is public education necessary

8/20/2019 Is Public Education Necessary

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IS

PUBUC EDUCATION

NECESSARY?

by

Samuel L.

Blumenfeld

I am delighted

to have t h i s

opportunity

to present my

views to th is

audience.

I believe that

we need

More than merely constructive al ternat ives

to forced

busing.

We need constructive

al ternat ives

to public education

in

generCll which is in such a

s t a t e of

dis integra t ion

tha t

the

sooner we address

ourselves to

tha t problem,

the

bet te r . I consider forced busing

as

simply the straw tha t i s

breaking the

camelis

/

back. i s the kin:: of

issue

tha t is f ina l ly forcing parents to seek

al ternat ives

outside of the

public

systel'l. vlhat

arrazes

Ire i s not how

Y'k'l.ny Drivate

schools

have

been started. by aroused parents , but

haw rrany parents are

st ll Hil l ing to sem the

chi ldren to schools tha t

canl t

t each

them to read, thctt

drug

chi ldren they c a n

control , tha t are destroying

mirrls

instead of developing

them.

Dr. Howard L. Hund

pr incipal of Long Island City Hir,h School in Queens, New York, recent ly smrr ed up

the si tua t ion ~ ~ t h these ~ o r d s

"The public

schools in the United States

are exoeriencing a decl:i_ne

unDreceden

in the

annals

of ed

uca

t ion anY1-lhere in

the world.

• • • You

have

throughout

the

cou

a

level

of classroom

disc inl ine t ha t

i s

so

poor

tha t

most

teachers

snend

a good

par

of

the i r time t rying to keep order. Arc. i you Ire

t rying

to keep order, you 're not

teaching anybo:ly anything. Show me a

school

H'1ere

the

f loors

are

di r ty , kids are

roaming

arouni the hal ls

a t

a l l hours of the day

and the

classrooITlS

are di r ty

an::!

1111

show you not a school, but a

sewer.1I

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Very strong words from a

veteran

educator who's

seen the

whole

nrocess

of

dis integra t ion

from

the

inside. Dr.

HUFYlitz, who

is 61, i s re t i r ing

in

January

because the Board

of

Education

insisted

tha t he readmit to school a 17-year-old

gi r l he'd susperrled. v1hen the

Hurwi

tzes of America are forced

to

r e t i r e by boards

of education tha t wi l l not back

them,

what chance i s

there

tha t

the

si tua t ion i s

going

to get

any b e t t e r ? r ~ l l of the irrl ications are negat ive. The teacher

unions

are becoming pol i t i ca l ly

more pO; Terful,

federal control

of the schools is

increasing

through HE'd, the

educational

lobby

in Ha.shington

is

bet te r organized and TIore

act ive

then ever,

the behavioral

psychologists

and

socia l engineers

are

~ i n the schools

as one

big laboratory

for behavioral experi;rentation,

and

the nrofessors

of

educatio

are busy mapping out

the

ne-I I values-oriented curriculu. 'Il.

Yes, a few

school d i s t r i c

have perni t ted a few back-to-basics

uni ts

to

oocrate

in competit ion

Ylith

the open

classroom.

But

these units

have

been

begru:lgingly se t up to

appease am

si lence

troublesome parents .

In general, however,

tho

open

classroom m o v e m e ~ t i s

sweeping

the

nation and

evert'

rerraining vest ige

of

struct'.ll 'e and t radi t ion i s going

down

the

drain

Today

the

school

administrator ' s b iggest

~ r o b l e m

is

not

how

to

imnrove

education,

but

ho\-/"

to

beef

up schod

secur i ty

Test i fying

before a Congressional

committee in June 1975 , Joseph

1

Grealy,

President

of the National Association

of

School Securi ty

Directors,

nrovided the following

hair-rais inf, i n f o r ~ a t i o n :

School assaults , ranes,

and

robberies are c o ~ o n everyday occurrences. In

197L, offense

e s t i ~ t e s

included 12,000 arr.ed rObberies, 20u,000 aggravated assault

and

9,000

forceable rapes .

