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For The Children: Save Yourself, Get Expelled

[Editor's Note: The following post is by TDV contributor, Justin O'Connell]

Hi Kids,

Do you find yourself locked down at your local dangerous public school between the hours of 7am and 3pm five days a week (six if you have Saturday school) for nine months a year (ten if you have Summer school)? Do you find it a waste of time? Well, there’s no need to worry anymore, because The Dollar Vigilante is here to give you the lowdown on how to handle your plight. Be sure to share this information with a friend in the same situation!

I was recently speaking with my twelve-year-old nephew. I asked him:

“What grade are you in?”

“I am in sixth grade?”

“Do you like it?”

“Why would I?”

Of course, I am proud of him for this answer as is his extended TDV family. But his answer was also disturbing. Because by my public school-educated estimates, if he is currently in sixth grade, that means he has, like, six more grades to go until he is freed from the physical and mental confinement of public school. A lot of damage lies ahead for this fertile, active mind. So I wondered, what could TDV suggest to this kid (and others like him) to help? I looked back on my elementary school, junior high and high school days and I thought to myself: If there is one thing I would do differently, what would it be?

Would I a) study more, b) have more casual sex, c) do everything in my power to undermine the authority of all the robotic and totalitarian teachers and administrators, as well as campus officers?

Well, the answer is an undeniable "c." (Technically, I guess, "b" could fall under "c.")

So what does this choice entail? Simply enjoying the privileges being under the age of eighteen in the USSA? I figure that if I had to do it all over again, here is what I would do in certain situations. If you’re currently in school, you have a choice now: Every time a teacher disrespects you, treating you as a subhuman, you can either submit to their illegitimate violence-backed authority or you can develop your social skills.

Here’s an example of how to do the latter:

I remember the first week of junior high when a kid took my hat off. I received detention for having my hat taken off. The Vice-Principal Nordquist took me by the arm and dragged me into the office. I was scared. She must’ve loved it – the power, the authority, the skin contact with a young life. Back then, I submitted, just hoping I wouldn’t be seriously reprimanded with weeks of detention or something for nothing.

Kids, this is how this would go over for me knowing what I know now, and I urge you to consider standing up for yourself, without fear of “expulsion.” So what if your high school grades won’t get you into college? Take the GED, go to community college, and then do whatever you want, whenever you want. Instead of ending up in debt and working for someone else, start a business. Use TDV Weekly to help with your investments.

VP: “Do you know why I brought you in here today?”

13 year-old me: “Fuck you, why did you touch my person without my permission?”

VP: “Excuse me, don’t you use that language with me!”

13 year-old me: “I will use whatever language I want – this isn’t church. Now I need to speak with your supervisor because you just grabbed me by the arm without my permission. Bad enough I am here against my will, forced to consume your sub-par services my parents are paying for at gunpoint. You need to let me speak to your supervisor and it needs to happen now or I will be calling my parents to tell them you’ve assaulted me. Do I make my 13 year-old self perfectly clear?”

My girlfriend's sister recently received no credit on a very important five-page paper in her English class. She now risks failing and being held back. My girlfriend had helped both her cousin and sister (they have the same English class) write the essay, and so the quality of both were about the same. But her sister received no credit (F-) because she hadn’t accurately done one part of the essay, while her cousin received an A. The teacher told the sister that she received the grade she earned, an F, despite the fact that she spent hours doing the project. So the message is that all her work is rendered worthless (Isn't the point of “grading” to measure the various degrees between perfection and getting everything wrong?).

The sister and cousin have pointed out to us that the teacher makes quite a few grammatical and spelling errors on the board (I, too, have witnessed many an English teacher who could not spell. With that said, there are many people who spell words differently, and I believe that if I understand what is being expressed, then that's generally okay by me). But since the teacher is an unreasonable hag, my girlfriend's sister's spelling and grammar problems are completely unacceptable.

Were it I in this situation, I would raise my hand in class...

Me: “Teacher, teacher – who the hell taught you how to write English and then made you a teacher?”

Her: “Excuse me?”

Me: “You suck at spelling and grammar and I am supposed to sit here and respect you and trust your judgment on the subject? Give me back the time I’ve wasted in this class.”

