Public School Turns Kids Into Obedient Workers Who Don't Think For Themselves, So My Kids Do Something Different
Irina WS | ShutterstockWe homeschool our kids.
I can make up a lot of reasons why we homeschool. We want more time together as a family. We want to keep the kids sheltered for a while longer. Our son with ADHD learns better at home. We want more time for art projects. Those reasons are partly true, but the real reason is much bigger: I don't want to raise passive little worker bees who grow up doing and buying whatever they're told to. I love public school students, I support public school teachers, and I believe public school parents are doing the best they can for their kids. This isn't about the people inside the system. It's about the system itself, and why I believe public school is designed to create obedient workers who don't think for themselves.
I homeschool my kids because public school teaches kids to obey more than think
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I'm homeschooling my kids because public school is designed to create obedient workers who don't think outside of their narrow worldview.
Don't believe me? Think back to school.
You needed a pass to go to the bathroom. You couldn't eat in class. You had to ask for a pass to get a drink of water. You had a dress code. The school controls you, first, bodily. It tells you when to eat and when to eliminate; what to wear and how to wear it. The physicality of control is total, even to the point of teaching children to sit still for up to eight hours a day.
And for what? School is underpinned by a system of arbitrary rules. Use cursive here, print here. Go to your locker at designated times. Don't use the pencil sharpener; in fact, don't use a pencil.
No one asks why Mr. Jones won't let his class wear hats in school; they simply obey. All of these rules prime students for unquestioning obedience to bosses and other authority figures, including the government.
Public school gets kids used to being watched and judged by authority figures
At school, students assume they're being watched all the time; this is what prevents everything from cheating to dress code violations to smoking in the bathroom.
Because students outnumber teachers, the administration must create an atmosphere of internalized surveillance: students never know whether they're being watched, so they always act as if they are.
This internalized surveillance system casts students as easily controlled workers who will obey the rules with minimal supervision and under threats. But because the overseers are the same ones handing out punishment, they have no real sense of accountability (unless parents come howling in, and maybe even not then). So it makes sense to students that surveillance is only for the controlled, not for the higher echelons.
Police dash cams make a lot less sense in this mindset. So do checks and balances of political power. Even Human Resources becomes impotent.
Standardized testing trains kids to accept arbitrary performance reviews
An emphasis on testing goes hand in hand with this surveillance. Students are often subjected to standardized tests multiple times a year, tests with no bearing on their grades or class standing. These prepare students for arbitrary reviews.
Public schools also set them up to accept arbitrary, nonsensical performance metrics.
As an ultimate form of surveillance, the tests teach students to assume they're always being evaluated by some distant other: in the tests' case, the state; and later, corporate headquarters.
People often complain about schools "teaching to the test." And they do teach to the test: their own. Knowledge is broken into discrete subjects (English, History, etc.) without any relationship to one another.
Because learning is so segregated, students don't delve deeply into subjects. They don't have time to follow their interests or inclinations. Instead, students are forced-marched through a shallow sea of knowledge, and kids know it, with their constant "Will this be on the test?"
Those tests, generally written, often fill-in-the-blank or multiple-choice, emphasize conformity.
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Public school rewards the 'right' answer more than original thinking
There's no room for ambiguity about why Columbus discovered America, for example, because the answer needs to be easily regurgitated for the always-looming test.
Schools don't reward creative thinking; within the system, they can't.
You can't even evaluate, much less reward, a multidisciplinary project that renders history into play form. And all learning must be evaluated. You can't read a book for fun.
Corporate influence in schools teaches kids to become consumers early
All of this alone would convince me not to enroll my children. But the creeping corporate influence makes schools even more dangerous.
Now morning news shows advertise products; Pepsi and Coke fight over contracts for the school cafeteria. One or the other may sponsor parts of the building in exchange for ad space. We accept this capitalist intrusion into our schools because it's the end goal of our learning system: go forth and buy the stuff you don't need.
Corporations want to get 'em while they're young.
And they are. They use kids as brand ambassadors. The latest fads sweep through schools in a kind of groupthink. Corporations don't need to advertise in schools when they can saturate the adolescent media market.
Students who choose not to participate become social outcasts, or at least feel somehow less than. Not buying into the corporate-engineered culture can get a kid ostracized.
Homeschooling gives my kids more room to question authority and think deeply
I'm lucky to be in a position to opt out. Most parents can't. That sucks, and I don't judge them for that. But I'm making what I believe to be the best decision for my kids. It's an unpopular one.
So I won't be enrolling my kids in public school because I don't want to raise a bunch of conformist drones primed for desk jobs in the new economy.
I want my kids to have a chance to think deeply, to learn without testing, and to avoid the corporate influence already infiltrating our schools. I want them to question the authority around them, its foundations, and its utility.
If this information makes you react strongly, take a step back and ask why. Think hard about the truth in it without dismissing the argument as a corporate conspiracy theory. Examine your reaction, and where it comes from. Do we have to do school this way? Why? Can we change it? How?
As for us, we're opting out.
Editor's Note: This is part of YourTango's Opinion section, where individual authors can provide diverse perspectives on a wide range of political, social, and personal issues.
Elizabeth Broadbent is a writer, journalist, and speculative fiction author. Her work has been featured in Huffington Post, The Washington Post, Insider, and Romper, among many others, where she writes about parenting, mental health, and lifestyle topics.
