Posted on Jan 14, 2021
The Myth that Americans Were Poorly Educated before Mass Government Schooling | Lawrence W. Reed
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https://fee.org/articles/the-myth-that-americans-were-poorly-educated-before-mass-government-schooling/?utm_source=email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=FEEDaily
Parents the world over are dealing with massive adjustments in their children’s education that they could not have anticipated just three months ago. To one degree or another, pandemic-induced school closures are creating the “mass homeschooling” that FEE’s senior education fellow Kerry McDonald predicted two months ago. Who knows, with millions of youngsters absent from government school classrooms, maybe education will become as good as it was before the government ever got involved.
“What?” you exclaim! “Wasn’t education lousy or non-existent before government mandated it, provided it, and subsidized it? That’s what my government schoolteachers assured me so it must be true,” you say!
The fact is, at least in early America, education was better and more widespread than most people today realize or were ever told. Sometimes it wasn’t “book learning” but it was functional and built for the world most young people confronted at the time. Even without laptops and swimming pools, and on a fraction of what government schools spend today, Americans were a surprisingly learned people in our first hundred years.
Parents the world over are dealing with massive adjustments in their children’s education that they could not have anticipated just three months ago. To one degree or another, pandemic-induced school closures are creating the “mass homeschooling” that FEE’s senior education fellow Kerry McDonald predicted two months ago. Who knows, with millions of youngsters absent from government school classrooms, maybe education will become as good as it was before the government ever got involved.
“What?” you exclaim! “Wasn’t education lousy or non-existent before government mandated it, provided it, and subsidized it? That’s what my government schoolteachers assured me so it must be true,” you say!
The fact is, at least in early America, education was better and more widespread than most people today realize or were ever told. Sometimes it wasn’t “book learning” but it was functional and built for the world most young people confronted at the time. Even without laptops and swimming pools, and on a fraction of what government schools spend today, Americans were a surprisingly learned people in our first hundred years.
Education
Quarantine
American History
Edited >1 y ago
Posted >1 y ago
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The federal government has never proven equal to private enterprise on any task not specifically assigned to it by the constitution. Education is a great example. Spend more, get less. The DOEd should be abolished, and its funds distributed to establish voucher programs to create competition between public schools and between public and private schools. Allow parents to decide where to send their child...where to spend their voucher, and wait for the public school teacher's unions to howl. In the end though, the competition will force out the worst teachers and bring in better ones.
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SMSgt Lawrence McCarter
Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen - I Would agree that centralized testing wasn't a good thing at all but the steps of the current system started in 1965 under President Lyndon Johnson, (D) the next level, No child left behind on that testing under President Bill Clinton, (D) in 205 the last step was taken by President Barrack Obama, (D) The strongest support was Democrats in the Senate and House, NOT Republicans. However it arrived standardized test resulted in instruction just to pass the test and took actual classroom teaching, discussion and participation out of the Classroom to a very large extent.
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Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen
SMSgt Lawrence McCarter My comment was based on experience here in Florida where standardized testing was a Jeb Bush baby and expanded by every future governor. But you're 100% right on teaching to pass a test vs teaching to learn things.
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Col Joseph Lenertz
Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen - Private schooling has always been an option for WEALTHY parents, you mean. The voucher system is the way out for those in poverty, and drives education competition.
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SMSgt Lawrence McCarter
Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen - Ok, some states I'm sure had their own version. In one state, the Massachusetts MCAS, Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System passed in 1994 during the Administration of newly elected Governor William Weld, (R) but with both Legislative branches dominated by Democrats. I'm not a fan of Governor Weld and would NOT under any circumstances ever vote for Him for any elective office state or national. Teachers in Massachusetts are not in favor of MCAS and neither are the students or parents. Students cannot even receive a High School diploma without passing that central controlled test. I have other issues anyway with Ex Governor Weld also as anti labor and as an elected Police Union Official for over 20 years have no use for Him.
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It was an easy sell. Your average person today doesn't think about how intelligent, clever and resourceful their ancestors were. Its easier to think about how smart we are.
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