We can, I think, get lost in minutiae over the development of public education in America. Enough went on in such a complicated story as this, that we can agree that where we differ, the differences are essentially ones of perspective.
To reiterate; when Jefferson set out what was to become the basic structure of the American public education system, he had in mind six fundamental “objects” of what he regarded to be a primary education:
“1. To give to every citizen the information he needs for the transaction of his own business.
“2. To enable him to calculate for himself, and to express and preserve his ideas, his contracts and accounts in writing.
“3. To improve, by reading, his morals and faculties.
“4. To understand his duties to his neighbors and country, and to discharge with competence the functions confided to him by either.
“5. To know his rights; to exercise with order and justice those he retains; to choose with discretion the fiduciary of those he delegates; and to notice their conduct with diligence, with candor and judgment.
“6. And, in general, to observe with intelligence and faithfulness all the social relations under which he shall be placed.”
These are, I think, yet today what many people generally have in mind for their children when they consider their expectations of a primary education. Others, of course, wish only to have the state, as much as possible, relieve them of the burden of raising their children (including, in some localities, the preparation of breakfast, dinner, and even some weekend and summer meals).
Of the six fundamental objects above, which (if any) do you suppose would rank of highest priority among politicians and bureaucrats for the achievement of their objectives? I suggest, none would (or even meet the approval of politicians and bureaucrats).
Since at the time “public” education did not exist, being a purely private matter, we can forgive Mr. Jefferson for not comprehending that, like religion, if left to the authorities of the State, education would ultimately come to be regarded by those authorities as merely a function of the State’s information ministry, and that its existence must necessarily serve the State’s objectives (that is, the intentions of the politicians and the bureaucrats whom we have so foolishly permitted to control our lives). We can pretend no such unawareness today.
When dealing with the issues of what to teach and how to teach it, you will find that you must come to terms with the fact that “public” education ultimately amounts to government indoctrination. That we have so long escaped this fate is perhaps a testimony to the wonderful government, despite its faults, we once had, but the government of Mr. Jefferson’s time, when he so energetically endorsed a locally funded education, is not the government it has come to be in our lifetime. If government is to be in charge of education, then it will educate our children in what it wants them to know, and not necessarily what is in their own best interests to know.
For example, see # 5 above: Government will not want us to know our rights; it will try to teach us to be obedient, and to not think too terribly much.
So let us understand with what we must deal. Government indoctrination centers will teach us what those who have day-to-day control of government, want taught. We know who has day-to-day control of government. If nothing else, our experience of the last thirty-four years (that is, since the Carter formation of the Education Department) should have taught us that. We also know that there are local differences of opinions that promise to keep “Education” roiled in local disputes that will persist into the foreseeable future.
“The very purpose of the First Amendment is to foreclose public authority from assuming a guardianship of the public mind...because the forefathers did not trust government to separate the truth from the false.”
. . . . . Thomas v. Collins, 323US516, 1945
The foreclosure of “public authority from assuming a guardianship of the public mind . .”
For example, the prohibition of a government establishment of religion, or of a government proscription of the free exercise thereof, because we cannot “trust government to separate the truth from the false.” With respect to religion, several hundred years’ experience of conflict made this obvious to Jefferson (and many another Founder). Jefferson did not see that the same dynamic would arise in a “state” education. Neither, then, can we “trust government” to separate the truth from the false in the education of our children. If ever there ought be a ‘wall of separation’ let it be between government and society’s constituents, and let that wall be society itself.
What has proven the annihilation of our Republic is the continuing growth of a ruling elite dedicated to an old order of government, which is much more to the advantage of its rulers than the structure of government devised by the Founders. This elite, composed of the men and women occupying seats of Federal power, and increasingly of state and local power, is willing to betray the liberties of the people, believing they can purchase their acquiescence with free medical care and food stamps, for the sake of the power they can attain thereby. It would seem they have calculated accurately.
It is only the Judeo-Christian tradition (of which I am unaware) that stands against those elements of society who have concluded that, not being able to persuade society to their view, they must now resort to using government coercion in the realization of their ambitions. And the use of government coercion, in my view, is what we must oppose.
Thanks for your post.
I’m sorry it took so long to respond. Life intrudes on my computer time.
You’re right. No matter the genesis of socialized schooling we need to deal with what exists today.
The fact is socialized schooling is a failed experiment. I submit that a free market capitalist school system will come closer to realizing Jefferson’s six objectives than the single payer socialized system we suffer under now.