Are Schools Necessary?
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Dr. Watts is Director of Economic Education, Northwood Institute, Midland,
Abe Lincoln never went to high school or college. In fact, he spent very little time in any kind of "educational institution."
But was he uneducated? On the contrary, he ranks high among the well-educated men of all centuries, including our own.
When Benjamin Franklin first went to
Does this mean that the great complex of "educational institutions" in this country represents only wasted effort and wealth?
Not altogether, of course. No doubt a Ben Franklin could profit greatly from an opportunity to use the equipment of a modern laboratory, and a teacher might save him from electrocuting himself and shorten his learning time by demonstrating the use of the equipment.
But one excuse often heard for the vast expenditures on compulsory, institutionalized schooling I should like to question. It is said that few young people have the thirst for learning or the genius of a Franklin or Lincoln, and that because of this we need schools and school teachers to make learning easier and even to compel the "average" individual to travel part way on the road to an education.
Too often, however, I believe that institutionalized schooling has precisely the opposite effect. Instead of starting students on the road to education, it tends to rob parents and young people of their sense of responsibility for developing the individual’s powers of self-development.
How Schools Cripple Students
A conversation with a young graduate from a high-prestige eastern college illustrates this point. He was enrolled in the training program of a large grocery chain and was currently working as an assistant manager of one of the branch stores. I asked him how he liked his work.
"I don’t," he said.
"Then why don’t you quit and try something else?" I asked.
"Well," he admitted, "I really would like to get into advertising."
"What’s keeping you from it?"
His reply points to a fatal flaw in our modern craze for institutionalizing the educational process. Sadly he said, "I never had a course in advertising."
Sixteen years of "the best schools" in the country had given this young man a sense of dependency that would cripple him for life if he did not somehow discover the secret of Ben Franklin’s scholarship or of Abe Lincoln’s high level of literacy and breadth of learning: an individual becomes truly educated only as he learns to educate himself.
Schools and colleges cannot cram education into the heads of passive pupils as we pour water into an empty pitcher.
Too often, the young victims of mass schooling get the habit of depending on their teachers to predigest the assigned readings, correct their bad guesses on tests, and pass them on to the next grade at the end of the school year with little or no regard to the students’ progress in knowledge, skills, or habits of work. This is not an educational process.
By moderately attentive listening in class, with perhaps a hasty skimming of a prepared digest of the readings, the average student in many of our "educational institutions" can get a high school certificate or even a college diploma with little or no serious mental effort.
When a college does what it should—as some do—it serves as a correctional institution rather than a diploma mill. It seeks to develop healthy attitudes toward work and responsibility rather than to cram the students’ minds with facts.
The easy road to a diploma or degree does not develop the ability or habits of study, and, as Douglas Woodruff says, "a college degree is a poor substitute for an education."
Education requires effort on the part of the student, and the quality of his education is directly proportional to the effort he puts forth. Ability and willingness to study, to work hard at acquiring new knowledge and new skills, are essential for the life-long, self propelling educational process that makes human life meaningful and worthwhile.
It is easy to understand that some learning ability may be necessary to hold a job in this age of rapid technological change; and it may help to improve one’s place and status in industry or social life.
Education, a Life-long Process
But why, one may ask, is continued learning necessary to give value and meaning to life apart from its occupational or social usefulness?
The answer, I think, is a simple one. The habit and skills of learning give the individual hope that his future may be better than the present, and "it is hope alone that makes us willing to live."
For man, the pursuit of happiness means the pursuit of life-promoting goals that keep advancing even as we near them.
The theory that education should always be "fun," "interesting," "enjoyable" may be useful in devising ways to keep young people in school longer, but it bars the way to an education for anyone who holds it.
The notion that sweat and strain have no necessary place in a good life, that responsibilities cause only ulcers and high blood pressure, is producing youthful dropouts from school and adult dropouts from the continuing, organized effort necessary to maintain a humane existence. It condemns its victims to the hell of boredom, self-doubt, and pursuit of life-destroying dissipations.
Enduring interests develop as we exert effort to learn, to understand, and to acquire new skills so that we may solve new problems and accomplish more difficult tasks.
Appreciation of the worth of hard work is one necessary element in true education. Developing the habits of strenuous effort is the other side of the coin of good living. Both come to our young people only as they find human examples of such living and as they come to understand its meaning and worth.
A school or college worthy of the name, therefore, must choose its teachers for character and wisdom, as well as for their fund of knowledge as attested by degrees or length of service.
Someone has well said, "Education is what you retain after you have forgotten everything you learned." In other words, education is not a fund of facts so much as habits, attitudes, and principles that we call character, personality, and wisdom that should develop as the years advance.
Comment by David on 13 July 2009:
\"Schools Cripple Students\"?
I invite you to see a school that doesn\’t.
http://www.sudval.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudbury_Valley_School
Comment by msouth on 14 July 2009:
You understand the value of a free market–think of education like that. Schools “work” precisely to the extent that they embody a free market of ideas. Most are rigid and centrally planned and do more to destroy the users’/inmates’ ability to learn rapidly and think innovatively or create creatively than they do to develop it.
