.) And this is an appeal to people on all sides as well as a reminder to myself! I think the times are dire and we need sincere, concerned people to come together in love and good will to see what we can do together to protect ourselves, our children, our families and our community. The first step is being able to speak to one another and hear one another.

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J. Livingston's avatar

You get all that for free, just by choosing not to murder your own child? Seems a little counter-incentive just to hurl invective at Republicans.

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Montecito93108's avatar

Where is all that is needed by an infant to age 12 provided free? We certainly like to know. When I check, there are too many qualifiers for most moms to access “free”.

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Amara Grace's avatar

There is no difference between a baby at 2 months in the womb or 9 months in the womb, except for development. People who do not support abortion and also do not support free healthcare and handouts still remain pro-life regardless of the idiotic rules you put on us. It's a ridiculous trope you're perpetuating- a complete lie. Pro-life is Pro-LIFE. Pro-choice is pro- DEATH.

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Earl Brown's avatar

Just wait 'till Trump get in - all this crap is gonna change quick!

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Troy Greenberg's avatar

Maybe, but we can't wait for him. We also must take responsibility for the changes. We're a constitutional Republic and it's our job, as citizens, to justly wield power and influence. We are the leaders we've been waiting for.

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Jeff barton's avatar

The dining hall is now serving free food and word salad. The salad should be viewed as the regurgitated words of the teachers and not of the students. The vast majority of teachers at the university are far left activists who see their job as indoctrination over education. Most teachers and administrators at the university level get their positions by virtue of their ideology, skin color, genitalia or perverse sexual orientation. The students lack of respect for property is taught by professors who have perverted their mission as educators. Nothing is valued as much as that which has taken hard work to obtain. In the case of the teachers, their positions were not obtained by a track record of academic accomplishments but rather by fitting an ideological template. Consider the example of Claudine Gay. Similarly, the students do not earn the privilege of university attendance by hard work but are rather funded by taxpayer dollars under the ruse of a loan which will never be repaid. Getting the Government out of the business of funding the universities should be a top priority of the 2024 Trump presidency.

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Montecito93108's avatar

Stop government funding and require standards! MIT is a good model, requires hard work 6-7 days a week: no legacy, athletic or donor privileged admissions, and no scholarships. Only 1000-1100 students accepted; one faculty advisor for every 4 UG students on annual rotation to provide student oversight and accountability plus faculty 1:1 interaction. There’s a course syllabus and standardized testing with exams made by the department not the teacher. There’s an exam center. Students can be reimbursed for dining with a faculty to expand their learning and personal interaction skills. A corporate board runs the school; some corporations are on campus. Don’t measure up? There’s a knock on your dorm or fraternity door.

Much needs to be improved in public and private education. Start immediately by putting a volunteer adult in the back row of every classroom to observe and listen. Senior Retired Volunteer Program (RSVP) is a good start. Look at what retired Raytheon volunteers accomplished at Dos Pueblos High School!

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Mike's avatar

Thank you for the article; most of these students would not last 24 hours in Palestine.

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Carla Reeves's avatar

All I can say is "wow!" Is this what higher education has come to? And we the taxpayers are supposed to forgive their student loans??? I think not. Send these kids to Palenstine to help the Palenstinian people get fed. They'll return humbled.

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Ranger's avatar

Another point to be made here, is that these self righteous punks think they are so magnanimous by giving away other peoples stuff. Hmmm? Sounds like commie logic. I for once would like these liberal do-gooders give away their own property that they have had to work for. Liberals a really good at giving other peoples money away, but hell if they will give a dime of their own.

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TheotokosAppreciator's avatar

They aren't liberals, they're revolutionaries with their embrace of radical leftist ideologies. Liberalism, especially in the classical sense isn't too unlike contemporary conservatism.

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Earl Brown's avatar

Ranger - it's Commie-DEM logic!

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Anne-Marie Castleberg's avatar

Good article. I understand the horror we experience seeing the suffering in Gaza. But surely Hamas are the bad guys. I wonder if these young people realize that

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Earl Brown's avatar

Steven - good article - nice getting the inside scoop.

Couppla thoughts:

1. Activists like chants? “Engineering, you can’t hide; you are building genocide!” Ok, I suggest we Americans come up with a few: “Activists who chant for perks, underneath are Commie jerks.” Corny, but I’m sure we can come with others more effective.

I still think some of these kids are protesting and demonstrating because it beats sitting around their dorm room, and they might meet a guy or girl and get lucky.

2. This broad comes up to Johnny, (Marlon Brando) in the movie “The Wild One” at an activist party - "What are you rebelling against?" Johnny - "Whadda ya got' ? That’s about how ‘dedicated to the cause’ some of these activist dopes truly are.

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DAN JOHNSON's avatar

As someone who has had a daughter graduate recently I can say she is definitely a brainwashed liberal loon.

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TheotokosAppreciator's avatar

Well if you're her parent why didn't you do more to prevent her from embracing revolutionary and enlightenment beliefs?

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Earl Brown's avatar

How's a 'fuddy-duddy' parent gonna do that when all her friends, peers and classmates are going the other way?

