What Would Schools Be Like?
Marshall Fritz, intrepid founder of the Alliance for the Separation of School & State, speculates on how American schools might function once they are out of the clutches of government.
After liberating schools from the government, what will they be like? Schools will reflect the variety in American society, just like restaurants and groceries do today.
- Schools will be smaller and more numerous. Parents will choose from variety; this will necessitate parents thinking about just what is important to them.
- Parents will usually choose schools where the teachers hold the same worldview as they do. Hence, teachers will be reinforcing parents rather than undermining them.
- Schools will be safe.
One more thing: Unlike today, teachers will engage children with the questions that challenge our species, e.g., Where did I come from? Is there any purpose to life? What is happiness? Why are some things "right" and others "wrong?" How do we know?
Under the banner of "separation of church and state," today's "public school" teachers are pretty much forbidden from this, resulting in demeaning education to mere schooling and turning children into test-taking robots. It would be like Wendy's offering to "smally" your burger by taking the meat out.
I believe within two years of the Moment of Liberation, teachers will be saying to each other, "Why did we ever fight this for so long?"
Marshal Fritz asks, "How much longer will we allow public school authorities to undermine parents?," and gives this account of what he learned from a former student of Columbine high school:
I had the opportunity to meet Columbine survivor Mark Taylor, his mother, and a former member of the Colorado State School Board at the Denver airport last month, just after the second anniversary of the Columbine massacre.
Mark has left public school and has been on home study since he was shot seven times and left for dead. I talked with him long into the night about his recovery and his schooling. He told me of the intense pressure put on him to return to Columbine High School. I was appalled as I heard him recount how one school authority told him, "If your mom is the problem, money can be found to hire a lawyer to sue her so you can return to Columbine."
Can you imagine such audacity by anyone other than a government official? Would McDonald's sue vegetarian parents to force them to feed their children Big Macs? Impossible!
Sabotaging parents is not the exception, it's the essence of government schooling. Mark's case is just another example of how public school authorities undermine parents. In fact, four years ago this month I came to this realization. Government schooling is set up for one primary purpose: To enable the politically strong to impose their will on the politically weak by convincing their children that the current leaders are good people with good ideas.
The politically weak change every few decades. Just a century ago, government schools systematically undermined blacks, Catholics, and Native Americans. Now, government schools demonize conservatives, gun owners, and Christians.
Today, government schools ridicule parents who smoke, resist recycling, spank, own guns, are anti-U.N., or teach chastity and traditional family values. After seven years of leading the Alliance, having addressed thousands of people in hundreds of cities, I'm now even more convinced that our only hope to strengthen the family, restore respect for morality, and end the escalating violence of public schools, is to separate school from state.
-- The Alliance for the Separation of School & State seeks to free American schools from politics, by ending local, state and federal involvement in K-12 education. It is located at 4578 N. First, #310, Fresno, CA (559-292-1776). The Alliance publishes newsletters, videos, and other materials, and hosts forums and conferences to promote its mission. The next convention, SepCon 2001, is scheduled for this November. For an overview of the Alliance's work, send for the video, "Public Schools Are Destroying America and What You Can Do About It."
Copyright 2001 Issues & Views
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