Public Education

The Demise of Public Education

Recently, I have been reading a ton of articles on public education I gathered up for some research. Honestly, I was discouraged. This slug of a public education system we have is struggling to keep its head above water. While the blame for the failure is placed on the teachers, the real problem is the foundational beliefs driving public education. I am a teacher; I have 3 certifications and I'm working on my Master's degree, but public education may not be the best work in the future. I think it may end up like the US Postal Service, which is slowly grinding to a halt as people figure out how to go purely electronic. Its demise may have began not too long ago.

These things are related because there is a plethora of education materials out there for students of all ages. Just check out wolframalpha.com some time. While you're at it, look at owl.perdue.edu. These are just a couple of sites dedicated to knowledge. Public education mainly follows the Greek philosophy of learning. Simply put this is the idea of an expert imparting knowledge to non-experts. Basically the transition of knowledge is the essence of education. In the schools it is the teachers transmitting knowledge of a subject to a student. This seems like a great idea if the information wasn't already floating around cyber-space ripe for the picking. So my thought is this: we really don't have a need for teachers, just a basic understanding of how to get information (and motivation to do so) and the process is complete. I guess I'm saying my job is useless... You can find what I know by looking for 10 minutes on google! I hope the system doesn't figure this out soon!

The failure of the public education system has been in the spot light for a while now. I know this is an unprovable thought but I think it is because of what God teaches in the Bible. I get this from my recent reading in Proverbs. Chapter 1 says this, "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction" (Proverbs 1:7 ESV). Logically, then it is true to say Fear of God= beginning of knowledge. Then the inverse is true No Fear of God= No beginning of knowledge. Obviously, there is no fear of God in public education, so there is no knowledge, right? Well, there is knowledge at school, but knowledge my point is that it has no real value if it doesn't deal with the fear of Him. I suppose all knowledge is from God, but He is the source of true and valuable (as He defines value) knowledge.

"I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge—" (1 Corinthians 1:4-5 ESV). I think this teaches in grace through Christ our knowledge is enriched to true knowledge of God. The knowledge of God is the only truly valuable knowledge because it leads to the salvation of one's soul.

For some further reading on some of the problems with Public Education:

http://www.firstthings.com/article/2008/03/004-reforming-education-a-whole-new-world-20

This is just scratching the surface of the gigantic problem of education. I would love to hear some of your thoughts (reader) about it.