<<  <  >  >>

The nation's

Introduction

argument for public schooling. Moreover, as we

shall see, history points to other American insti-

commitment

tutions as being much more important to the

Public schooling, we are told, is the linch-

to limited

nation's harmony, freedom, and prosperity

pin of American unity and democracy. "If

government and

than government-run schooling. Overall, it has

common schools go, then we are no longer

been the nation's commitment to limited gov-

America," writes Paul D. Houston, executive

individual

ernment and individual liberty--not public

director of the American Association of

liberty--not

schools' ability to indoctrinate children into

School Administrators. "The original critical

some civic religion, or to mold them into "prop-

mission of the common schools was . . . to be

public schools'

er" Americans--that has been the key to

places where the ideals of civic virtue were

ability to

America's success.

passed down to the next generation. They were

indoctrinate

This paper reexamines the accepted story

to prepare citizens for our democracy. They

about public schooling's role in creating unity

were to be places where the children of our

children--has

democracy would learn to live together."1 In a

and upholding democracy. First, it documents

been the key to

outbreaks over the past academic year of the

similar vein, Benjamin R. Barber, author of the

America's success.

most divisive kinds of public school conflicts--

best-selling Jihad vs. McWorld, asserts that pub-

those pitting people's deeply held values

lic schools are "the very foundation of our

against each other--and makes clear that such

democratic civic culture . . . institutions where

combat is inevitable when everyone is required

we learn what it means to be a public and start

to pay for an official school system that only

down the road toward common national and

the most politically powerful control. Next, it

civic identity. They are the forges of our citi-

zenship and the bedrock of our democracy."2

examines the historical record of American

education and finds that conflict and division

These are, without a doubt, very powerful

have long been part of public schooling.

images, and their widespread acceptance has

Finally, the report identifies the true founda-

long undergirded Americans' assumption that

tions of the nation's unity and success, and

government-run schools have always been, and

explains why the only system of education that

will always be, essential to the nation's unity.

can effectively support a free society is one that

But "powerful" and "accurate" are far from

is itself grounded in freedom.

synonymous. Consider: In the 1840s, disputes

over the Bible's place in Philadelphia's public

schools sparked rioting that inflicted millions

The Balkanized Year,

of dollars in damage and killed or injured hun-

2005­06

dreds of people. In 1925, the Scopes "monkey

trial" captured the nation's attention as the

legality of teaching evolution in public schools

Decisions debated literally every day in

was fought first in a Tennessee courtroom, and

public schools thrust Americans into politi-

then, to accommodate the thousands of peo-

cal conflict, whether over district budgets,

ple who showed up for the spectacle, on the

dress codes, the amount of time children

lawn outside the courthouse. In the mid-

spend in art classes, or countless other mat-

1970s, court-ordered busing of children in

ters. To see this, most people need do little

Boston precipitated constant brawling in the

more than read about school board meetings

in their local newspapers.4 But although

schools and unrest in the streets. Finally, just

this past school year, tensions were so high in

schools and districts may confront their own,

Miami over the removal of books from school

specific issues, the conflicts those issues pro-

libraries that one school board member report-

duce are all driven by the same dynamic: All

ed that his colleagues feared that they "might

taxpayers must support the public schools,

find a bomb under their automobiles."3

but only those able to summon sufficient

political power can determine what the

These and countless incidents like them

schools will teach and how they'll be run.

reveal deep cracks in the "unity and democracy"

2