"Much to Learn, You Still Have."

(The new interface is sucky [that's a technical design term] and I plan to keep using the old one until I have to use the new one.  Hasn't anyone at Google ever heard of beta testing?)

Sara Robinson gets deep into education:

The education of our children is a core cultural and political choice that reflects the deepest differences between liberals and conservatives -- because every educational conversation must start with the fundamental philosophical question: What is an education for?

[...]

In the conservative model, critical thinking is horrifically dangerous, because it teaches kids to reject the assessment of external authorities in favor of their own judgment -- a habit of mind that invites opposition and rebellion. This is why, for much of Western history, critical thinking skills have only been taught to the elite students -- the ones headed for the professions, who will be entrusted with managing society on behalf of the aristocracy. (The aristocrats, of course, are sending their kids to private schools, where they will receive a classical education that teaches them everything they'll need to know to remain in charge.) Our public schools, unfortunately, have replicated a class stratification on this front that's been in place since the Renaissance.

[...]

Our educational system is a product of our deepest values. And the battles we're having now are, very directly, battles over what we believe is possible in America, and what kind of country we want to be 20 years from now. The conservatives are not wrong: for 150 years, the schools have been the leading promoter and disseminator of progressive values. They are now doing their best to dismantle that system, and replace it with one that produces followers, subjects and serfs.

(There was a serious danger that I would just quote the whole thing. It's a substantial article; please read the rest.)

I may or may not have mentioned that I negotiated (for suitable values of "negotiate") the educational system through intelligent and empathetic teachers and lots of books, and I dropped out (of college) a couple of times.  I've walked to some schools, been bussed to others, taken subways to yet others.  I do not, thank God, have hostages to the future (children), but I am interested in theories of teaching, if only as an observer.  So I have been Viewing With Alarm attacks on schools for the last twenty or so years.  You know that bumper sticker about ignorance being more expensive than education?  Yeah.  Where that plays out currently seems to be people who don't know about anything that happened prior to 1990.  (Children, OK; everything is happening at once.  Adults should have at least a hazy idea of What Went Before so they don't do Dumb Things like deregulate banks.  Ya think?)