Elites, Society, and the Role of the Public Schools

Here is an interesting essay with a number of quotes about the role of the public schools and the role of the parents in deciding what should be taught. There are a number of very arrogant people demanding that parents butt out of what is being taught. They would, of course, never say that if the schools were engaged in Nazi propaganda, but somehow they never seem to think of that possibility. One person is generous enough to say that parents can opt out at their own expense, apparently unaware of what a classist sentiment that is. Of course, rich people have long had this opportunity. When will poor people?

Anyway, I want to focus on one quote in particular:

The purpose of a public education in a public school is not to teach kids only what parents want them to be taught. It is to teach them what society needs them to know. The client of the public school is not the parent, but the entire community, the public.

That is a nice sentiment, and I even to some extent agree with it. (For example, after Sputnik was launched, our elites back then very sensibly decided that what we needed to do was to focus a lot on teaching math, science, and technology.) It’s just that the people saying it (namely, the Michigan Democrats) don’t really believe it. What they believe is that kids should be taught what the elites think they should be taught. And what the elites think should be taught is wildly different from what society needs them to know.

Learning that math is racist is absolutely the wrong thing that society needs students to know. Ditto for the idea that masculinity is toxic, that America is infused with systemic racism, that there are a bunch of new pronouns that need to be used, etc. None of that is what society needs them to know.

To put all of this differently, if the client isn't the parent, but the entire community, does that mean that the entire community gets to decide on what should be taught? Do we as members of that community get to vote on it? Of course not. Only the elites get to decide what should be taught.