The moral of the story? Be yourself in high school and don’t bend over. If you are out on recess and a teacher asks you to hand over an iPod just because you were enjoying music during what should be your break, refuse to hand it over; If a teacher insists that you raise your hand to go to the bathroom, don’t – just go. As TDV has expressed over and over again, public schools are nothing but concentration camps for you to waste your time and brain. Let’s take a look at some very rich individuals who never graduated high school:

Richard Branson (Virgin) – With an estimated net worth of $4 billion, Richard left high school at age 16 to start an arts and cultural magazine called Student.
Eminem (Rapper) – With a net worth over $300 million, Eminem once failed the ninth grade three times before dropping out.
Jay-Z (Rapper) – With a net worth of nearly $500 million, Jay Z never graduated high school.
Andrew Jackson (President of the United States, picture on twenty dollar bill) – With little formal education, Andrew studied law in his late teens and became a lawyer.
Jack London – American author
Ray Charles – American musician
Dizzy Gillespie – American musician
Peter Jennings – US/Canadian journalist
Ansel Adams – US nature photographer
Louis Armstrong – American musician
Humphrey Bogart – Actor
Rosa Parks – Activist
007 – Superspy (Neither Sean Connery nor Pierce Brosnan graduated)
Charles Chaplin – Actor-writer-director-producer
Thomas Haffa – German self-made double digit billionaire

This list goes on and on and on. I think one might have more of a chance for success by dropping out of high school than staying the course…

In fact, your chances for success in just about every area rises dramatically when you swim against the usual advice in this world full of brains so addled by government indoctrination. Nowhere can this be better seen than in the realm of investing. The short answer is to bet against the crowds of sheep in every developing mania, usually brought on by some government interference or another. The more complete answers can be found in TDV's Weekly Newsletter.

Justin O’Connell studied History and German Language at Linfield College in McMinnville, Oregon, where, in his spare time, he researched current events and their relationship to history. In his studies he has found that societies have been managed by philosophically-kindred ruling classes seeking persistently a singular, total order across the planet. Justin does not believe in government as a medium for human relationships, preferring instead the race of human ideas stemming from a diverse, vibrant culture. Currently, he is a proponent of physical silver as a means of wealth preservation and disobedience to the financial system, and lives in southern California. He writes at the Dollar Vigilante-inspired site, Silver Vigilante.

Let us be clear. We are not against education. We are just against anything that is accomplished by means of theft and violence, that is anything accomplished through the state and the political "process". These things are not only inherently reprehensible. They are also inherently inefficient. Public school (and private and even home school as they are highly regulated by the state) provide very much the same useless programming for millions of very different individuals. It is like a classroom composed of hundreds of different kinds of animals who are all graded on their ability to climb. It's the communist version of education. The market would produce hundreds, maybe thousands of ways to educate children -- just like it produces countless kinds of automobiles to fill consumer demand -- all of them better than the current prison model that takes 12 years to teach them what could be learned in two.

I admit to my shame that I have been seeing a public school teacher lately. I consider it a personal failing to associate so intimately with a person who gets paid out of stolen loot, but it has given me a bit of confirmation about some of these crazy free market ideas of mine. She is actually the one who after fifteen years in the system brought up to me the idea of entrepreneurialism in the education market. "I would love to start my own school," she said, "I know that all these kids have different needs, that the system is horribly flawed with its attempts to group and to standardize.

"But it would be too hard to get started and compete..." And here I launched into an explanation of how government is either a monopoly in certain markets itself (education, money, policing) or supports a near monopoly with its favored players (just about every other industry). Sadly she fell back on her statist training and said that public schools just need even more money to cater to the kids better.

You and I understand that would just be tossing good money after bad, akin to putting young minds in the government-monopolized education system...where they spend twelve years not learning how to be productive or entrepreneurial.

Our advice: don't spend a dime more on school for yourself or your children than you are already forced to by the state. Learn how to make money instead. Figure out how to turn your and your children's talents and interests into a means of support and wealth accumulation. And with the money you save by not throwing it away on school, let us help you figure out where to put it so that it grows as the end of the current monetary system presents new opportunities.

