Jan Resseger recommends that we reflect on our founding documents and on our values.
Donald Trump and Betsy DeVos would have us believe that there is no such thing as “the common good.”
They don’t know that our government and our society are organized to achieve common purposes.
They certainly don’t understand that public schools were created to advance our common purposes as a nation, to develop citizens, to help every child achieve to the best of his or her abilities.
Public schools do not exist to prepare for global competition.
Public schools do not exist to raise test scores to the highest anywhere ever.
Public schools do not exist to prepare for college and careers. We have no ideas what careers will exist ten years from now.
Public schools exist to help every child be the best he or she can be.
Public schools exist to build and sustain our democracy.
We can’t measure what matters most.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I think the people in charge have forgotten. They care about power and $$$$$ not the common good.
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In California, public education exists to prepare children for college and career. see
https://edsource.org/2015/starting-early-on-college-and-career/75316
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Not according to the California State Constitution: “A general diffusion of knowledge and intelligence being
essential to the preservation of the rights and liberties of the
people, the Legislature shall encourage by all suitable means the
promotion of intellectual, scientific, moral, and agricultural
improvement.”
–Article 9, California State Constitution.
I don’t see anything about college or career in there, do you?
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Thank you, Dienne!
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Good one. That college and career meme came to us via the Common Core, which was well-endowed given legs by Bill Gates and friends in high places.
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From your article: “California has also made college and career preparation a centerpiece of the Local Control Funding Formula, which changed how schools are funded.”
Love it. “Local” control, as long as you do what the State tells you. I thought you conservatives were opposed to that kind of thing?
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I did not write the article, I just read it. I believed that it was an accurate presentation of current policy in the Golden State.
I generally support the idea of local control of education. This is why I have long advocated, for the abolishment of the Federal Dept of Education.
To be fair, when the state sets up the public schools, and provides financing, it is reasonable to expect that the State would have at least some control over the schools that it is financing.
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“Current policy” does not supersede the Constitution. In fact, it currently appears violative of it, so perhaps some lawsuits are in order.
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Currently, education being corporatized and commercialized, it is not for the common good, but for the common Google. A colleague bragged to me last year that her son got hired by the monopolistic monolith. I responded with condolences.
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Do you really think Betsy DeVos spends a lot of time thinking about the “purpose” of public schools?
She doesn’t even believe public schools should exist.
She wants a system of private contractors. You use your school voucher like one uses food stamps in a supermarket- it purchases the service called “education”.
It’s no more complicated than that. It’s like 500 different ways to say “privatization” – the only “public” part about it is the funding.
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Osborne is out selling school privatization by pointing to the US health care system.
The US health care system is ruinously expensive and wildly inequitable. Why ANYONE would want to replicate that in public education is beyond my understanding.
That’s the promise? They’ll turn public education into the broken health care system? How is that an improvement?
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I do not believe those of us in education have forgotten its purpose. The purpose of education has been hijacked by business leaders and their band of syncophantic politicians. Gates has declared that young people must be “college and career ready,” and if Bill Gates makes a declaration it must be “true,”
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“The Purpo$e of Education”
No one has forgotten
What it was before
Motivation$ rotten
Rotten to the core
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Rotten to the core: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGlLe1w3DJM One of my kids’ all time favorite movies. Maybe we need to send the rephormer$ to the Isle of the Lost.
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To answer the question of the post: No!
We have not forgotten the purpose of public education, although it has not been that well articulated in the past and other nefarious groups and ideologies have attempted to hijack that purpose so that they may monetarily profit off the backs of the students. Some of those privateers may even have good intentions. Good intentions don’t mean squat when the resulting actions harm the most innocent of society, the children.
The proper question, though, is not “have we forgotten?” but rather, as a reminder:
What is the purpose of public education?
I answer that question in Ch1. “The Purpose of Public Education” of my book “Infidelity to Truth: Education Malpractice in American Public Education”. After examining all 50 state constitutions for the rationale of public education here is my summary (with the succeeding two paragraph commentary):
“The purpose of public education is to promote the welfare of the individual so that each person may savor the right to life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, and the fruits of their own industry.”
