The Trunk

Public Schools and Empirical Tests

It’s also a tad offensive to suggest that teachers are incapable of separating ourselves from the state to the point we are brainwashed.

BAL, I certainly don’t mean offense, and I can’t reiterate enough that I had many incredible, inspiring teachers in my public schools … people that, if I see them in the mall today, I stop them and force them to hear effusive compliments about how much their teaching meant to me. I guess I should be more clear: the bias I’m talking about isn’t a partisan one … it’s a systematic one … it’s the bias against anarchy and in favor of the state, a bias that I myself have, but one that’s rooted in assumptions we’re raised on.

A teacher who is hired by the public schools is very likely to believe that there should be public schools, and very unlikely to believe that the public education of the masses is wrong. I’m not saying that I disagree with them about this … . but as a result, this particular point of view is hardwired into our schools.

Few doctors think that medicine is quackery; few architects think that design is meaningless; few musicians think that music is garbage. Every job has certain biases—in our public schools, those biases underly the teaching, both by the fact that the teaching exists and that attendance is compulsory, and, I believe, by the subtler effects of this on the discussions that take place in the classrooms. Could a doctor make the case that medicine is quackery if called upon to do so for the sake of intellectual engagement?—maybe, but I suspect that a non-physician would be better equipped to make the case, maybe not in terms of reciting statistics or recalling studies, but in terms of disregarding the fundamental terms of the debate—terms that have been established by the medical community itself. If public education professionals necessarily believe in the legitimacy of their job, then they likely to accept as legitimate other functions of the state: police protection, the courts, the police, the fire department, the military, etc. Don’t get me wrong—I think each and every one of those things is legitimate, but then again, I grew up with public schools. Did I reach my rejection of anarchy fairly, or was I helped? I think I was helped, and I think this isn’t necessarily good.

Source: jakelodwick