Define public education. Not what you would like it
to be but what its intended goal is. If it is anything other than a system of
indoctrinating youth toward a particular kind of adult model lets start with that.
Do you have a few years?
That, of course, is the $64,000 question. (Question: which was worth more, the $64,000 question in its day, or the million you can win in who wants to be a millionaire in this day? Taking into account both inflation and taxes -- which would have left you with more net purchasing power? But I digress.)
It's much easier for me to say what public education should not be than what it should be. for example, it should not be designed to create docile office and factory workers for industry, though that's what many industrialists think it very much SHOULD be.
I'll give a preliminary crack at what it should be, knowing full well that this is a work in progress and will be easy to shoot holes in for those so inclined, but knowing also that it may serve to move the discussion forward for those so inclined to that end.
I think the basic mission of the public schools should be a) to encourage and support, not crush, the natural love of learning which all children have, (my initial formulation was "to instill in all students a lifetime passion for learning," but on reflection I realized that everyone is born with this, and that all the schools need to do is NOT crush it, which they too often do) and b) to produce citizens who understand the fundamental principles of a free society, including the obligation of responsible dissent; who understand the historical, political, economic, and societal values, events, and imperatives which have put our country in the position it is in today; who have sufficient skills to have a reasonable range of employment and higher education options available to them on graduation; and who have sufficient training in the seven classical branches of knowledge to be able to participate actively and constructively in what Robert Hutchins called The Great Conversation. |
