Dana, I don’t mind the link a bit! Thank you, that shows exactly what Bonhoeffer was talking about. And highlights what we Americans need to be on guard against today.

Mr. Chairman
I would like to explain something
Every third word in our school time
dealt with those
who were guilty of all
and that must be eradicated
It was hammered into us
that this was the best
for our own people
In the Fuehrer-schools we learned above all
to accept everything silently
When someone asked something else
then it was said
What was done was done according to the law
It helps nothing
that the laws are different today
They said to us
Your job is to learn
You need schooling more than bread
Mr. Chairman
Thinking was taken from us
That was done for us by others
(The accused laugh in agreement)

Holocaust Day

Another interesting excerpt from the Gatto essay I linked to above:

Kindergarten was created to be a way to break the influence of mothers on their children. I note with interest the growth of daycare in the US and the repeated urgings to extend school downward to include 4-year-olds. The movement toward state socialism is not some historical curiosity but a powerful dynamic force in the world around us.

Our government schooling system is destructive to the family. The history of the insitution, as so well explained in Gatto’s essay, makes it clear that the aims were never to build up the family or the individual, but the state.