All schooling is political — not partisan, but political. The difference between schools lies in how honest they are in recognizing it.
“Political” should mean having to do with our life in common, where we deliberate over what is noble, just, and advantageous. Every class in any subject provides students with a way to think or with the knowledge to inform how they think. All of this influences the hearts and minds of students. This, in turn, affects how they associate and deliberate with others. School lives out and educates toward a specific view of citizenship. It is inherently and fully political.
At Golden View Classical Academy, for instance, we teach that America’s very first founding event is probably 1620 in Plymouth, not 1619 in Virginia. That framing is undeniably political — just as it would be if the alternative were deemed correct — as it places the destiny of America in a certain light. We do teach about slavery, as fully as we can, but we don’t regard it as the original fact and purpose of our nation. Likewise, we teach that all men are created equal and that race is not a fundamental category of human identity. This is political, just as is the opposite sort of teaching.
INDIANA’S COLLEGE COMPLETION RATE INCREASES, FEWER CHOOSING HIGHER EDUCATION
For a more modern example, we teach that the New Deal was not as glorious as it is often portrayed. That is political, just as is the opposite, and far more common, teaching today. Our teaching tends to highlight the limits of government intervention in private markets, not absolutely but in general, limits that point to the proper sphere of government and the real extent of natural rights. Still, we also teach about the Great Depression era with particular sensitivity: that it was an extreme challenge to know just what to do in the midst of an awful depression and that it might have been hard to see another way at the time.
What schools are not, or at least should not be, is partisan. A “Republican” school or a “Democratic” school would be total nonsense. This shouldn’t be conflated, however, with the real purpose of teaching students and the true challenge: defining the regime into which students have been born. Here is where schools need to be honest about their beliefs and aims for the youngest generations of citizens.
Are all men created equal and endowed by their creator with inalienable rights, or do we find ourselves in society unequal, deserving of different rights based on race, gender, sexuality, and the like? You can’t hold both as fundamental opinions about the regime. One opinion excludes the other.
Likewise, does popular consent matter in our institutions, or ought we to be ruled by experts who are believed to know better than the average citizen? You can’t hold both views simultaneously. Whether they admit it or not, each school, every curriculum, and every teacher will have a stance on these matters. Students look to their teachers and school leadership for answers and direction.
Once a school answers these questions, it can look to the higher purposes of education. It can follow through on the principles of a liberal education — an education in free thought that rises above the regime it has come to understand and judges it as a friend, with fairness, honesty, and a desire for what is noble. But even in school, we can’t lose sight of the basic truth that we are all, whether we want to talk about it or not, political.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Robert Garrow is the principal at Golden View Classical Academy, a K-12 classical charter school in Golden, Colorado.
