“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” ― Nelson Mandela
"Knowledge is Power" Francis Bacon
"I love the poorly educated" Donald Trump
The 20th century saw one of the largest expansions of education in the world. New universities opened, literacy skyrocketed, and education became available to more humans than ever before in history. The result was a great economic boom as a more educated population invented new products and technologies that changed modern life. The arts blossomed and school athletics became a vehicle for growth and community.
The 21st century, however, has seen a slow decline in education even as knowledge explodes and educational resources improve. We are spending more on education than ever, but US educational test scores have been declining lately. Part of the problem, I think, is because many Americans, including leaders, don't value education anymore. And those that pay lip service to it only see it as a means to an end- producing cogs to the economic machine.
Education has been caught in a political battle over the last decade over wokeness, book bans, and the demands of parents to control what information reaches their children. Parents don't trust their children or teachers to think for themselves, with the result that teacher morale is declining and student achievements are safer but more mediocre.
Public education finds itself threatened by the increasing popularity of vouchers for private and charter schools. Where a public school has to take almost anybody and embrace diversity, private schools can pick and choose their students based on income, race, or religion, and has no obligation to the general welfare. They can exclude students with special needs or mental health problems, and shift responsibility for them to someone else.
The US Department of Education finds itself in the crosshairs of Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation blueprint, that wants to eliminate it entirely. Closing the department would shift most duties to the states, many of whom are starving public education at the expense of tax cuts and private school vouchers. It would end the Head Start program for early childhood as well as Title I, the program that funnels money to poorer schools in the country. We are headed back to the days when only the rich got a quality education while the poor went to work as young as 10 years old. The downstream results of this in years to come could be disastrous.
Much of this backlash began in the 1960's when college students protested against the Vietnam War. Campuses became uncomfortably radicalized, and those in power soon decided that higher education was full of radicals and liberals. Public funding of higher education began dropping in the late 20th century and continues today, with the result that tuitions are much higher and student loan balances have skyrocketed enough to hamper graduates well into middle age.
What is the purpose of education? Is it to pass down the stories and facts that previous generations think worthy? Or is it to present a variety of viewpoints and teach students how to think critically and investigate for themselves? This is the key dilemma of the past century, and there is no right or wrong answer. We need both basics and inquiries. Students need a foundation of basic skills- math and language to form a common language that we can all agree upon. They need some basic idea of history to know where things came from. And there is a case to be made that they need a foundation of spiritual guidance either through parents, church, or school to help them make sense of life.
But there always must be room for nuance and investigation. While math and grammar are pretty much set, history, science, and social studies are full of nuance, unanswered questions, and possibilities. This is also the job of education- to challenge students to investigate the little known or unknown and figure out new ideas and pathways. It's the only way that societies make progress. The best teachers balance these two needs and light the fires of curiosity in their students.
And when it gets to higher education, the basics have already been covered. Students at that level need to experience a variety of different things to see what most grabs their unique passions and talents. They don't need any more indoctrination. Some people fear change and innovation, but young people are the chief drivers of it, and their best chance to prepare for the challenges ahead start in Kindergarten, and slowly evolve until they graduate.
Education has become THE defining characteristic of the ideological divide. Those with more education are voting for one party, and those with less are voting for the polar opposite positions, even if some of them go against their basic needs. Knowledge is power, and those in power prefer for others to remain ignorant. That's why the decline of traditional media and rise of fact-challenged social media has added more fuel to the fire of misinformation. Those who remain less educated become resentful of educated elites, either because educational opportunities were lacking where they grew up, or just limited information bubbles where they feel safer.
And people who are more educated fall into danger of the curse of knowledge, which I have written about here before. The curse of knowledge prevents elites from understanding or empathizing with those who lack their training, causing an unmistakable air of superiority that makes communication nearly impossible.
Somehow, we need to get back to valuing education for its own sake. I am blessed in that area as I've had more education than most. It has opened my eyes to things I never considered. I can now see why educational pioneers of the 19th and 20th centuries fought so hard for schools. They are not just for the elites, but in a democracy, schooling makes educated decisions more likely. Without it we are all just wandering in the dark, waiting for the next populist demagogue to promise everything while we understand nothing.
I once worked in the St. Louis VICC program that bussed city kids from poor neighborhoods to the better equipped schools in the county. The results as I understand them were what you'd expect- better grades, higher graduation rates, and more diversity in what were previously mostly-white schools. Sadly, this program is ending, as are others around the country. Home schooling is on the rise, as are private school vouchers, and I fear that education is becoming more and more of a private, political good and less of a national commitment to excellence.
If you've gotten this far- thank a teacher. They are on the front lines and deserve much more respect than they get. Vote for bond issues and for candidates that stress public education, because having a few out-of-touch elites and a mass of gullible, uneducated voters is a prescription for disaster in the future. We are falling behind other nations in education because of this divide, and the next generations are the losers in this scenario.
I end with a few more quotes about education from those who understood its importance.
“Education is the key that unlocks the golden door to freedom.” —George Washington Carver
“Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.” —John Dewey
“The purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows.” —Sydney J. Harris
“The ability to read, write, and analyze; the confidence to stand up and demand justice and equality; the qualifications and connections to get your foot in the door and take your seat at the table — all of that starts with education.” —Michelle Obama
“The principal goal of education in the schools should be creating men and women who are capable of doing new things, not simply repeating what other generations have done.” —Jean Piaget
"An investment in knowledge pays the best interest." - Benjamin Franklin
"Education is not the filling of a pail, but rather the lighting of a fire," William Butler Yeats
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