Any educational practice that is shown to hinder, block and/or otherwise cause an individual to not be able to indulge in any of aspect of his/her rights as stated has to be considered as harmful and unjust not only to the individual but also to society and therefore must rightly be condemned as educational malpractice and ought to be immediately discontinued. Trampled rights are rights that are non-existent and the educational malpractice that tramples any right is unjust and as noted in Alabama’s constitution “is usurpation and oppression” and as Missouri’s declares “. . . when government does not confer this security, it fails in its chief design.”
I contend that many of today’s federal and state mandates and even long-standing educational practices are, indeed, malpractices that trample the rights of the most innocent in society, the children, the students of all ages attending public schools, in essence “it [public education] fails in its chief design.” Should the government through the public schools be sorting, separating, ranking, and/or grading students through logically bankrupt invalid practices discriminating against some while rewarding others? I contend it should not! Where is the justice in discriminatory practices? By evaluating those malpractices against the aforementioned purpose we will be able to ascertain whether or not they are just. (pgs 3-4)
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Ask not what education can do for your country, ask what education can do for you.
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An important part of education is to prepare young people to be citizens. That means they need to have a reasonable knowledge of American history and how our governments are structured. Every survey of civics knowledge shows that a large majority of the population – including most college graduates – doesn’t know many of the most basic facts about U.S. government and history. Can we at least find common ground on the need to greatly shore up education in those areas?
Beyond preparing for citizenship, exactly what else should schools be doing? Of course part of the schools’ mission should be preparing for college and/or career. An aspiring physician needs to know basic math, biology, chemistry, anatomy and physiology, and many other topics to eventually become a skilled healer. There is similar prerequisite knowledge for electricians, engineers, nurses, accountants, psychologists, and all kinds of other occupations. A good K-12 education can both provide a solid liberal arts education and the beginnings of specialized knowledge that prepare kids for college and/or career.
This blog claims to support traditional public schools. There’s no better way to kill public support for those schools (one of which my daughter attends) than to eliminate courses that prepare kids to be college and career ready.
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I’m game for including civics. I think most people on this blog are. But since it’s not a tested subject, and since teachers and schools live and die by test scores, when do you suggest we fit that in amidst the endless preparation for those tests you find so worthwhile?
Incidentally, no one here has ever talked about “eliminating” any courses. Most of us would like to add many, many more courses. The point is, though, that until at least high school level, “college and career” is irrelevant, and even at that level “college and career” tends to focus very heavily on the “college” part even though fewer than half of students will likely graduate from college, which leaves an unfortunate number of students to “careers” at Target, Walmart and McDonalds.
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You need to get past your endless caricaturing and fairly represent what other people believe. I’ve long criticized most standardized tests as being pointless unless they test very specific, technical knowledge like math or basic conventions of English.
Otherwise, I think we agree here. K-8 should be broad liberal arts education (that’s why I sent my kids to Core Knowledge schools, which provide this education far better than most other schools do). I adamantly oppose the college-for-all mindset that dominates almost all high schools. The U.S. should be more like western Europe, which doesn’t send everyone who can fog a mirror to four year colleges. I’m all for much expanded and improved vocational and technical education.
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@ John Webster: I am with you, John. Our educational system is failing on many fronts, including the non-college bound. There are many excellent programs and ideas that we could adopt from Europe. Germany has an excellent apprenticeship program, to assist students in their vocational/technical education.
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I am with you here as well John. Most reasonable people, on the right and the left, are solidly in favor of increased civics education. All citizens should have a thorough understanding of the mechanics of government. After all, since the citizenry is supposed to select the government, through the electoral process, it seems logical, that the citizenry should have an understanding!
Maybe if more people understood the mechanics of government, the voter participation rate would increase. With more people involved, politicians would be more responsive to the citizenry.
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I agree with you completely, John Webster.
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People are now badgers. We evolved as communal animals, and succeeded only because we could cooperate for a communal benefit. Had we not, the tiger would have eaten us as soon as we came down out of the trees.
Despite our success, however, some sociopaths (simply a fringe expected in any distribution) want us to ignore history and become badgers. Why would any sane human throw away 100 thousand (or more) years of experience to listen to a story that preaches that the ‘badger way’ is better?
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