There

were

273,000

school

burglaries

cost ing

an

estirrat

$243 mil l ion and

malicious

dest ruct ion cost ing

an e 3 t i ~ t e d $102

mill ion. In

one

Philadelphia school,

experimental

pets in

25'

classrooms

;.rere slaughtered

by

vandals

Damage caused by school arson i s estiJ'Jated a t over t.lOO rnill ion a year . In Miami

a $200,000

planetarium

Has burned to the groun:1. In

Irving, Texas,

a

$700,008

f i re



-

r t e

iillUCA'l'l.ON

N . t ; C i : ~ A t a (

gutted a junior high

school. In

Lafayette, L o u i ~ i a n a a mil l ion-dol la r f i re

d e s t r ~ J e d a high school, and in Belleview, Washington, the school l ibrary was

burned

down

causing

a

million dol lar

loss .

In 1974,

more

than

twice

as

many

actual

and

attempted combings occurred

in

scho:)l fac i l i t i es as took place in pCilice and

f i re denartments.

Of the 3

ta rgets

l i s ted , school

fac i l i t i e s ranked fourth.

The House

committee

sti l ly of

drugs our schools

s ta ted

we are

a Nation suffer ing

from

a

deadly disease . They fourrl tha t drug abuse

had become

so extensive am

oervasive

tha t

among students t was only the uniquely gifted and self-possessed

chi ld who was ca:oable of avoiding sone form of drgus.

Would

any responsible

parent, knoT{ling a l l of

this,

sen:

his child to

a

put-lic

school? The puclic school

has

become the mas t dangerous place in America for

chi ldren,

and

i f

the government were

cons is tent

in

i t s

concern for the heal th and

welfare of i t s ci t izens,

t

would require the

schools

to

put signs

on the i r doors

warning

oarents

tha t I1the

Denartment of

Health, Education and

~ l e l f a r e

has determine

that th is school is

danGerous to yot:r

chi ld s healt ""l.11 31:.t

don t

hold yocr breath,

;;tnd don

t

look

to

the govermlCnt for consistency.

What al ternat ive do

narents

have? ne

only

rea l i s t i c alter 'native is the

private school. I t

is the

only

al ternat ive

tha t

gives narents

the things they

want: sound basic ins t ruct ion, physical safe ty ,

and

moral and socia l values

in

agreemcrct.

th

the i r own.

These

are no

longer obtainable in

the

public

schools, .0

more

and

more

p o ~ l are coming to real ize tha t the nroblems of the public schools

are

rea l ly

ins

01

uble.

The

sys

tern

by i t s

very

r.a

ture

is

inca

p-.l:.le

of

c

orrec

t ing

or

healing

i t s e l f . And the sooner more

parents rea l ize

th is ,

the

less t irre

ani

money

wil l

be wasted

t rying to

improve

the

unimprovable.)

I t s been

seven years since I made y f i r s t

tour of

the South to

inspect

the

private schools tha t Southern

parents

had created as an al te rna t ive to the newly

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u

IS

PUBLIC

EJllCA 1 ICN NECE SSAP.Y?

in tegrated

~ ~ b l i c

schools. That

t r ip r ~ d

been rade

as par t

of my

research

for the

book I was th8n wri t ing, EO 1

TO

START YOi R OHN PRIVATE SCHOOL. I was pleasant ly

surprised y what

I

found

on t ha t tour:

clean,

safe ,

orderly scho

o

l s run by

responsible

Dare

nts

am

ci t iz

e

ns, "8roviding,

in genera l , a

no-nonsense educati

on

a t

no

expense to the taxpayer and only Moderate expense to the oarents . These

private

sch

oo

l s ,

organized

am

f inanced

in so

many

ingeni

o

us

days

by loca l

c i t i z

ens

and

s taffed

by

so

many dedicated

te

a

chers

am

ad ""cinistratars, re f l

ected

the

values

of the i r communities rather

than those of

the professional

e l i t e subsidized

y

HErr.

