Can we finally dispense with the fiction that the American public education system is anything but a jobs program for low achievers?
Yes, we all have fond memories of some teacher or another from our days in school. Back in the day, the public school system was an elevator into the middle class, although it was never as good as we would like to think. For every good teacher there were 4 mediocre ones and at least one really bad one.
But at least you could count on anybody graduating from a public school to have a good grasp of basic mathematics, the ability to read and write, and a reasonable sense of how our Constitutional order works. In other words, the public schools served their function. We weren’t trying to create intellectuals but rather people prepared to be good, productive citizens who could climb the social and economic ladder.
Frankly, we don’t need that many…
