History of Public Education
Conservatives know that public education problems are rampant in this nation. We are deeply interested with improving public education. We have had our representatives propose school vouchers to increase school choice, and we have taken to home schooling under state-administered guidelines. Those of us who can afford it sometimes send our children to private schools and sometimes send our younger children to Montessori schools.
But, what public education problems do conservatives try to avoid? The mad Libs tell us that public education was supported by our "heroes" including the Father of Capitalism, Adam Smith, and one of our nation's Founding Fathers and early Presidents, Thomas Jefferson. Indeed, they are correct--except, in their usual way, they are correct only in a perverted way.
Hey, if a Liberal didn't twist it, he must've missed it!
A VERY BRIEF HISTORY OF PUBLIC EDUCATION IN THE U.S.
Adam Smith and Thomas Jefferson adamantly believed in a "well-educated public". But, what precisely did they mean by this? I will turn to some quotes from the writings of Jefferson himself to illuminate us.
Of all the views of this law [for public education], none is more important, none more legitimate, than that of rendering the people the safe as they are the ultimate guardians of their own liberty. Thomas Jefferson: Notes on Virginia Q.XIV, 1782
I have indeed two great measures at heart, without which no republic can maintain itself in strength: 1. That of general education, to enable every man to judge for himself what will secure or endanger his freedom. 2. To divide every county into hundreds, of such size that all the children of each will be within reach of a central school in it.
Thomas Jefferson in a letter to John Tyler, 1810
Above, we see that Jefferson, like Smith, indeed did favor the education of the general public--he said it would undermine a free republic if the people could not think for themselves about what constitutes "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness". Schools should be everywhere!
But...let's read some more.
Education is here placed among the articles of public care, not that it would be proposed to take its ordinary branches out of the hands of private enterprise, which manages so much better all the concerns to which it is equal; but a public institution can alone supply those sciences which, though rarely called for, are yet necessary to complete the circle, all the parts of which contribute to the improvement of the country, and some of them to its preservation.
Thomas Jefferson: 6th Annual Message, 1806
Education not being a branch of municipal government, but, like the other arts and sciences, an accident [i.e., attribute] only, I did not place it with election as a fundamental member in the structure of government.
Thomas Jefferson's letter to John Taylor, 1816
Above, Jefferson clearly says that private enterprise is the proper instrument to administer this public education--not government; not even local government.
You see, by "public education", all that Jefferson and Smith and the other Founding Fathers meant was that made available to anyone who could get there and/or afford it--so, this was not just education for the few "elites" like a prince and princess or a head of state's family.
Is that what we have today in our nation? Of course not. And our children definitely aren't being educated in what keeps us free and independent, as Jefferson said we need to be. They are being programmed with Leftist Liberal ideology by government-run schools. They are being taught to hate capitalism and the United States.
Conservatives know this, and that's why we seek alternatives. The Lib puppet masters also know this, and that's why they hate home schooling and school choice, and want both abolished. So do teachers' unions--the willing puppet minions who love getting paid to do as little as possible.
See if any of these LIES are familiar to you coming from the mouths of your children and your children's teachers:
- People have a "right" to entitlements
- The war in Iraq and Afghanistan is bankrupting our nation, in addition to being utterly immoral and "racist"
- Oil for energy is evil. It's destroying the planet's atmosphere. So, we need to punish all people who use and especially produce oil and gas fuel, and we need to have the government and activists force all people use the only wind, solar, special expensive light bulbs, and anything else the government imposes on us.
- We are headed for a new Great Depression and it's all the Bush Administration's fault and Republicans' fault. Obama and Democrats who care about us must save us.
- Trading freely with other nations makes us lose our jobs and helps destroy our economy.
- If we just leave our enemies alone, they'll come to love us and would never do anything to harm us. We only need a small military force.
- Homeland security measures are all really made to rob us of our freedom.
- Truth is relative. Morals and ethics are all relative. Parents who try to educate their children about sex and drugs are just repressive tyrants who don't understand, and they are probably Conservatives.
IN CONCLUSION
If any of the above ideas are challenged by your students in their school, most of the students and most of their teachers will try to silence them and mock them. Yet, if the government were not where it's not, once again, supposed to be--in our public schools--they wouldn't believe any of this rubbish.
history of public education