This was a remarka'cle

success story, an

extraordinary

examnle of

parent

power

in

act ion,

but

i f

I hadn' t

gone

dmm

there

to

see

for

myself,

I

would

have

never known UbOl:t i t . It Has cer ta inly , from a media f)oint of view, the 'cest

kept

secre t in AMerica.

Back

in

1970,

of course, it \-ras unthinkable

t ha t

any n o r t ~ e r n ci ty would be

faced

with the very

same

problem

of forced in tegra t i nn

and

bu.sing

tha t the Southern

had had

to

face. After a l l , the

schools of

the

nQr th were already rac ia l ly in t egra

Or

so

we

t h o ~

h t .

But

o

\-le

a l l

knOVl

bet te r .

We know, for

example,

tha t rac ia l integrat ion

alone

i s no longer the goal.

The

goal i s

rac ia l

balance.

You can

no longer have

a

public

school in

which

More

than 50 percent of the students are

black.

I t s the percentages

t ha t

c aunt,

am

tha t means

busing

chi ldren a l l o v e r the

map

to create the r ight rac ia l percentages

in

each scho

ol

Hha t

the

balance i t s e l f is

suuposed

to prcduce in terms of

improved education or

socia l

adjustffient no one rea l ly knows. In any case, it was

on the basis

of

th is sor t of thinking tha t the

¥ ~ s s a c h u s e t t s

Sta te Board of E d ~ c a t i

in June 1973, adopted a plan to e l i ~ i n a t e rac ia l iMb

alance

in

the

Boston schools.

The

Boston

School COJl11llitwe

rej ected the

plan,

but in Harch

197L

the State

suprerrle

court

ordertxl

the school

committee

to conply with the board's

tirrletable

for



implementing i ts

plan. In

April

of 197u

p a r e n t a ~ res is tance to the plan began

to

form.

Eut

I knew

from what

I

had learned in

the SOl th

tha t

no amOl nt of parental

res is tance would be able to

s top

the

implernenta

t ion of

the

bus

ing p l ~ n

So 1- hen

ant i -busing parents picketed

the Sta te House, I

went

down

there with

a

copy of

y

book, HOd TO START

YOUR

OHN

PRIVATE

SCHOOL AND i lHY ~ D U NEED ONE, introduced rrtyself

to

Fran

Johnenne, leader of the protes t ,

and

told

her

tha t no

amol nt

of demonstratio

motorcades, or

mothers

~ ~ r c h e s would

stop

the buses

from

rol l ing corne Seotember.

Their only recourse was to do what those

in

the South had done,

s t a r t

private

schoo

Fran bought my

book

on the spot, and

I l e f t feel ing tha t I

had done my

small b i t .

Tr1 months

l a te r ,

despite a l l of the parent8

,1

o""position, Judge

Garri ty

harried

down

his famous order of June 21, 197u. The parents of Boston could

yel l

and scream

unt i l

they

were blue

in

the face. The buses would ro l l .

Incidental ly, you might

be

interes ted to know tha t the f ina l busing

olan aoorov

by

Judge

Garri ty had been authored by

Dr.

Hichael J . Stolee, Dean

of

the

University

of Miami

and author of

more

than forty desegregation

plans.

Dr.

Stolee, who knew

as

much

about

Boston

as

I knoH

about

Tokyo,

had

been

hired

by

the

NAACP

to

come

up

with

a

plan

that 'Would sa t i s fy the i r demands. To Dr. Stolee, the

peonle

am

school

of Boston

were jus t

a

l o t of

nt:.riliers am

perl!ent...ges

am two colors . For

example,

anyone "rho knew th is c i ty was bound to

knC1tl

tha t

pair ing

Roxbury with South Boston

would lea.d

to

the

worst

sor t of rac ia l confrontat ion. Yet th i s i s exact ly what

Dr. stol did betraying an ignorance am c h n u ~

i nsens i t iv ity tha t

seems to be

cha

.

ractel ' ist ic

of

these

socia l

engineers.

I

mention

th is

becal!Se

t

is

important

for Americans to

rea l ize

to 1-lha

t extent

they

no

longer

control

thai

r own

local

schools,

i f , indeed,

they

ever

controlled

them in the f i r s t place.