When you move on to college you have something a little more like a free market, where people have more choice in their classes, can avoid bad teachers, etc, and you get substantially better results. By the time you get to graduate school you get much more freedom and the results are exponentially better.
Even within a certain level or institution you can see the variation–at college, for example, a huge fraction of required general ed classes are complete wastes of time. The teacher doesn’t want to be there, the students don’t want to be there, but they are all forced to be by the bureaucracy. (Well, technically it’s worse than a waste of time because it turns the students off to what is probably a fascinating topic if it were studied out of interest rather than requirement.)
Finally, let me point out that school classrooms are mini dictatorships. Is it any wonder that Americans swing between voting for left-wing dictators and right-wing dictators when their childhoods were spent learning the futility of attempting independent thought and action?
Comment by Karen on 14 July 2009:
Thank goodness some parents are understanding this, and are unschooling with their kids! Creating some of most dynamic young adults I\’ve ever had the pleasure to meet. I don\’t believe the change hinges on choosing teachers for their character and wisdom, but rather, on changing the concept of school entirely. Here\’s some hope for ya:
http://theautodidactsymposium.com/start.htm
Comment by Don Berg on 15 July 2009:
Following David’s lead I want to point out that Sudbury Valley is only one amongst hundreds of schools around the world that use democracy as a method for ensuring children retain (or regain) their passion for learning (http://www.democraticeducation.com/).
These schools work very differently than regular schools so it is often difficult for people to understand them at a glance. I wrote a series on the differences between democratic schools and regular schools (http://www.teach-kids-attitude-1st.com/democratic-schooling.html).
Enjoy,
Don
Comment by James Madison Fan on 15 July 2009:
A major problem with schools today is they have evolved from a place where students are sent to learn to read, write, and do math under the guidance of a respected authority in the community to over glorified baby sitting.
At one time a teacher could stand at the front of a class and be secure that (s)he was going to be supported by administration, parents, and the community.
Today teachers stand in the front of the class and pray the kids will be in a good mood. They can’t expel children because this means the loss of matching funds regardless of how much of a disruption the child represents. All admin sees is the money. Any other discipline is usually trivial at best since any meaningful punishment might arose the ire of the parents resulting in a complaint, report to the School Board, or a law suit.
In most cases parents are no help. Parent / Teacher interaction is typically superficial and limited to the occasion conference. “You are the teacher. You do something about it.” Oh? Well you are the parent. Maybe you should do something about it. How about disciplining your child rather than expecting me to do it and then complaining about it afterward.
The most important reason private schools tend to better than public schools is the attitude of the parents. If they did not care they would not be spending the extra money. This is an invaluable tool because it has an extended effect by ensuring that complaints and advice from the teacher are going to be taken seriously, homework is more likely to be completed, behavioral and mental discipline is more likely to be enforced, and the children are more likely to be motivated to learn. True education starts at home. If the parents do not care about their kid’s education, the child probably will not either, and the teacher is doomed to failure.
Add to this that parents are given a list of rules and what the results will be if the child does not follow them. If a student violates rules to the point the teacher is forced to expel him, the child is gone and the money is not refunded.
Public schools can work, just not if we are going to hamstring the teachers and degrade them while we are at it.
Comment by MIteacher on 15 July 2009:
You have hit the nail on the head. I am lucky enough to teach AP classes so my kids and their parents are great. But here are some school policies to open your minds to why kids don\’t learn what they should:
No deadlines–students must be allowed to turn in work at any time. You can penalize, but not by more than 50%. Zeros are too punative according to the school board.
If a child skips a final exam–they get a 50%.
Teachers grade books are available online, all year and we send out four report cards. You would think they might know a kid is failing, nope–they must be called so they don\’t die of shock.
Students aren\’t expelled for behavior issues and if you try their parents will sue, because \"my Susie can\’t possibly be wrong.\"
Parents have more excuses than the kids. Here is an example, a child in my class did not turn in an assignment. The parent said another student must have stolen it and thrown it away–yeah right!
Parents need to be responsible and teach the concept to their children.
And FYI–Lest you think I am one of those teachers who has such an easy job, with the summers off and all that… I have a masters degree, working on my second (one in education, one in American History and Government). I am serving as a teacher fellow at a local museum, going to 4 conferences this summer and taking 8 credit hours. Then I will plan lessons for the up coming school year. I love my job and I work hard at it. My students leave the room knowing a lot about this country and its history. They learn to write and they learn to work hard. I wouldn\’t trade my job for the world. But the US needs to wake up. We are raising a generation that lacks work ethic, responsibility, and manners. We can\’t teach for fear of a law suit or bankruptcy. The schools are not funded (note that the book I teach world history out of is close to 12 years old).
Let the professionals do their jobs, stop tying our hands. Lets have consequences for irresponsibility and bad behavior. It wouldn\’t take long to turn this situation around.
Comment by David on 24 August 2009:
Following Don Berg’s comment I want to point out that good schools are welcome but freedom of education must be kept as a civil liberty. see: http://www.thefreemanonline.org/featured/freedom-of-education-a-civil-liberty/