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TheotokosAppreciator's avatar

By raising her well? By instilling in every child you have a sense of morality founded in objective truth and goodness. By bringing her up in the Christian faith and living it out, answering questions and asking for assistance from others when you don't know how to respond.

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TheotokosAppreciator's avatar

I'm also 20, probably younger than the daughter of the person above and yet I'm a Catholic Monarchist who has nothing but disdain for revolutionary, enlightenment, secular ideas. If anything I'm for more of a fuddy duddy than them. If I was once a contemporary liberal in my teens advocating for the same mainstream causes promoted today I don't see why you can't raise your child to be conservative.

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Celeste Barber's avatar

First, a question: Was the student takeover of the dining commons covered by the local press? (TV News, Independent, Noozhawk. . .)? I haven't followed the news the past few months, so this latest fools escapade was off my radar. Second: Just beneath the surface of the excrement that presents itself as a manifesto, is unapologetic anti-Semitism. The statement reeks of Jew-hate. How much more are people of decency expected to tolerate?

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Steven Jonathan Rummelsburg's avatar

Celeste,

I am not aware of any publicity. I was told by the students that the UCSB PD came to DLG commons and told the perpetrators it was stealing, but my guess is that they didn't do much beyond that- and in the Daily Nexus article they report that the PD didn't get involved at all. One of the Liberation Zone's demands is to completely defund the UCSB PD- This entire endeavor is advanced by the culture of death, these kids are sawing off the branch on which they sit, but I believe the real hatred is of the Great Western Tradition, the very tradition that stands between Marxist utopians (read hellscapes) and the most pusillanimous generation in history.

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TheotokosAppreciator's avatar

The culture of death? Pope Francis defines the culture of death as the promotion and accepted of abortion, euthanasia, capital punishment, poverty and social injustice, environmental degradation, and consumerism, materialism, among other issues. What do you define it as and what is the 'Great Western Tradition'?

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Steven Jonathan Rummelsburg's avatar

Anything that is contrary to the culture of life- I consider modern education that flows from materialism to be an endeavor of the culture of death because it begins by a rejection of that principle that animates man, the indivisible soul, it rejects objective truth and the objective moral standard, it rewards viciousness and punishes virtue This is the agenda of the culture of death- even if most teachers are unwitting participants, theoretically the entire endeavor is the inversion of the order of reality which leads to death.

The Great Western Tradition is the Tradition of Western Civilization that begins where Jerusalem and Athens meet.

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Jeff barton's avatar

Some of Pope Francis' declarations are baffling and not representative of Catholic ideology as I understand it. Just as some of Bidens declarations do not represent American values as I understand them.

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TheotokosAppreciator's avatar

Pope Francis supports beliefs deeply rooted in the Catholic Faith and traditionalism; social justice which is at the center of the gospel is among them, and his embrace of universal love and charity is up there too. I suggest not listening to secular news or supposed "traditional Catholics" who are led by pride and care little for objective reporting.

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Jeff barton's avatar

Your responses have the flavor of the kind of dialog I can have with chat GPT. A sea of platitudes punctuated by gross misrepresentations such as social justice is at the center of the gospel.

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TheotokosAppreciator's avatar

As per usual you offer nothing substantive in your replies to anything I say, merely belittling me in a patronizing manner.

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TheotokosAppreciator's avatar

It literally is, the Gosepel clearly mentions looking out for the poor, the orphan, the widow, the foreigner. I don't care for what you think is social justice, I care for the Catholic definition. That contemporary conservatives (who conserve nothing) like you attack and belittle anything you don't support as either Marxist or just plain wrong is frustrating. I'm a Catholic Monarchist so don't conflate social justice with what leftists want.

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TheotokosAppreciator's avatar

There's nothing antisemitic about being opposed to both Judaism and Zionism. Judaism cannot save, you can not come to the Father without Christ, and the Church has also opposed and challenged Israel's existence on scriptural grounds.

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Paul Aijian MD's avatar

I take care of some UCSB and SBCC professors who are truly dismayed by all this.

They don’t endorse this insanity, even though they would be described as classic lefties. They have moved closer to the right, simply by virtue of the left wing of the Democrat party driving off the cliff like Thelma and Louise.

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Lou Segal's avatar

They can only get away with this if the university is run by incompetent fools. Stealing restaurant food is supposedly a crime, at least it was in years past.

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Brent's Journal's avatar

President Clinton stopped the banks from vetting the potential ability for applicants to repay student loans, by replacing the banks with the federal government. Can anyone remember the feds ever doing something more efficiently than the private sector? Sadly, this was also true of the student loan program. The reckless administration of the program caused some to borrow more than they could reasonably hope to repay. Again, predictably, the answer of the feds to one of their programs that fails, is to double down, which is what Biden is doing by pretending to "forgive" loans. Actually he is "reassigning" the debt to taxpayers, despite the Supreme Court ruling that this violates the Constitution by having the executive branch make the funding decisions instead of congress.

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Carol Redhead's avatar

If I were a parent of these UCSBers who actually believe this nonsense, I would cut off funding their schooling.

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