In

August 197L,

a

month before school

opening, I

received

a

ca l l

from

Hal

Lddg

an e lec t r ica l engineer from

Hyde

Park.

He had

read

my

book

am

wanted me to

ta lk

t



6 IS PUBLIC

EDUCATION NECESSARY?

a

group

of parents in terested in s ta r t ing the i r ' 9Wn s c h o o ~ The seed had taken.

Also,

a t

about tha t

time,

I had been invi ted to speak

a t

the annual coference

of

the South Carolina Independent

School

Association which

was

to

take

place in

October

197L. My host had

told me

tha t i

I

wanted

to

bring anyone with me from

Boston to see how they in South

Carolina

had solved the i r busing prOblem by bui ldin

the i r own

schools, he would be

more

t ~ n delighted to give us the grand

tour .

So af te r I

spoke

to

the

gr01..L p in Hyde Park, I exterrled my host s invi ta t ion.

Hal

Ledge am his

wife Karen

and two of

the i r

f r i

e rrls decided

to

come

wi th

me.

In South

Carolina

we

were gi·ren the

warmest and f r iend l ies t of welcoJ'" es.

i{e

toured

schools,

we asked

many

questions, we got

many sensible

answers.

Above a l l ,

we

saw

what parents can do

when they put t he i r mirrls

to

it

I

need not remird you of the tumultuous

events t ~ t took

olace af te r school

opened in

September

197L. I t didn t take

very

long before a ~ l

dozen groups,

interes ted in

s ta r t ing

private schools in d i f ferent parts of the

ci ty ,

formed in

Boston. From these, three

schools

f ina l ly material ized: South Boston Heights

AcadeJ'" y, Parkway Academy

in Hest Roxbury, am.

Hyde

lark

Academy

fourried

by

the

two

couples who had accompanied

me

to South

Carolina .

All

of these schools

we

re

b u i l t

from absolute zero by parents

with

no previous experience in such

a

complex and

awesome

undertaking. Today these

schools

are viable , growing

inst i tu t ions,

sinking

deep roots in to

the

communities they

serve, exercising

a

freedom

tha t American

parents have not exercised in over a hundred years, proving tha t

parents

can i rdeed

overcome the

tyranny

of judges, s tate

bureaucrats , and

the educational

e l i t e .

And a l l of th is

has

been done without the

help

of the professional educators or

tha t

element in the

establishment

that

prides

i t s e l f

rrith i t s contributions

to

culture and learning. Considering

the

obstacles

and

'opposi

t ion

these

parents

faced

the i r achievement is

qui te

remarkable froJ'"!

every

standpoint .



1 - IS ~ ~ L I EDUC TION

N ~ C E S S A R Y

s I said a t

the opening

of

my

presentat ion, /We need constructive al ternat ives

to public edecation

which i s

no longer able

to educate

our

neoole, and the m0re

learn about )ublic education,

pas t

am present , the more

convinced

I becor.l8 of th i s .

For

the

past two

years

I have been working on a revis ionis t his tory of public

education, ani

MY research

has uncovered in teres t ing

and

important facts about ~ ~ e

in te l lec tua l

develooment of th is

c o1l.'1try tha t heIr>

explain

why

we are

now

Hhere

we

are . Firs t

I

must expla in uhat

< Mean by revis ionis t . I am

not

revising his tor

The

facts

of his tory

are

fac ts . They cannot

be revised

out of existence.

\<Iha

t

you

can

revise i s

how someone

brings

those facts

to you,

i f he

bothers

to b r i n ~ them to

you a t a l l .

The

orejooices of a

his tor ian

Hil l often determine ovr he writes his tor

In the past , vi r tua l ly

a l l

of our

educational

his tor ians have

been

deeply prejudiced

men, men

prejudiced in

favor of

public education. N ~ w you

may

think

that there

is

nothing wrong

in

favoring anything as noole

as

public

education.

