"The purpose of compulsory education is to deprive the common people of their common sense." -- GK Chesterton

"The purpose of compulsory education is to deprive the common people of their common sense." -- GK Chesterton

As is so often the case in the modern world we have things exactly backward. In the process of turning your children over to the public education system, we have turned our backs on the home and the family. And we have somehow mislaid the primary purpose of going to school.

The one thing that is never taught by any chance in the atmosphere of public schools is this: that there is a whole truth of things, and that in knowing it and speaking it we are happy. -- Chesterton

Our schools change their standards more often than they change the light bulbs. The modern mind cannot make up its mind. It has no eternal philosophy, no eternal reference point. But the irony is that the more doubtful we are about the value of philosophy, the more certain we are about the value of education. This is the same thing as saying that "the more doubtful we are about weather we have any truth, the more certain we are apparently that we can teach it to our children. The smaller our faith and Doctrine, the larger or faith in doctors".

It is perfectly obvious - it is common sense - that we cannot have a system that claims to provide a complete education, and then leave out theology and religion. But that is precisely what we have. We pour money into education because education is the answer to everything. The more education the better, except, of course, if it includes theology.

By turning public education over to "the experts", we have undermined the natural authority of the family.

The schools were painfully aware of the decline in education. And so they scramble to try new things, you serious, new ways to teach. Most educational theories are not as old as the children being taught. We are not educating students anymore. We are desperately educating the Educators and then giving them a group of students on which to experiment with the latest techniques of teaching.

"Our schools are swept nowadays with wave after wave of scientific speculation; by fad after fad and fashion after fashion."
-- Chesterton

There is utter rejection of tradition, of the truths that built our civilization, the truths that were handed down through the generations.

[Common Sense 101, Alquist]

My two cents: In an effort to be hyper-tolerant and even-handed, avoiding any potential to make anyone feel uncomfortable about the strange ways they believe, we have ruined education. We have put our children's minds into the hands of people who've been gagged, blindfolded, and handcuffed, then told to swim the English Channel. Failure is the only result.

What do we truly want for our children? Do we want them to make a lot of money, have a job we can brag about, be incredibly powerful in this world until they die? Or do we want them to be of good moral character, with integrity and honor, realizing there is something greater than themselves and that they should live their lives with humility and with selflessness. The only way the latter happens is through teaching our children about God, then letting them make their own decision.

But by not doing so, we have crippled them.

If we can afford nothing more than public education, so be it. But we cannot leave our children without the education that really matters, assuming that they get all they need from perfect strangers paid by the government. We, as parents, must fill that gap. Must. It is imperative.