Regards,

Gary Gibson
Editor, The Dollar Vigilante

Comments (8)

Sam Glasser (not verified) - 12 weeks 3 days ago

To Justin:
If you had a friend in "prison", wouldn't you "visit" him? This is what I have been doing for 25 years - as a substitute teacher in CA high schools. (I never became a regular teacher because I would not join the Union.) I do it because I like to relate to young people, and I treat them as equals. I encourage study, but don't demand it - because I believe public education should not be mandatory, nor "free" for that matter. I also encourage students to learn a "trade". At my current school we have auto shop, carpentry, welding, AG with a farm. I admit I like the attention students give me. For example: on entering the campus, some kid will shout here comes "old man Sam". (I'm 84) Before I know it, one or two will have their arms around me.....Or, I told a student at the start of class "there was a lot of work to do" (a fun video, actually). His reply: I don't ever do school work, but for you I would......
Young people have to go to school, so I try to make it more enjoyable for them.
Old Man Sam

justinoc - 12 weeks 3 days ago

Hello Sam,

Thank you first of all for everything you do in the classroom and on campus. Also, thanks for giving us your perspective. Truth be told, I actually had a GREAT high school experience. At San Dieguito Academy in Encinitas, CA individuality was valued for the time I was there (it has been since more homogenized, a process that started while I was there and before) and I am truly grateful for the experience. When thinking about the discussions I have had with school age children, all of them are quick to defend first and foremost those teachers and administrators that show them respect, as you do. I knew that in writing this article, the intended audience (open-minded teenagers) would take this information responsibly. They could hear one person talk trash on the supposed authorities in their life, and they could weigh that perspective against their own experience and come to a conclusion. By writing this article, I simply wanted to demonstrate trust that the kids wouldn't take a perspective like this and go and do bad. It's only entertainment : ) with lesson perhap involved.

Do know Sam that people like you will be remembered for a long time into those students adult lives, and you've probably touched some of them in more important ways than even their parents...

all the best,

Justin

Another Joe - 12 weeks 3 days ago

We pulled our kids out of the government sponsored indoctrination camps for these very reasons, and more. When we did it, it was still kinda fringe. Friends questioned us, "Do you really think you can do as good a job as trained professionals?" But we didn't have to follow much in the way of state guidelines either. Our state was pretty lax. All we had to do was register with the local school and tell them that we were homeschooling. One of the pincipals actually encouraged us and told us he would help with any resources we needed.

In one sense, it was hard because we really didn't know what we were doing. Our overall goal was to teach them how to learn - how to teach themselves. It's been very productive and both of them are doing well, mostly on what they've taught themselves.

On the other hand, it was soooo much easier. We didn't have to subscribe to the school's time table. We did things when we wanted, without worrying about them missing a class or us having to be there to pick them up. And everything became a learning opportunity. How many ten year olds can string up a barbed wire fence, dig post holes, change the oil in the car, do their own laundry, handle a gun safely, maintain a budget, etc.?

They weren't submitted to the dynamic that caters to the lowest common denominator. They weren't indoctrinated to socialistic programming (well, not in school, though the culture is hard enough to overcome). They were taught to think independently and outside the societal constraints - at least as much as we knew how to free them in this regard. And they learned that failing was a matter of perspective. Each failure is an opportunity to improve. If viewed correctly, the only "real" failure is a failure to strive to do your best and honestly assess yourself when the goal reached for wasn't attained.

We were far from perfect in our efforts. But, rather than abdicating the opportunity to train our own children, we did what we could with the little we knew in an effort to forge ahead into territory that used to be normal, but is mostly forgotten.

justinoc - 12 weeks 3 days ago

Another Joe,

First of all, thank you for taking your kids out of school! It can be such a damaging experience, and although I will defend my day-to-day high school experience (i can't tell you how many times I left campus after lunch while students were supposed to be returning.), I look at so many of the damaged lives around me, and not to mention the traumatizing elementary and junior high experiences I had, wishing I had been more of my anti-authority self at that young age (and i certainly did not respect anyones' authority, but I was definitely a bona fide slave child by my standards' today).

You got to go at your own pace, and the pace of your children, while homeschooling. How novel! Usually when students aren't going at the right "pace" they get slammed with meth, like my brother did, who still doesn't understand the lack of responsibility demonstrated by those involved in raising him. While attempting to let go of such animosity, I still struggle with the fact that my parents (my father a cop who constantly grounded me and even hit me over a certain plant) would drug my brother with pills from some square in a white coat.