Except for one

thing: i f

you

favor

)ublic

education, with i t s central ized s ta te control , uniform

curricuh:.m, cor.pulsory atten::l.ance

laws,

t ruant

off icers ,

:11 0 educational bureaucrat

a l l

suoported by enforced taxa t ion,

then

you

l'Iust

be

aE;ainst the

mere noble concept

of educatio:1al

freedom.

Arrl t is

th is

r>rofourrl prejudice af;a:i.nst

educational

freed

om tha t mars the

work

of most

educa

tio 1al histor ians .

In fac t

the reason

why I

s tar ted

writ ing my

book

is because I

"lanted to

f ind

out

why

the

American people,

"lith theLc

great

devotion

to l iber ty were wil l ing

to

give

up

educational

freedom so ear ly in the ir h is tory.

I

fot:n::l. the

ans'o'lers,

but the

are not

simple

anS.lers. They

are

the

same

answers to the larger ques

t ion

of

why

people

a l l o v e r the world

are

e;iving

up the i r

freedom

for

desrotism.

In the United

States educational

freed om was the f i r s t rJaj or

freed

om we

surren::l.ered.

By put t ing

education in

the

hands of the governrent, we gave government a power over our m ms

which

t has

used

to

gradually rob

us of the res t of

our

freedoJ'T13. The

process

i s

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B -

IS

PUBLIC WUCATION

NECESSARY?

now in high gear and only

the

s t ronees t oppositi9n

of

an

a le r t and concerned

ci t izenry

wil l be able

to reverse i t .

Contra ) ' to

pODular

bel ief ,

c O M p u l s o ~

public ed ucation did

not cone with the

Declaration of Independence and the Const i tut ion. Our Constitution, in fact , makes

no mention of education a t

a l l .

Exceot for the tax-sunoorted c o m ~ o n schools

which

originated in Puri tan

New

Enelan:l, American education

for

the f i r s t f i f ty years of

our nation 's his tory was a "Tholly private af fa i r . There ;.rere private schools,

church

schools, chari ty schools,

da

",es schools,

academies,

sernim-

r ies ,

horre tutorin

etc . We had an unregulated diversi ty of

educational

inst i tu t ions tha t served

the

needs of a

free

people. In Massachusetts

alone

in

1835

there \ 'ere

about

three hund

indeperdent

academies, with

the

n u ~ e r

growing

as

more and m

re towns

gave

u

the

di lapidated COflUnon

schools in favor of

the

ne" well-run private ones.

Yet,

what

has COMe dow-n

to

us is a l o t of

~

and l egem about so-cal led

crusaders l ike Horace Hann

and

Henry

Barnard sunposedly crea t: 'ng public ed uca t ion

so tha t the '18.sses p ight be saved from ignorance

and

i l l i t e racy

and the Renurlic

saved

from- an uninformed

elec tora te . Put

the fac t i.s tha t desni te the lack of

compulsoryatterrlance laws,

l i t e racy

was jus t abm:.t universal in the Uni ted States

am

qual i ta t ive ly h i ~ h e r than

t is

tooay.

fflucation

\-las

thr iving

in

i t s

free

s ta t

Hhat Horace Mann did from

1837

to 18L9, with

the

help of a somevlhat hys te r ica l

messianic

network

of socia l refoITlers, was detroy

American educational

freedom and

diversi ty

and

create

the legal and bureaucratic framework for central ized, regulate

conformist,

s ta te-control led,

tax-financed

education

for

everybody.

To un:lerstand why the reforrr.ers wanted

public

e uca t ion , you must f i r s t urrlers

tha t

the central in te l lec tua l conf l ic t between

l iberals

and

conservatives

in th is

o ~ n t r y

has

i t s origins in t ~ e rel igious conf l ic t between

Unitarians

and Calvinis ts

tha t i s ,

between

the

rel igious

l ibera ls and

the

re l ig ious orthooox.

The

conf l ic t

i



9 - IS PUBLIC

illJCATION

NECESSARY?

crucia l ,

because it

centers on

two fundamental

issues: the nature of God

and

the

nature

of man. However,

the

tHO issues

are

so in ter re la ted as to be

Merely

two side

of

the

same

coin.

