Some folks just don’t get it.
There’s a general and widely used statement. How about something more specific?
Some people just don’t get it when it comes to recognizing the nature of the state and the problems it creates for people by pitting everyone against each other for control of resources and the ideology behind how those resources will be steered.
Take Pennsylvania State Rep. Will Tallman, a Republican who has a lofty goal when it comes to the PA public schools. Greg Argos, of CBSPhilly, reports that Rep. Tallman wants teachers in Pennsylavnia's tax-supported schools to be forbidden from talking about politics.
Rep. Will Tallman, a Republican from Adams County, sent a memo to all 203 members of the House Friday pitching his proposal for what he’s dubbed the ‘Teacher Code of Ethics.’ …That proposal contains a possible bill which would ban discussions in all kindergarten through 12-grade classrooms if approved.
And Rep. Tallman explained:
Our K-12 school teachers should not be using their classroom time spent on political or ideological indoctrination…
That’s a nice utopian idea, isn’t it?
Well, regardless of the First Amendment questions (the original meaning of it actually allowed states to have speech laws), the trouble is that Rep. Tallman misses the overarching point:
These are public schools, Mr. Tallman. As such, they are run through the coercive agency of the polis, and, as a result, their very existence is political. Everything about them, from their budgets to the length of time students will be forced to attend them, to teacher-student ratios, to hours of operation, to books on the literature list, to the pedagogy of reading itself, to what foods will or will not be served, to what sports will or will not be played – they are all decided under the umbrella of the polis.
Hence, they are always, axiomatically…
Political.
Now, one doesn’t want to hit Rep. Tallman too hard here. Clearly, he is sensitive to attempts by teachers to indoctrinate students on contentious political issues. Perhaps he has heard reports of teachers propagandizing students with bogus claims about “catastrophic anthropogenic climate change,” or “gun control” (ie threats of government violence against peace-minded people who want to exercise their inherent right to self-defense), or collectivist economics.
But the entire paradigm of public school is collectivist. As Dr. Sam Blumenfeld pointed out during his long, intellectually rigorous career, it was not until the latter half of the 19th Century that the states and feds began to push for polis-based, tax-funded schools, and, prior to that, education was so widespread in the U.S. that Alexis deTocqueville wrote about it in his landmark book, “Democracy in America.”
So, as much as some folks initially might commiserate with him, or empathize with him, it is important to recognize that his criticism and worry miss the mark, because they do not look at the wider reality: government schools are political by nature, and they are, by nature, zones of propaganda that force all taxpayers into a one-size-fits-all, everyone-against-everyone environment.
About political discussions in class, Rep. Tallman says:
Doing so takes time away from instruction in the academic foundation subjects of mathematics, science, English, history, and civics, and prevents our students from receiving a high-quality public education for careers in the global, high-tech economy.
But, as those who might look at the practical problems without seeing the overall polis-based problem might correctly point out, discussions about everything from history to economics to philosophy will, by their nature, require discussions of politics and even of current political ideologies.
And, on a larger scale, one can see simply by looking at a seemingly innocuous statement like his about what he sees as the “foundational” subjects, there can be disagreement. What if a taxpayer disagrees, or disagrees by degrees?
What Rep. Tallman misses is the larger lesson of political force, and that is the lesson of how the breach of ethics caused by government forcing people to pay for something places all taxpayers into the Tragedy of The Commons.
When individuals are not allowed to decide for themselves how their private property will be utilized, when they are forced to pay for something, when a “property” is public (ie, tax-funded), this pits everyone against each other. As a result, even those things that might look fundamental to Representative Tallman, or to me and you, might not look fundamental to others.
Just as it is not appropriate to force students to listen to or agree with a teacher’s propaganda, it is inappropriate for people to force others to pay for that system, at the outset.
It’s simple enough. Don’t force people to pay for public schools, and these problems disappear. Parents pay for the education of their own progeny, or get charitable donations to do so. Private schools rise or fall based on how they teach and treat children. The popularity and validity of ideas are tested in the marketplace, not through coercion and political control.
So, one can understand Re. Tallman’s frustration, but he misses the larger lesson. It’s a simple lesson that isn’t often taught in government schools.
No wonder. If it were, there likely would be fewer public schools.