What is striking to me is the brilliance of our Founding Fathers. Many of the deepest thinkers of the past did not have the benefit of higher education. Instead, they augmented their basic education by reading throughout their lives.

In a perfect world, our education system would be as envisioned by our Founding Fathers. Schools would be locally controlled. There would be no state or federal bureaucracy mandating what and how students would learn. The only requirement at elementary level would be, in addition to learning how to read, write, and do basic math, students be schooled in American history, with emphasis on the Constitution and the duties and obligations of citizens. There would be no School Boards. Parents would choose the curriculum and the textbooks. Teachers would not need an “education” degree. They would be hired by the parents. There would be no unions. Unions only benefit the union organization itself and bad teachers, at the expense of children. Judeo-Christian values would be taught and enforced. Secular humanism and relative morality would be banned. Neighborhood schools would blend grade levels, so that students could learn at their own pace. This would result in a slashing of education costs. There would be no education money going to bloated bureaucracies.

After a basic elementary education, secondary schools would put an emphasis on critical thinking and more advanced math and science studies. For those who chose not to go on to college, there would be opportunities to learn a trade, taught by those who would offer future employment.

When I look back on the great minds that were instrumental in the formation of this country, and read the eloquent writing put forth by self-educated people, it clearly shows the failure of our present education system. It is evident that we are putting more emphasis on the process, and not the desired result. The bloated bureaucracy harms the very people for which it ostensibly exists…. the children!

I realize that my suggestions are going to be dismissed as backward-thinking and simplistic. But think it through. The historical purpose of education has been to give students the tools to continue educating themselves throughout their lives. It is not a process that is supposed to end with a diploma. The level of mediocrity in our schools is breathtaking. Students are being graduated who cannot read, write, or do basic math. Yet they can proudly show their “diploma” when they go looking for a job. Social promotion is a disgrace. It serves neither the student nor society. It only serves to move through the system those that the system has failed.

That’s my start-again plan for education. Let’s really start at the beginning…. with the students and their parents…. those who have the most to gain from a quality education.

4) Sustained Disassociation of Parents. For the majority of human history on the planet, parents and adults have had the responsibility to pass on to the young the history and lessons learned from their parents and other adults. For a small period of less than 300 years humans set up a different system of educating the young. The first “public schools” were formed to share the vast quantities of newly discovered information that parents could not be expected to learn while they labored, much less teach. Then industrialists added to the requirements of these rudimentary schools to serve their needs for skilled workers, further distancing parents from the role of teaching their young.

The system we came to call public education slowly evolved into the cumbersome machine that now dominates our budget, psyche and belief system. Even the most well-educated parents feel inadequate in the task of educating their children. The impact is not only felt in the family, but the community and the world as well. The nuclear family disolved as the effect of generations of parents being separated from their children for the majority of their waking hours allowed them to be comfortable with missing meals, not knowing what their children were doing in school, not even knowing what their children were thinking or concerned about.

A process of sorting and discarding the misfits began (just like in the shoe factory) which, to this day, rewards the “standard” and wounds the “different.”

Patrick, you are a homeschooling advocate, how does homeschooling satisfy a PE system that looks for grades to determine competency?

“So you may feel like this discussion of a King’s dream and a nation’s nightmare is a nice historical journey that has no relevance to you or to the town of Sharon today. There are no signs of segregation in this town, no Bull Connor, no Klu Klux Klan marching. So if there are no nightmares then what is the relevance of Dr. King’s dream, you may ask.

But I submit to you that if there are children in this state and in this nation who are not living up to their full potential, are not performing adequately in school, and if the cause of this failure has anything at all to do with the circumstances of their birth and not the depth of their character or commitment, then educational nightmares still exist. If crime, drugs and video games are capturing more of our children’s attentions and creativity than education excellence, then we are still allowing nightmares to exist. Some argue that education is the new civil rights movement. For if children of color are left behind as we aim for and achieve educational excellence in this age of technological sophistication, then we have created two Americas. We must do all we can to ensure that all children are reaching their full potential. This is not just a challenge for teachers; this is a challenge for an entire city, state, and nation. When parents don’t create high expectations for our children, but pacify them with false pride and material things, then we are just setting them up to experience the nightmares of failure and underachievement in the future.”

This struck me: Education is the new civil rights movement. I can only hope that we will gain more support sooner than the civil rights movement did. My thanks for professor Hall’s permission to excerpt his words.

The complexity of this centralized system of education is staggering. The replacement will be no less complex, however it must be able to provide equal resources and produce similar results, relative to similar levels of commitment.