Colorado’s Musings

Once upon a time a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away there was no public education. Kids were home schooled if at all, many learned reading from books they borrowed and others were products of an educated elite. During the early years the country continued to prosper and grow in spite of this lack of education and we should state here for those of public education, that lack of education applied mainly to formal learning, not common sense.

Children were taught manners at home, they could count as that way they would know if one of the cows were missing, history was mostly handed down from grandparents and science was for the inquisitive. As the country was heavily religious, morals were also taught as were the ten commandments. Yes, in this small world there were savages and betters, and while not without its faults, the system worked quite well in the early years of the country.

As the populations increased and more individuals were driven to supporting others through farming and tavern owning it became increasing popular to hire a school marm and have her teach in the little schoolhouse. To many it was their first introduction to formal learning and children of all ages shared the same teacher and the same classroom, that is when their parents could afford to allow their offspring to attend class.

Well all good things must come to an end and as the population grew, so did the perceived need to increase the size of the school house and the number of school marms. School marms were mostly single women, though there were a few men. Still things were working well, costs were low and children learned or didn’t learn depending on the motivations of the child in spite of many parents needing the child at home to help with chores rather than becoming a book worm.

Now, while I do not advocate a return to the one room school house, I want you to go back and look at the above closely. There was no administration, teaching was left to the teacher. There was no mandatory attendance, you graduated or didn’t, when you did. There was no school lunch programs, no government involvement other than paying the school marm and donating the schoolhouse and such government was local and there is another important factor missing, there was no union for the teachers.

Children were motivated to learn or they were not, it is only when somehow we collectively decided that all children must attend and must learn the same stuff and must graduate in a fixed period that trouble started. We than compounded the problem by creating Board of Educations, feeding the ankle-biters and making more mandates. 181 school days, tenure, additional subject material, approved books, approved curriculums, kindergarten, transportation, etc. The more we took the decisions out of the hands of the children, the parents and the teachers, the worse education got until we find ourselves in the mess we are in today. You will also notice that as parents handed over their responsibilities for their children, the children became less accountable and less responsible.

School has among other things, become a child-care center, an indoctrination camp, an experimental laboratory for failed teachers disguised as education specialists. Money has poured into schools at alarming rates with no accountability, literally billions of dollars are spend on education each and every year with little to show for it.

Do you think, that if we begin peeling back the onion little by little, beginning with unions and government involvement, that we could get back to a quality education? Do you think - huh?