One reason public schools get away with educational failure, year after year, is because they are run by school officials who passionately believe in what they are doing. As the great English writer C. S. Lewis wrote, "Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. Those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."
Public-school true believers often fall into this category - for over a hundred years, education "experts" have been tormenting our children with public schools, allegedly for the children's benefit. Like all true believers, these people believe that they know what is best for our children and society, and seek to enforce their beliefs on parents.
From the 1850s to the 1920s, public-school activists such as Horace Mann and John Dewey worked to create a public-school system like the one they admired in Prussia (Germany). Mann and Dewey considered public education a religion, with a holy mission to mold children and society. Simply teaching children to read, write, and do math was too commonplace a goal for them. Mann and Dewey wanted the schools to have total control over children's lives. This meant removing parents' influence over their children. Mann put it this way: "We who are engaged in the sacred cause of education are entitled to look upon all parents as having given hostages to our cause."
Dewey also had a utopian vision for America and he wanted the common schools to achieve his vision. To create a socialist America, public schools had to mold generations of children into the habit of obedience. In his Pedagogic Creed of 1897, Dewey wrote, "Every teacher should realize he is a social servant set apart for the maintenance of the proper social order and the securing of the right social growth. . ."
Public Schools Expand Their Control Over Our Children By the early twentieth century, public schools had expanded their functions into areas undreamed of in the 1850s. Schools took on the role of social agencies, with nurses, social centers, playgrounds, school showers, kindergartens, and "Americanization" programs for immigrants. Public schools became a major agency for social control.
Unfortunately, today's public schools are fulfilling Mann's and Dewey's socialist vision with a vengeance. There is hardly any area of children's lives that school authorities don't push to control or manipulate. Politicians and public-school apologists in many states are now pushing programs that would make kindergarten compulsory. Public schools also now spend billions of dollars for psychological counseling, school-lunch programs, parent welfare-outreach programs, special-education classes, bilingual classes, early-childhood programs, drug and sex education classes, as well as programs for millions of "at-risk" or "special-needs" children.
This government-knows-best philosophy is the deepest reason why public schools get away with educational murder and can never be fixed. Many public-school apologists believe that your children's education must be dictated by local governments and school authorities. By implication, they believe that parents are an annoyance at best, and at worst a danger to their children's proper education. That is why public-school true believers will never voluntarily give up control over our children. They see themselves as noble idealists who know what is best for our children. That is why these "idealists" have contempt for parent's rights.
Joel Turtel is an education policy analyst, and author of "Public Schools, Public Menace: How Public Schools Lie To Parents and Betray Our Children." Contact Information:
Website: http://www.mykidsdeservebetter.com,
Email: http://www.mykidsdeservebetter.com,
Phone: 718-447-7348.
Article Copyrighted ? 2005 by Joel Turtel.
NOTE: You may post this Article on another website only if you set up a hyperlink to Joel Turtel's email address and website URL, http://www.mykidsdeservebetter.com
This time, I would like to talk about a subject... Read More
This is one of the most common questions asked of... Read More
I'll never forget my first lesson in a glider.I'd been... Read More
Are you looking for the Ultimate Airplane Themed Party Games... Read More
Part of the responsibility of being a father is to... Read More
The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 is making... Read More
At age seven months in the womb, humans begin language... Read More
Public education in the United States has never been equal... Read More
Are you a frustrated parent who sometimes finds it is... Read More
Many working families choose a commercial or individual day care... Read More
For first time parents choosing a swing set or outdoor... Read More
As thinking, acting human beings we have the ability to... Read More
Life is funny.My twenty-year-old daughter, Melanie, has a her new... Read More
(Excerpted from Jim Rohn's 2004 Weekend Leadership Event)You have to... Read More
If I had a dollar for every time I persuaded... Read More
There are some grounds to assume that a cognitive dissonance... Read More
If you had to spend 4 or 5 hours in... Read More
Get into their world. The world that teens are growing... Read More
Is there a difference between lazy and unmotivated? Why do... Read More
``Mom, can I go to the mall with my friend... Read More
As a step daughter and step grand daughter, I followed... Read More
You send your child to school and the teachers teach... Read More
Frankly, as a single parent of young children, I struggled.... Read More
Certainly we all want our children to excel. But it... Read More
The distressed adolescent often has feelings of abandonment, emotional detachment,... Read More
Des Moines rental limo ..Diagnosing children and teens with ADHD can be a challenge.... Read More
When my daughter was born, I must admit there was... Read More
We're all familiar with the over-indulgent parent. But there's another... Read More
Is your babysitter watching the kids and your k9 family... Read More
Many times, we are so conditioned in how we speak... Read More
Reading is the most efficient and economical way to help... Read More
Q: My husband and I are at a loss as... Read More
Q. Things have been relatively calm and OK with our... Read More
How to Get Your Child to Love Reading was conceived... Read More
Do you have a high maintenance child?"Thank goodness my second... Read More
Ritalin is a good medication with a bad reputation. Its... Read More
I used to have a really challenging job. It was... Read More
Hey Parents! I hate to tell you, but there is... Read More
(Excerpted from Jim Rohn's 2004 Weekend Leadership Event)You have to... Read More
Why are more people, especially parents not outraged?I call it... Read More
As parents, we love our children and want to do... Read More
I remember when my daughter was born, later my son.... Read More
When my oldest daughter was born, I walked the floor... Read More
The least flexible character in all of the stories of... Read More
You do what you can to keep your little ones... Read More
All of us, including your child, entered this world equipped... Read More
Much has been said about the "gifted child" but in... Read More
Choosing to leave your child with a caregiver is one... Read More
This past holiday season Canadians spent over $45 billion-with parents... Read More
Many of us have grown up drinking caffeinated diet sodas... Read More
Parenting |