On the Institution of Public Schooling

If public schools really taught critical thinking, their students (and parents) would ask themselves why government had a monopoly on education. They would ask themselves why attendance was compulsory. They would ask why they couldn’t go somewhere else or learn about something of their choosing. They would challenge the curriculum and scheduling. They would ask why they should trust total strangers with custody of their children. They would ask if it’s healthy to confine their children for hours a day, or drug them if they are restless. They know stealing is illegal, so they would ask why other people are robbed to pay for their child’s schooling. They would ask themselves why children were segregated by age. They would wonder about regimentation. They would finally wonder if they were in fact being indoctrinated.

After sober inquiry, critical thinkers would get the hell out of there.

“What is the purpose of industrial education? To fill the young of the species with knowledge and awaken their intelligence? Nothing could be further from the truth. The aim is simply to reduce as many individuals as possible to the same safe level, to breed and train a standardized citizenry, to put down dissent and originality. That is its aim in the United States and that is its aim everywhere else.” —H. L. Mencken