Miseducation

Miseducating children is a far greater crime than not educating them!

John Taylor Gatto was a seventh-grade teacher with twenty-six years of experience. He was named New York City Teacher of the Year for three years running and State Teacher of the Year in 1991 by the New York Senate. Gatto has lectured at Cornell University and taught philosophy at California State College.

In his essay ―A Few Lessons They Won‘t Forget: The Disgrace of Modern Schooling,‖ published in the Sun Magazine in May 1991, he wrote: ―If I‘m told that evolution is a fact instead of a theory, I transmit that as ordered, punishing deviants who resist what I have been told to think.‖

In his book ―Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling,‖ he writes: ―In a home-school, the kid does 95% of the work. But in a school system, since it‘s an indoctrination system, a teacher has to do 95% of the work.‖

Dr. Frank Smith, a Canadian psycholinguist, earned a Ph.D. in Psycholinguistics from Harvard and held various teaching positions in Canada and South Africa. In his book ―Insult to Intelligence‖, he criticizes the modern education system for its flaws, including treating students like products in a factory model; prioritizing obedience over creativity; fostering conformity and discouraging individuality; prioritizing factual knowledge over critical thinking; and causing student alienation.

Apart from the critiques of modern schooling by some of the most brilliant minds in the West, I have personal experience studying in an American Junior High School, graduating from an American University, and teaching at two Western-styled universities in Pakistan.

I have also spoken at over 40 universities in the US, including MIT, Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania, John Hopkins, Georgetown, and the University of California. In my experience, the Western schooling system teaches that evolution is a fact; that there are three types of marriages: one between a man and a woman, the second between a man and a man, and the third between a woman and a woman; that consensual sex between any adult regardless of their gender is fine and legally allowed; that our intellect is sufficient for us to fashion our lives; that material wealth defines success; that religion is a combination of rituals and traditions and has no place in public life; that our passion must determine our purpose in life and not divine knowledge; and that one of the prime pursuits of the human spirit is the pursuit of happiness (as opposed to submission to Allah (SWT) in Islam) as outlined in the US Declaration of Independence.

The above is nothing but a classic case of miseducation. Any sane mind will choose no education over this education! Miseducation that pits the creation against the divine revelation of Allah (SWT), laying the foundations of its failure in this life and hereafter.

It represents an ultimate form of oppression (ظلم) inflicted upon humanity, propagated by state-sponsored and enforced standardized education systems in the West, which have been adopted in various parts of the world.

In the Quran, Allah (SWT) states:

وَمَن لَّمْ يَحْكُم بِمَا أَنزَلَ اللَّهُ فَأُولَٰئِكَ هُمُ الْفَاسِقُونَ

“And those who do not judge by what Allah has revealed are [truly] the rebellious.” (5:47)

I pray to Allah (SWT) to bring about a day when we Muslims can actively challenge countries that endorse this form of education.

Our efforts should range from gentle admonition to more forceful measures such as economic sanctions, diplomatic isolation, and, if necessary, even war to break this cycle of oppression.