It’s a long-running motif in American intellectual history. Critics of public schools are said to be misinformed, vicious people who want only to destroy education.
In short, reformers are not trying to help. Rather, they “oppose” public education. We are told this by our Education Establishment, that is, the powerful ideologues who actually make the schools what they are.
There could hardly be a more self-serving sophistry. The people creating inferior schools walk away from blame and responsibility.
An early prototype of this sophistry is a book written in 1944 by V. T. Thayer, at one time the Chairman of the Commission on the Secondary School Curriculum of the Progressive Education Association. His book was titled “American Education Under Fire.” Note that criticism of the status quo equals an artillery barrage. (more...)
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