School’s Out Forever?
Increases in political division, secularism, and various social trends have made some parents skeptical of the public school system. For these families, public schooling has embraced ideological currents and practices that go against their own values and promotes them in the area that matters most: their children’s education. In response, many families and sympathetic politicians have campaigned for solutions such as a greater variety of school choice, more parental control ofchildren’s education, and even the realignment of public education with their values through legislation.
Public education as an institution has a varied history, but its place in the American project is often thought of as that of making responsible future citizens. To that end, some argue that uniform curricula in step with current values are necessary to educate citizens that will be able to cooperate and participate in the national conversation. Against this, some argue that not only does this process subvert their own values, but actually violates their rights as parents. They believe that their role gives them some level of control over what their child learns or, at the least, requires a greater level of transparency from the school system. Advocates for children’s rights argue that rather than parents’ roles giving them authority over their children’s education, they actually have a responsibility to allow their children to find their own beliefs, mirroring a democratic sensibility.
The complaints of families seem reasonable if one favors the traditional role of both the family and the community in shaping a child’s future, especially when this balance seems, to them, to have been upset. However, how and if this “traditional” view remains operative—not to mention whether it benefits children—in a rapidly changing world is unclear.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Is part of the purpose of public education instilling some shared values in students? Which ones?
Do parents have a right to teach their children their own values even in cases where they conflict with broadly-held public values?
When, if ever, can the state’s responsibilities supersede that of a family’s over a child?
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