Recently, in a discussion of school-related issues, a conservative said this: “The children and their proper education are our national treasure and we need to preserve this treasure.”
Unfortunately, this is exactly the attitude that has created all the problems that he and other conservatives are complaining about.
First, it leads to treating education as an entitlement rather than as a responsibility, which is exactly backward.
Second, it encourages thinking of education as something that is done to a group (‘the children’) rather than as something that is done by individuals (each child, with the assistance of his parents).
‘The children” are not a ‘national treasure’, or a national resource, or a national anything. They are the responsibility of their parents — who created them without first consulting with the nation about their decision to do so.
The further we move away from that understanding, the more education becomes a political game — one that conservatives are increasingly unlikely to win.
When will conservatives learn that meaningful change will only happen when they stop focusing on ‘the children,’ and focus instead on their children — the first step of which is getting those children the hell out of public schools?
