“The mass dumbness which justifies official schooling
first had to be dreamed of; it isn’t real.”

– John Taylor Gatto, former NY State Teacher of the Year

While some citizens take the public schools for granted, trust their motives, and never question their actions, many do not. Most citizens, especially parents concerned for their children’s future, have conflicts with the schools in many areas.

Who controls the school system? Government school is a political institution and it teaches only what the government wants citizens to know, nothing else. While politicians and administrators claim that there is “local control,” implying that communities control the schools they are forced to pay for, the fact is that federal and state agencies and teacher unions run the schools. Elected school boards merely rubber stamp the policies of others and make excuses for the many ways the schools fail children. Parents have no control at all.

The teachers’ union has twin goals: more money and less work. It constantly seeks smaller class size in order to gain more teacher/members and thereby increase its income. It dominates the schools with work rules that limit the teachers in every way. Thus, while parents may see teachers as benevolent servants of their children, the fact is that teachers are restrained from doing more than the minimum.

Parents want learning–useful skills and knowledge, perhaps even intellectual stimulation. But instead, government schools provide three major functions: 1. Custodial, or babysitting (a “lockup”) 2. Role selection, or rating children for future employment slots (“meat stamping”) and 3. Social conditioning, or training to accept their (low) positions in society and in expecting life to be like school–petty, cruel, conformist, snobbish, repetitive, boring. The schools call these functions “socialization.”

Parents want high standards-the school system trots out a marketing slogan: “Educational excellence” but has no standards whatsoever. Today when we hear about “equalization” or “standards” we should think: “standardization: lowest common denominator.”

Parents and taxpayers who must pay the bill want the schools to be efficient, while the schools see the public as an endless source of funding. The teacher union and state educrats always seek to increase their employment kingdoms. Bottom line: the community seeks value for its tax dollars while the schools seek only to maximize their revenue without regard to efficiency or quality.

Parents want their children’s curiosity to be satisfied, while the schools want the children (and the parents) to be gullible and trusting. Parents want their children to learn responsibility and independence, but the schools’ desired outcome for them is to be passive, manageable and dependent.

Most people harbor the dream that the schools will help make the world a better place, and yet one major goal of the establishment is to keep things as they are, despite all its rhetoric about “reform.” School, as we know it, is archaic and determined to remain so. The conclusion is that the school system is a major force in preventing social and economic advances.

Parents want the teachers to be well educated. Yet certification does not mean that they are truly qualified or even sufficiently educated. We hear from many sources that teacher colleges and Ed. departments are not respected institutions. Even the head of Columbia Teachers College, Harold Levy, admits that the quality of teacher colleges in America ranges between “unacceptable and embarrassing.”

Parents want the schools to serve their children. Instead, the schools are designed and run for the benefit and convenience of their employees. The teachers’ contract tells the story. Teachers’ are micromanaged by union rules and regulations that are agreed to by the very school boards that are presumed to work on behalf of children and the public, but do not. Instead of a learning experience, it is likely that the least beneficial part of a child’s day is the time spent in school.

Ned Vare is co-author, with his wife, Luz Shosie, of the book, SMARTING US UP; the undumbing of America ($18 to Wildrose Press, 22 Wildrose Ave., Guilford, CT 06437) He is author of many articles (see http://www.borntoexplore.org/unschool and two other books. Vare may be reached at TheSchoolWars@mac.com

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