How
Public Education Creates the Generation Gap
GrassTopsUSA Exclusive Commentary
By Gennady Stolyarov II
07-29-07
The
predicament plaguing a tremendous number of school-age children
today is too obvious to be overlooked. A preponderance of rudeness,
a disdain for the intellect, and a lack of motivation or work ethic
are the least of their problems. The widespread tendency toward
self-destructive activity – including teenage intercourse,
self-abasing parties where alcohol is consumed with drunkenness as
the goal and other more damaging drugs are introduced, the frequent
desire to put one’s life on the line to “prove a point” or
demonstrate one’s “coolness” – is far more disturbing.
Combine that with the admiration that even many affluent young men
have for “gangsta” thugs and the desires of many teenage girls to
wear clothes that in earlier eras would have made professional
“fallen women” blush – and you will start to get a picture of the
kinds of forces that actively stymie the futures of so many of
America’s young people – before they even have a chance to fight
back. The predominant ethos of today’s mainstream youth culture
taken to its logical conclusion is one of self-inflicted debasement,
degeneration, and death – all for the sake of a twisted idea of
“fun,” used to label activities that are not even remotely enjoyable
in any profound or enduring way.
When concerned adults try to step in and remedy the situation by
teaching kids lessons in prudence, ethics, and long-term
self-interest, they are too often dismissed and treated with
contempt. The way in which the successful, prosperous members of
older generations live is “boring” and “bland” to many of today’s
youths – a symptom of today’s regrettable “generation gap.” Many
young people find no excitement in stability and no pleasure in
living life according to the rules of logic and morality. When put
into the working world, most of them quickly change their tune,
shape up, and begin to lead responsible lives. But, as teenagers,
too many of them are consumed by a dark hedonistic romanticism which
frequently takes lives and inflicts tremendous suffering on self and
others alike.
What created this situation? Is it violent video games? Hollywood
films? The mainstream media? Internet pornography? The popular
“music” industry? Some of these forces contribute to the problem,
but none of them are powerful enough to make a significant
difference on their own, and many of them would not even have
emerged were it not for a deeper underlying cause. In fact, the more
accurate though frequently overlooked answer is that the current
self-destructive youth culture could not have emerged without
universal compulsory public education.
Granted, it is not the intention of public educators to turn
children into quasi-suicidal brutes. Some of them even loathe the
current youth culture but feel powerless to do anything against it.
I do not wish to condemn the people who work in the public schools,
but rather the system that creates perverse incentives for children
to obtain the direct opposite of a genuine education.
The natural, time-tested way for children to develop and learn is in
the company of many other adults. Parents, extended family, and
positive role models in the community give children ample access to
knowledge and examples of successful, ethical living which they can
admire and strive to emulate. Teachers, tutors, and mentors can also
positively shape a child’s development – provided that they actually
have enough time in which to do this by engaging in direct,
formative interaction with the child.
But compulsory public education takes children out of an environment
rich with adult guidance and places them in a setting dominated by
their peers. Although teachers are present in a public classroom,
the sheer number of students there minimizes the amount of time a
teacher can devote to any one. After all, with thirty people in a
class – and sometimes more – the teacher cannot take extensive time
each day interacting with each student on an individual basis. While
the teacher might devote special effort to assist students who are
falling behind in the class, the students who are ahead of most of
their peers seldom receive any constructive guidance at all. And
even if a fraction of teachers is unusually skilled at communicating
factual knowledge to most of their students, the public school
system – however hard it might try – cannot effectively convey
life-affirming values that keep young people out of trouble. This is
the job of parents, which has unfortunately been usurped by the
schools, leading to greatly reduced moral instruction for students.
With little or no adult support on the important ethical and
prudential issues of life, public school students are on their own
in dealing with their most disreputable peers – bullies,
delinquents, and – more commonly – impressionable youths infatuated
with some hedonistic idea. By law, public schools cannot exclude
these elements from their facilities, meaning that the best-behaved
students must necessarily suffer on account of the worst, who taunt,
harass, and even attack them, knowing that they will not receive
serious retribution.
To add to the problem, hedonistic practices carry some appeal for
those young people who have not been forewarned of their dangers.
Some child or teenager – probably one of the most ignorant among his
or her peers – gets a self-destructive idea and quickly shares it
with others. With no countervailing force, the idea is quickly
adopted and, like lemmings plunging off a cliff, many young people
use it to damage their lives. Those few unusually perceptive and
resilient students who recognize its dangers are quickly labeled as
outcasts and either ignored or viciously abused by the majority.
There are plenty of decent, bright, upstanding students in public
schools – but the system acts against them. There, the lowest common
denominator likely prevails and determines the youth culture.
The “gangsta rap” industry did not create this youth culture; quite
the contrary, the youth culture created the “gangsta rap” industry.
Market entrepreneurs make profits by responding to existing consumer
preferences and providing products to meet them. The underlying
problem is not that products were provided to suit the tastes of
millions of American youths – that much is inevitable. Rather, we
must be concerned that such damaging tastes arose in the first place
and spread to such a wide consumer base. If compulsory public
education is at the root of the attitudinal trends that gave rise to
the current youth culture, then it is time to do away with this
institution.
The solution, of course, is not to isolate children from their
peers. Rather, it is to allow parents and individual children to
pick the peers with which they will interact. Home-schooled students
currently exercise this option, and their tendency toward greater
civility and amicability is as well known as their statistically
superior academic performance. In a system of fully private
education, parents decide on the educational institution which their
children will attend – in large part based on the quality of other
students who go there. Because public schools will no longer hold a
monopoly position over the educational market for middle and
working-class families, many more affordable private schools will
spring up to offer parents more choices regarding where to send
their child. These institutions will compete in positively shaping
students’ character as well as their knowledge.
In a fully private system, parents who wish their children to grow
up civilized and reasonable will immerse them in the company of
civilized and reasonable adults and children. Those for whom
morality and manners are less of a concern will, it is true, be less
discriminating. While a private system will not make all young
people good, it will ensure that good children will not be forced to
associate with bad ones. The generation gap and the disturbingly
homogeneous current youth culture will vanish, to be replaced by the
more traditional and far better functioning model of children
emulating the adults in their lives. In turn, parents will more
clearly perceive the example that they must set in order for their
children to grow up to lead fulfilling lives and to avoid destroying
themselves in the process.
Gennady Stolyarov II is
Editor-in-Chief of
The Rational Argumentator, a magazine championing the principles
or Reason, Rights, and Progress. His works have been published by
Le Quebecois Libre,
Enter Stage Right Magazine, the
Ludwig von Mises Institute,
Rebirth of Reason, and other organizations. Mr. Stolyarov can be
contacted at
gennadystolyarovii@yahoo.com.
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