Before we dive right into a discussion about the history of education in America, I’d love to make one point crystal clear. Educators in our country are doing their absolute best to serve our kids. They are putting their heart and soul… and, in many cases, their own money… into providing the best experience possible. It is possible to support teachers 110%, which I do, while still critically analyzing the school system. Now that we’ve laid that foundation (in other words, put the pitchforks down please), let’s dive in!
I am in tons of Facebook groups that support moms and homeschoolers, and I often see people referring to our public school system as “broken.” The reality is that our school system is deeply flawed, but it is largely functioning as it was designed. To truly understand that concept, we must analyze the origin of the school system.
The American public education system’s rapid growth began in 1902 when the General Education Board was created. While that may seem like a long time ago, it might also prompt the question… how were children educated throughout the many centuries prior? The reality is that many were homeschooled! Many people consider homeschooling revolutionary or perhaps even subversive today, but parents or private tutors educating children was the standard long before government-run schools took over that role.
The General Education Board began with an initial endowment from John D. Rockefeller of $1,000,000 (equivalent to $35 million today). In the subsequent years, Rockefeller donated over $180 million to the General Education Board. One of Rockefeller’s employees and most trusted advisors, Frederick Taylor Gates, sat on the board of trustees for the General Education Board. Gates shared an in-depth look at his philosophy on education in a paper entitled, “The Country School of To-morrow.”
In his tract, he states, “In our dream we have limitless resources, and the people yield themselves with perfect docility to our molding hand. The present education conventions fade from our minds; and, unhampered by tradition, we work our own good will upon a grateful and responsive folk. We shall not try to make these people or any of their children into philosophers or men of learning or science. We are not to raise up from among them authors, orators, poets, or men of letters. We shall not search for embryo great artists, painters, musicians. Nor will we cherish even the humbler ambition to raise up from among them lawyers, doctors, preachers, statesmen, of whom we now have ample supply.”
Maya Angelou said, “When people show you who they are, believe them the first time.” Gates makes no secret about his philosophy on education with that statement. Rockefeller and other industrialists of the time had a vested interest in molding and training their future workforce through the school system. The resulting shift that occurred in the early 20th century blurred the lines between education and schooling. Generations of previous students were often encouraged how to think and in our new model of schooling, students are taught what to think.
I once saw an image online and to this day I kick myself for not saving it because I’ve never been able to find it again. The image showed a black and white photo of a rotary phone mounted on the wall from the 1950’s. To the right of that photo, it showed an iPhone. Beneath those images, there was a black and white photo of a big old steel, American automobile sans seatbelts, but complete with an ashtray. Beside that, it showed a colorful modern car that was sleek, fuel efficient, and included state-of-the-art safety features. You get the idea, right? The image was showing the evolution of everyday necessities over the past 70 years.
The last image spoke volumes! On the left, we saw a black and white photo of a classroom with children seated at desks with their books open and a teacher leading the class at the chalkboard. The image to the right was the same image…. but colorized. The point the image was making was that our education system has not progressed at the same pace as the rest of our society and technology. If that is the case, how can that system prepare our children to launch into today’s world as successful adults?
One of the biggest mistakes new homeschoolers make is to emulate the public school system when they bring their kids home to learn. Why? It is what they know! Despite that system of education being “new” when you compare the past 120 years to the centuries of education before it, we’ve somehow all become convinced that we cannot educate our children as well as the school system can. We are viewed as weird, subversive, revolutionary, and so much more for taking an alternative path.
So I am here to tell new homeschoolers, you are now free! Yes, you have to follow our state’s guidelines for homeschooling, but you are in no way, shape or form obligated to model the public education system. In fact, if you’ve made a conscious choice not to utilize the public education system, I’d suggest you write down the reasons why you’ve made that choice. Those reasons are your guiding principles. You can weigh every decision you make going forward against those guiding principles to see if they truly align with your big picture goals. Without that “road map,” it is easy to slip back into thinking that there’s only one “right” way to educate kids. That is simply not the case!
You’ve likely heard the saying “think outside the box” used to refer to an original way of doing something or a creative thought process. When it comes to your kids education, I’d encourage you to light the box on fire and don’t look back. Keep moving forward to create an environment where you can cultivate a lifelong love of learning.
And stay tuned because in my column next month we’ll be talking about curriculum… and I bet my suggestions will surprise you!