American School/chapter 2: Where are we now?

The American School , Joel Spring     Chapter 2.

Separation of church and state.  This is a tenet that our country was founded upon.

This topic seems to jump out of the assigned readings.  The colonial presumption that they were to impose their culture on groups of people who were different was always a puzzle to my thinking.  It all comes back to power and fear.  This common theme is witnessed repeatedly throughout our American history and into present time with the unrest in the Middle East.  If the colonists accepted other cultures, then they were not in control.  A more simplistic observation is lack of understanding.  When we don’t understand other people, we often turn our fear into hatred and control.  So we have schools that are based on the religious teachings of the 1600’s from a perception of power:  “We will teach you what we think you should know.”

            “The content of colonial education emphasized…submission to authority…” (Spring, p19)  This theme is evident in the separation of social classes in the early schools.  The goal was to suppress individualism for the benefits of the “chosen” society.  Ironically, Spring points out that the first library was developed by Benjamin Franklin. The Anglo-society he wanted to protect could not be saved with truth.  Spring also states that the information disseminated was partly rooted in Thomas Jefferson’s ideals of learning to think independently.  Jefferson’s respect for ideas and opinions was evident in his statement of preferring to live without a government if he had to make a choice.  I wonder what Jefferson is thinking about our schools today.  Have our schools provided his intention of creating a class of students who are able to make formulated judgments based on their acquisition of knowledge?  Would he be surprised of the push to support private and religious schools with government money?  I wonder what his tree analogy would resemble?  Would it be a reflection of our society?