All Education is Not Created Equal

Uncle Ken seems to be saying that public schools should be turning out proper liberals, and he wonders why they don't always. I think it depends on what is being taught and who is teaching it. Students in the Roman Empire and in the American Old South were probably taught that slavery was a good thing, while students in non slave holding regions were taught that slavery was a bad thing. The public schools in NAZI Germany were certainly geared for turning out good NAZIs, while the schools in the Jewish ghettos, maybe not so much. Even if the NAZI government had complete control of the curriculum, most of the teachers in the Jewish schools were probably Jews, and they likely put their own spin on the lessons. I remember that one of my teachers in Sawyer Elementary had a right leaning slant. One day we were reading about FDR in our textbook, and it had nothing but good things to say about him. After we finished the chapter, our teacher told us to close our books and she gave us another perspective on the man. She didn't dispute what the book said, she just told us that everybody in FDR's time didn't think that way, and we should be exposed to both sides, the better to form our own independent opinions. Another teacher who leaned more to the left might have just taught from the book and let it go at that.

Last I head, people in some parts of the country were still arguing about whether or not evolution should be taught in the public schools. I remember following an internet discussion on the subject and reading a comment written by a guy who was himself a student in a public school: "It doesn't matter what they teach, the kids aren't paying attention anyway". My own experience, both attending and working in the schools, tends to confirm that. Many kids are resistant to anything the teacher, or any adult for that matter, has to say. They learn all they want to learn from their so called peers. I asked Uncle Ken once if his profs in college were responsible for radicalizing his generation, and he said that, on the contrary, if anything we radicalized them, or words to that effect.

So just rounding up a bunch of kids and stuffing them in a classroom does not guarantee that they will come out liberal, conservative, or anything else.