The Rotten Roots of Today’s Public Schools

Written by Dr. Everett Piper

I was recently asked in an email exchange whether perhaps I was a bit of an alarmist in my persistent rants about the state of affairs in today’s public schools. “After all,” said my pen pal, “my personal experience with education, as well as that of my kids, hasn’t been all that negative. American education isn’t as bad as you suggest.” I offered my questioner a quick response in case y’all care (That’s Okie slang for: “in case any of you are interested”).

Dear Pen Pal,

A rule of thumb when engaging in these kinds of debates is that it’s always wise to start with the bigger ideas and avoid the minutiae. This always helps us clarify the debate, avoid distractions and stay away from the rabbit trails of straw men, non sequiturs and other overused fallacies.

So here goes.

With the target of “bigger ideas” in mind, the first thing we need to do is vet the ontological and epistemological assumptions of today’s educational system, for it is these assumptions that guide today’s academy in setting its goals, designing curriculum, selecting texts and hiring teachers. These “bigger ideas” are much more telling than any of our personal anecdotes.

In other words, you and I need to step beyond the nostalgia of our own classroom experiences and ask: What does my local school assume about reality (i.e., ontology), and what does it think about what can be known (epistemology)?

By looking at this bigger picture, we can learn a lot about a school’s mission, hiring practices, tenure priorities, subject emphases and pedagogical practices, and here’s what I think you’ll find.

Research has shown over and over again that nearly all of today’s educators fall unabashedly within a postmodern paradigm, both ontologically and epistemologically. This is to say that almost all our teachers and administrators believe that truth (with a lowercase t) is constructed rather than revealed. They believe that all reality and all corresponding knowledge of such realities is relative and, thus, subject to individual interpretation. They argue that all who trust in the existence of objective Truths (with a capital T) are either hopelessly ensconced in the judgmental thinking of empiricist modernity or sadly deluded by the black-and-white buffoonery of the religious right.

In other words, most of the leaders of today’s schools sincerely believe that the business of education is to cultivate a field of opinions and then to assist students in harvesting a crop of malleable social constructs rather than aiding them in pursuing what is objectively true and right, moral and good.

Because of these ontological and epistemological assumptions, American education is hopelessly muddled in a swamp of feelings and emotions where the guy with the loudest voice, greenest hair, most unorthodox sex life and most obnoxious attitude wins the day and controls the debate regardless of the veracity of his claims.

Sure, we still have many teachers who are decent people with good intentions who try not to indoctrinate their students, but for every one of these kinder and gentler post-mods, hundreds of activists sincerely believe their job is to convert your children to their way of thinking rather than teach your children how to think.

These are the social justice warriors who have degrees from places such as the University of Michigan, which stated in a recent course catalog that it “is not concerned with the personal moral issues of honesty and truthfulness” because it is assumed that all students attending the U of M have already “formed their own standards on these issues.”

This is the poster child of my point. With postmodern confidence (a contradiction in terms?), one of the premier academic institutions in our land proudly teaches that “honesty and truthfulness” are relative constructs subject to the whim of the individual. Then, the leaders of this university, along with all the rest of us, wonder with righteous indignation (or is it relative indignation?). why the graduates of this fine institution are liars, cheats, thieves and crooks.

Go figure.

The bottom line is this: All of us know that when our schools become more interested in the constructs of man than they are in the revelation of God, it is then that our students become “as Gods” (Genesis 3:5) and, thereby, travel the road of the original sin as did our ancestors before us, who likely now know the final destination of all roads paved with good intentions and bad ideas.

This article was originally published by The Washington Times.