Look at it this way, Joe, and I am sure you do:

Your kids did not have to talk to a red, white and blue cloth every single day hanging above the black board.

That should make you sleep very soundly night after night...

Another Joe - 12 weeks 3 days ago

You bring up an interesting point - one that's tied directly to the problem at hand; victimization. Our culture breeds a victimization complex. Nothing is our fault.

My first ten years as an adult (for lack of better term) were filled with much resentment that my parents hadn't done a better job. But I realized that they only did what they thought was right because they'd been indoctrinated into the system. Why did I recognize this while they didn't? It's certainly not because I'm better or necessarily smarter.

But I am grateful for the insight Providence has given me. By grasping a new vision I've been able to break some chains in my family that I see others continuing. We're the oddballs on both sides. One thing I wish I had done though, is to have traveled around the world with my sons. But I was quite patriotic as a young father - perhaps slavishly so.

As a father who's made plenty of mistakes in raising my own sons, I can say that I made those mistakes with good intentions. But none of us is perfect. I'd gladly go back and do it all over again, if I could. But I can't so I simply attempt to pass on what I've learned to my sons and whoever else will listen. I remind them often to stand on my shoulders in regard to the things I've done right, and learn to overcome the things I've done wrong.

Thanks for being candid about your own situation. I hope you don't mind if I offer a bit of friendly advice - forgive your dad. Bitterness robs us of joy and rots us from within. It hurts us more than those we continue to harbor animosity toward. I remember the day I forgave my dad. To my surprise I realized I really did love him afterall. Sadly, that day came just one day before he suddenly died of a heart attack. But I'm grateful the day came.

justinoc - 12 weeks 3 days ago

I don't mind at all, 'Nother Joe! Thanks for the useful insight. I feel most happy and free when I accept the absurdity of daily life as just that, instead of getting angry, and this is included with parents generally. That means taking deep breaths daily and staying calm amidst the insanity. Once the brief insanity passes, if you did not briefly become insane yourself, you're a stronger better person for it, each time. That forgiveness is oh-so important to moving on and becoming an individual. It is important to remember that forgiveness does not necessarily come with the other party understanding what there is to forgive. That can be very difficult.

My Dad and I have lots of fun discussing all sorts of issues, and he opens my mind up just as I do his. He is why I am just as quick to embrace that many police became police to do good as I am that they are a threat to man.

Another Joe - 12 weeks 3 days ago

Great insight Justin (my first son's name too). I'm glad for you.

Thanks for the thought provoking aricle and opportunity to discuss something that many people seem to take for granted. While I wouldn't counsel my kids to tell the teacher off, I do encourage them to ditch the statist programs in favor of freedom and the ability to think for themselves. Realizing we started understanding and teaching them about liberty a bit late, with our fourth grandchild on the way, we hope they've caught the vision.

Your final comment brought up a good question; "Have I ever been grateful for a policeman?"

Off the top of my head, I can't really think of a specific time. And I was raised to respect and appreciate them. My best friend's dad was a policeman, but he flew a helicopter and really wasn't stereotypical. They grounded him just before he'd reached a retirement milestone. He hated it so much he retired early, giving up a substantial amount of pay in the process. I'm kinda grateful to him, in a general sense.

I've gotten a few tickets, none of which I'm particularly grateful for. I don't recall one actually helping me out when I was in a jam. I do recall being treated like a criminal as a teenager, though I rarely broke any laws. They were quite successful in fomenting an us vs. them mentality.

To protect and to serve? I'm sure some still think that way. Have I ever been grateful for a policeman? I digress from the point of your post, but it might make a good article... :)

justinoc - 12 weeks 3 days ago

I agree, wholeheartedly 'Nother Joe. I am thankful for those times that certainly fewer and farther between where I was allowed to walk without being taking on after clearly breaking the law in this manner or that manner.

Was there a time I was actually grateful for a police officer???

hmm....

I've heard some helpful stories, but the times police have helped out citizens it generally could have been anyone individual, had all the other individuals not been running around in their own mental rat race. To use that word "grateful" regarding a police officer...I really can't say that...