Finally, we have glimmers of hope that the intrusive federal involvement in education may be cut to size, if not eliminated altogether. The showdown over this behemoth is far from over, but in the meantime, it gives rise to another more important question. Conservatives have gotten very good at pointing out what is wrong with our educational system in the United States. Now that change is likely to come, what we must do now is build consensus about what education should look like in America.
And no, I’m not just talking about what level funds it or how and where we elect the politicians in charge. What I mean is it’s time to move away from the terrible “workforce standards” view of educating kids. It’s simply not good enough to focus on skills for future employment, to teach our children to be cogs in some society machine. What we need is an education system that addresses what author and poet T.S. Eliot observed in his writing on “The Aims of Education” – to answer the fundamental question, “what is man for?”
I am excited to point you to a new initiative that is pushing for a renewed American view on education — one that commits to understanding the central purposes. The Phoenix Declaration from the Heritage Foundation aims to outline a “new American vision for education” as the “cornerstone of individual opportunity, family flourishing, and national prosperity.” They want to see a return to every child having access to education that fosters the pursuit of the good, the true, and the beautiful things that help children meet their God-given potential.
This sounds like the building blocks that John Adams had in mind when he observed that “public virtue cannot exist in a nation without private virtue, and public virtue is the only foundation of republics.” Go and read the Phoenix Declaration for yourself! Share it widely. Also point people to resources like our Education Reporter. Now is the time with big change on the horizon to make real and meaningful change in how America views education.