The

Calvinists

\-/ere more

anxiol S

to

umerstan:l the nature of

God

than the natur

of

rran. To them

man's nature

.1as an open and

shut case:

man was a

fa l len creature ,

irll1M.tely denraved,

the

source

of evil , and

therefore

he

could not be t rusted

with

power. Thus, the American system of government was

based

on the Calvini"t view of

man,

am, patler

ras

dispersed as

Ttlidely as

possible to minimize the daneer of giving

some men power over others . The creat ion

of

the

American

f o ~ n

of g 7 e r n F ~ n t would

have

been imoossible

without the

then prevalent

Calvin is t

view

of

man.

The

Founiing

Fathers , along with the res t of the colonis ts , were, for the most

part ,

orthcrlox

Calvinis ts , not

Deists.

But preju:iiced his tor ians

have

given

far MOre credi t

to

the Deists than

is

r iGhtful ly the i r due. I f you want to know w ~ a t the American rnirr

was l ike jus t

pr ior

to the American

Revolution,

it s bet te r to read Calvin's

Ins t i tu tes

of

the Christ ian

Religion

than Montesquieu

or

Rouss rau.

The

Uni_tarians,

who

rose

to

dominance

in

Boston

and

Harvard around lR09,

reject

the

Calvinis t view of both TTkl n am Ged. By denying Chris t s d lvini ty ,

they

rejected

the

New

Testament as a

prophetic

fu l f i l lnen t of

the Old.

This se t

them

on the road

to pant11 eism, atheism, spi r i tua l i sm, and socia.lism.

As for

ron, he was

not

only

fundamentally ra t ior .al , benevolent ani good, but

qui te

-rerfect ible . Evil,

they

believed,

was

not

caused by

anything innate in man

but by

conditions outside of

man

ignorance, soc ia l inequal i ty,

poverty,

etc . The

Unitarians said,

in essence, tha t

power c o r r ~ ~ t s

man. The

Calvinis ts said tha t

man

corrupts ~ o w e r . The Unitarians

believed,

that

money was the root

of

a l l

ev i l .

The Calvinis ts

believed tha t man's

pride

was

the root of

a l l

ev i l and tha t

money was

merely an iner t commodity, an

i n s t r ~ m e n t

of

exchange.



10 - IS PUBLIC

EnnCA

TION

NECESSARY?

After the Unitarians gained control

of

Harvard in 1809,

they

shifted in te l lec tu

in te res t

from Goo to man. The

Calvinists had l ived in

a

Ged-centered

world, in

whi

theology--the s tu:l.y of

God--was centra l to the i r

concerns. The Unitarians,

because

of the i r fa i th in

man, were

forced to develop

psychology--the st1.... .dy

of

man's natcre

to

prO re not

only the i r contention tha t

man was per fec t ible but

to

discover the

means

to

bring

tha t

per fec t ib i l i ty about. "Ed1 cati

m" was to

be

tha t means,

am

tha t

i s yhy the

public

education

mover,.ent was la rgely

created, direc ted , am

propelle::l

foward

by the Uni ta r ian e l i te centered in Boston and H2.rvard.

But

the

man who was

urrl oubtedly

the lTlOSt responsible for d

evelo 1ing

the

idea

o

central ized, regulated,

nat ional ,

secular , ant i - re l ig ious education Has the Helch

i m u s t r i a l i s t Rebert Owen, the

father

of Socialism am. ~ er in 1825

of

the

New

Harmony COJTlJTlunist experime nt

in

Indiana.

