(Back after traveling a few days)
Mav, do you not find the Woodrow Wilson quote telling? There rarely is a workable conspiracy involving large numbers of people. That's not really what's at issue here. I'm sure Wilson and his cohorts thought they were doing the best they could.
I think there has been a strong shift away from "the basics" to a load to toachy-feely tripe in the last several decades. I remember in high school (1972) getting put into "Honors" History and "Honors English" and learning little history, except for the Bantu tribe in South Africa, and no grammar. In English we were encouraged to be "creative" and as a consequence virtually all of the A students were taking speed and mescaline for something to occupy their attention. It was in a university class in Spanish that I finally realized I didn't know what a preposition was. It took years of finding the right university professors to help me read and write clearly. Looking back (and having taught Latin and Journalsim to 6th, 7th, and 8th graders; Freshman English to university students as a gradute student; Business English at Business College; legal writing to paralegals, and executive writing skills to California law enforcement at Command College at Cal Poly Pomona), there is a very clear pattern of mostly "unconscious" evil in our public education, with some conscious help from ideologues who operate in the education department and various Trusts and Foundations.
As always, evil is often not seen by the good, who have difficulty believing in it without have had a direct experience with it.
