It was the mid-seventies, a time when the tried-and-true traditional approaches to education, society, and morals were being revised (some might say dismantled) by the political left. I attended a “progressive” high school. No tests or grades, only a “go/no go” rating. I graduated 4th out of 325 having never taken a course in American history, literature, civics, or foreign language. You could say I experienced educational malpractice.
Imagine my shock when I arrived at college. So I played catch-up, hit the books, and eventually majored in music. Musicians seem to be predominately liberal, so it shouldn’t be surprising that the music department was a bastion of liberal philosophy. Being nominally liberal myself, I fit right in with the required intellectual conformity.
I graduated with a teaching certificate and taught K-12 band and choir for five years. And voilà, there was liberal conformity in the teachers lounge as well. We all agreed about politics, lack of funding, too large class sizes, and nosey parents who actually wanted to know what their children were being taught.
Fast forward to today. Things haven’t changed much. Same complaints, same structures, same philosophies. What has changed is that I saw the light and became a conservative. Now, we conservatives value education, we are simply skeptical of government experts, bureaucrats isolated in their cubicles thousands of miles away, deciding the fate of our children. That is not unreasonable skepticism.
There are some who assert that parents ought to bow out and let these experts handle things. Nope, not when we are the ones writing the check. Schools are funded by our tax dollars, so we have all the justification we need to get involved. This is not anti-education, it is prudence. Government serves the people, not the other way around.
Most would agree that public schools have a growing image problem, sometimes deserved, sometimes not. But there are times when they shoot themselves in the foot. The big news always is when poor schools fail spectacularly, but rather than taking steps to fix the problem, schools too often circle the wagons.
I do hear good things Bozeman schools, but some of what I read makes me wonder. For example, a student was recently featured on the Chronicle’s front page, not for his accomplishments, but because of who he sleeps with. And one of the elementary schools is regularly featured engaging in their latest multicultural love-fest. Hawk Tawk, the school newspaper, contains a lot of rote regurgitation of political talking points, both left and right.
Actually, I have no real problem with any of this if that’s what the parents want from their schools. However, I have personally experienced what happens when schools lose sight of their primary function, and as a result I’m sensitive to the follies of public school education.
Given that Bozeman schools are reporting their perennial budget shortfall (which actually means funding was increased, but the budget was increased more) one might think that certain priorities would begin to take precedence. But a lot of stuff that schools do is because of entrenched attitudes, imposed requirements, and systemic inefficiencies. That is hard to change.
Getting the feds out would certainly help. The feds bring nothing good, unless you like cash with strings attached, like No Child Left Behind. Couple those mandates with court decisions and progressive activists foisting their novel educational theories upon our little citizens of the world and it’s a wonder any educating gets done at all.
But mostly, the system needs to change. Perhaps ironically, it is public education that is probably doing the best job with taxpayer money, while most other government programs are failing before our eyes. It is probably because the schools are the closest thing to us, where we as citizens have the most influence. That localism is a strength that needs to be enhanced.
A change in the status quo could benefit everyone. That makes me a supporter of education, but a critic of the system.
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