The State of Education - Part I

This is Part I of my thoughts on education and the quotes at the end should be given very careful consideration to lay the foundation for Part II.

Most people today think that the public school system has served a very valuable service in our society and I would probably agree; except that just as the U.S. Postal Service, once an integral part of everyday life, has outlived its usefulness, so has the public school system.

Once there was a general consensus among the majority of working people about life, religion, morality, family life, etc. In fact, most people believed in some form of Christian morality and wanted it taught in the schools. Today, attempts to deify diversity in our society have shipwrecked any possibility of providing a meaningful education. We can’t even agree about what constitutes a valid marriage so how will we teach our children about history, social studies and world affairs?

John Dewey, considered by many to be the father of our modern educational system, traveled to eastern Europe to meet with people whom he saw as like-minded and returned to the US where he became one of the original 34 signatories of the first Humanist Manifesto and probably the main author of the document. Mr. Dewey was given high recognition for his works by the National Education Association so while most of our educators today might not see a problem with the Humanist Manifesto, many of today’s average parents would probably think differently. Dewey planned to accomplish the goals of the Humanist Manifesto through the use of the public schools and was considered by many historians to represent the epitome of liberalism as well as “dangerously radical.” Dewey abandoned his religious upbringing in the Congregational Church and his work was instrumental in the 20^th century rift between religion and science. Dewey’s Humanism advocated the idea that educators benefit students by eroding belief in God and instilling the idea that we are made stronger by hope in our own efforts. Dewey thought that any belief in God was foolishness.

Dewey’s ideas on evolution and religion fly in the face of quotes without number made by our founding fathers from Washington down to Lincoln, and beyond, concerning the value of religion and life as well as the need for such to keep the US great as a nation.

Indeed, concerning government controlled education, consider the following (disclosure - I am in no way advocating for any of those quoted below other than to present what they had to say about education as of interest):

“As for money, the relationship between it and effective schools has been studied to death. The unanimous conclusion is that there is no connection between school funding and school performance." — John Chubb & Terry Moe, Brookings Institute, 1990

"The more subsidized it is, the less free it is. What is known as `free education' is the least free of all, for it is a state-owned institution; it is socialized education - just like socialized medicine or the socialized post office - and cannot possibly be separated from political control." — Frank Chodorov, 1948

"We are opposed to state interference with parental rights and rights of conscience in the education of children as an infringement of the fundamental Democratic doctrine that the largest individual liberty consistent with the rights of others insures the highest type of American citizenship and the best government.” — Democratic National Platform, 1892 What happened to the Democratic Party of 1892?

“Government will not fail to employ education, to strengthen its hands, and perpetuate its institutions.” — William Godwin, 1793

“Historically, much of the motivation for public schooling has been to stifle variety and institute social control.” — Jack Hugh

"The group consisting of mother, father and child is the main educational agency of mankind.” Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

“The aim of public education is not to spread enlightenment at all: it is simply to reduce as many individuals as possible to the same safe level, to breed a standard citizenry, to put down dissent and originality.” —H.L. Mencken

“State education is a mere contrivance for molding people to be exactly alike one another...in proportion as it is efficient and successful, it establishes a despotism over the mind, leading by a natural tendency to one over the body.” — John Stuart Mill, 1859

“The only time my education was interrupted was when I was in school.” — George Bernard Shaw

“…I am bemused by the fact that in the late 1700s, when most people had little if any formal education, the citizenry was bombarded with broadsheets and pamphlets that dealt with complex and revolutionary political ideas and philosophies. And today, after decades of universal mass education, we have USA Today and the world in 30 minutes (if you count commercials).” — Ron Wolk, founding editor of Education Week

“Every child in America entering school at the age of five is insane because he comes to school with certain allegiances toward our Founding Fathers, toward his parents, toward belief in a supernatural being, toward sovereignty of this nation as a separate entity...It's up to you to make all these sick children well.” — Chester Pierce, Harvard psychology professor

“When school children start paying union dues, that's when I'll start representing the interests of school children.” Albert Shanker, longtime American Federation of Teachers president

And finally, let’s hear from Karl Marx, the father of modern communism: “The education of all children, from the moment that they can get along without a mother's care, shall be in state institutions at state expense.”

Please stay tuned for "The State of Education - Part II."