THE DEMISE OF PUBLIC EDUCATION

I was educated in the public school system.  From kindergarten through the middle of the third grade I attended public school in Pittsburgh.  From the middle of the third grade through high school, I attended public school in Cincinnati.  From there, I earned two engineering degrees in a state university.  So, I am a product of the public school system.  My wife spent decades teaching in public schools.  She too was educated in the public school system.

One of the memories I have about public schools is that the core values that I was taught in the public schools matched the core values of my parents.  They were also reinforced by the church and the organizations to which I belonged.  We did not get mixed messages about life principles.  We may have strayed from them at times, but we had no doubts what principles were to guide us.

I was blessed by the public schools I attended.  Especially, the schools in Cincinnati did a splendid job.  They ranked very high in academic training and also physical fitness.  Early in grade school, we had city wide competition in gymnastics.  We were encouraged to participate in a wide variety of sports to keep us healthy.  Our high school was located across the street from the University of Cincinnati.  We were encouraged to take college courses that counted for both high school and college credit.  My high school education was so good that the first year and a half of college was mainly review.  To summarize, I am very pleased with the public school systems in which I was educated.

The public schools I attended in Cincinnati were highly integrated.  They were located in some of the oldest areas of the city.  The buildings were some of the oldest buildings in those areas.  The point is that the education I received was available to all students of every race and background.

Times have changed since the 50’s and 60’s.  Public schools had their own set of principles.  They were:

Parents have the responsibility to raise their children

Schools are to cooperate with parents to provide academic abilities to prepare students for success.

Schools impart knowledge and a thirst for learning for a lifetime.

Schools give students the tools to continue to learn for the rest of their lives.

Schools emphasized what it takes to be a productive citizen and appreciate our heritage.

Schools emphasized personal responsibility and accountability.

So, what has happened since those days?  A different mindset has moved into our universities and taken over the training of future teachers.  Teachers’ unions have developed extraordinary influence over the educational process and are led by people with a very different set of principles.  Parents are now viewed as pests who need to be controlled or ignored.  The education establishment sees themselves as the primary source for raising children.  Their purpose is to indoctrinate not educate.  Statist Collectivism is the ultimate goal of Public Education.  The motto of the public education is “of the state, by the state, and for the state”.  But statist collectivism has a fatal flaw.  It contradicts human nature.  That is why it has failed, does fail, and always will fail.  It demands people be compliant and submissive to a little group of pinheads that run the system.  The problem has always been for statist collectivists that people are not compliant by nature.  And they certainly aren’t submissive.  By nature, people love to make their own choices.  So, they rebel.  That is when the statist collectivists transition into dictators to crush the rebels.  We see it happening all over the world.  In spite of hundreds of years of watching statist collectivism fail, it is still being promoted by our educational systems.

But it is not the only thing being taught to our children in state run schools.  The world of education is full of fads.  It is much like the fitness world.  About every year a fad guru is brought into the school system to promote his or her own fad for indoctrinating students.  Presentations are made, books are sold.  Teachers are trained.  Then the new curriculum is used for about a year or two and another guru shows up and the process begins again.  The old materials are stored away to rot and millions of dollars of materials sit in the dark.

Here is a list of a few current trends of propaganda being pushed on students today:

Critical Race Theory

Racist Math

Post Modernism

Anti Americanism

Anti Capitalism

Gender Confusion

Neo Segregation

Muslim orientation

Anti Biblical Faith

Anti Nuclear Family

Marxism

Cancel Culture

Woke Culture

Notice how little emphasis is on academics.  With so much time spent indoctrinating our children, academics is almost forgotten.  Look at the test results for students attending public schools.  Then, compare that to the amount of money we spend on public education.  It’s no wonder that millions of parents are thrilled that teacher unions refuse to go back to work.  They don’t want those teachers anywhere near their children.  They want the unions abolished and new people brought in to really teach what is necessary and helpful to train their children to be productive citizens of this great nation.

What can parents do about the mess our schools are in? First, they have to unite to revolutionize public education.  The leaders of the educational system are being trained in how to suppress parents.  They learn how to get around parental opposition.  So, parents have to learn how to fight back.  Overwhelm the school administration with parental presence.  Go to the meetings.  Demand control over the curriculum.  Make it clear who is in charge of raising your children.  Pack the school boards.  Demand input as to who is hired to teach your children.  There are many wonderful teachers out there who really want to teach your children academics.  They are just as discouraged by the failure of public education as you are.  Form an alliance with them.

If the system won’t cooperate, take a close look at private schools.  If they are too expensive, demand school vouchers.  But, be very careful as to what private school you choose.  Do your research.  Some private schools are following the public schools’ example.  Many parents are choosing home schooling.  That is an option that is growing.  Parents are forming co-ops to help with home schooling.  Both private schools and home schooling mean sacrifice for parents.  Count the cost.

Here is the bottom line.  Public schools are broken.  The system has been hijacked by people with a whole different set of principles than the parents of students.  COVID has unmasked the putrid state of public schools in general and teachers’ unions in particular.  The people in charge of the unions are not qualified to have anything to do with our children.  I saw a quote from an educator this morning that says it all.  They said, “Public education isn’t educating our children. They are indoctrinating them”. 

The only practical solution is for the nation’s leaders to see the parents of America abandon the public schools as they are and demand change. 

I just finished watching a town hall meeting in Virginia near Washington D.C..  Students and parents and doctors shared the disaster public education has foisted on students during closing of schools.  Parents shared how they had organized and protested the abuse of their children by the public schools.  The school administrations refused to listen to them, but declared war on them.  Some parents became so fed up that they enrolled their children in private schools or began to home school them.  Did that cost them dearly financially and time wise?  Yes, but the peace they experienced being free to control their children’s education was such a relief from the torment of oppression from the public school that they were glad to pay the price.

Let the transformation begin!