The

centra l

idea

in

OoTen s philosoohy

concerned the natcre of man. OHen contended tha t man's

character

was formed for

hil l.

by

his envirnoment and education ard tha t therefore , by

reforming

edt.:.cation an

environMent,

man

was

capable of

giving the ft.:.ture

f,eneration

any character

t

wishe

Owen then argued thc t the or.ly Hay

t ha t

nations

could

change

the

character

of

their

people

from evi l to goo1 was to ed1 cate thePl.

from

infancy in an atrnooT)here of

benevolence,

coo

perat ion,

science, reason,

an:l.

rat ional i ty

in

a

system of nat ional

schools. To Owen,

cOMpeting

rel igions

were

the root

of

a l l evi l . I t was

necessary

to get re l ig ion out

of

e d ~ c a t i o n before ~ a n s character could

be

reformed a n ~ a new

cooperative,

soc ia l i s t society created. Only a nat ional system of education

based

on sc ien t i f ic

secular

nrinciples could

do

th is .

Basical ly,

the Unitarians

am the

Oi-ltmites shared the same viel-/s

about the

plas t i c i ty of

t he

human

character ,

and

the

two groups joined

forces

tobecore the

backbone

of

the public

school

movement.

h e ~ _ r desire" vIas to t:..Se the instrume nt

of

pub l ic educat ion to chAnge

the

character of man in conformity

with

the l r

notions



11

IS

F JBLIC E D U C A T I O ~ J NECEsSARY?

abo1:t man's innate gocdness and perfec t ib i l i ty • . . That was ,the messianic vis ion

behind

th is extra

ordinary

movement.

But

both

Unitarians

am

the

Cweni tes real ized

tha t they

vTould

need conservative cooperation i the

movement

were

to

succEed, am

tha t i s Hhy other

argurrents, appealing to conservatives,

were

used

to persuade

legis la tors and taxnayers

to approve

of

the

legis la t ion

needed to bring

about

central ized, s ta te-control led secular

ed1:ca

t ion.

The

opposition,

in wany instances, saw through the Unita r ian-Socia l i s t

machinations,

bllt they fai led

to

prevent the loss of educational

freedOP1 because

of the i r lack

of uni ty and the i r inabi l i ty to

de*l

with the

underhanded

methods of

both Unit.3Tians

and Socia l i s t s . The Socia l i s t s

indeed, Here by lR?9 already

o ~ e r a t i n g

in

secre t

cel l s

because

~ [ e n s

views

on

r e l i ~ i o n had

turned

public opinio

against

him.

I found cO'11plete

d o c u ~ n t t i o n for

th is

in

the

wri t i

ngs

of

Orestes

Erownson Hho, for a t ime, \'las a

remer

of the Ouenite 'Iovenent.

In shor t , w ~ my

research ~ r o v e s

i s tha t the

nublic school m o v ~ m e n t

was

motiva ted primari ly

by

a zeal to reforJrl hUJllan chars.cter, not

imorove

or extend

l i te racy. The fa i lc re of

pt:blic

edt:.ca

t ion i s

the re su l t

of the basicGllly erroneous

prenise

tha t society

can

perr1anently

a l t e r

human nature by T ~ a n s

of

education am

environment. After

more

than

one

hundred years of central ized, s ta te-control led p ~

education, we have

more

criminali ty, not

l e ss more depravi ty,

not

l e ss more

i l l i t e racy not l ess . Every day, new s tudies tend

to

confirm the accuracy

of

the

Calvinist

view of human nature.

So,

e are cor.ting

ful l

coming fu l l c i rc le af te r

having given

the

Unitarian-Social is t

concept

the

fu l l es t

possible

t e s t . There

is

more

popular cynicism

abot:.t

the

r.atcre

of

man

than ever before, am r ight ly so.

The

a t roc i t i es of

the

tvIentieth-century 1 .3.ke

any notion

about the

perfec t ib i l i ty

of

man

seem l ike

a cruel

joke.

The rQ.?d

back to educational

"'reedom i s a long

one, b1:t

t is

the road we must



take i we

are to res tore sanity

and value to

American education In fac t

i f

we

t ru ly value in te l lec tua l

freed

om then the

l a s t

place

we

should

rP i

t

the governmen

to

enter

i s

the classrooM

Alternat ives

to

forced

busing

OI re

not

enough

ive

must

get

the

gryrernment of education altogether

The lessons of

his tory

make

no

other o ~ s e possible

is public education necessary

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