Politics and public schools

A big problem with public schools is the politics. Because public schools are controlled mostly by state and federal governments there are a few key points that special interests can focus on to maximize the impact of their efforts.

I recently came across a case in point. A Google alert for Diane Ravitch led me to Islam and the Textbooks: A Reply to the Critics by Gilbert T. Sewall. In 2003 Gilbert authored for the American Textbook Council a 35 page report called Islam and the Textbooks.

Gilbert reports that in many instances the history of Islam is misleading or wrong. He writes about how various groups of people push to include or exclude parts of history. The history children are learning is not the history that historians expert in the field write to give a fair overview, but a history largely influenced by a few people with an agenda. Diane Ravitch wrote about this also in her book The Language Police: How Pressure Groups Restrict What Students Learn.

My concern in this post is not the validity of Gilbert's argument, but to point out one of the problems with public schools is that the history children are being taught is subject to heavy influence by special interest groups.

This is one of many reasons why I think the Federal government should get out of education.


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