Socialized Education and the Price of Eggs

Timothy Birdnow

Donald J. Boudreaux has an excellent piece at the Wall Street Journal in which he applies the logic of public schools to the grocery industry.
http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424052748704436004576299571015982098-lMyQjAxMTAxMDAwNDEwNDQyWj.html

His logic is absolutely flawless.

Why, pray tell, do we treat a necessity (food) differently from education, an important thing, surely, but a bit less necessary than groceries? Because John Dewey and other Progressives realized that the only way to create their utopia was to seize control of education, so that children would be shaped and enculturated by people who believe what they do and not by the "ignorant masses", the parents. They have created a system guaranteed to fail in the long run, because it was created by people who believe in not just the equality of Man before God and the law, but the identical nature of man. Read Margaret Mead's work; she "proved" that human nature was absolutely plastic, malleable, and that what a person thinks and how he or she lives is merely a function of input. So, different requirements are not really necessary, because people can be shaped to fit the program. A size ten foot, if forced into a size seven shoe, will eventually conform to the smaller size, at least as far as Progressives were concerned.

It's why the Soviet Union failed.

Here's how it worked in Soviet grocery stores (my Russian teacher, a former Soviet citizen, told this story to me back in my college days) they had precisely what Mr. Boudreaux suggested: A shopper waited in line to get in the front door of the government store. Upon entering, he had to get in line for each department. There was no browsing, or casual shopping - you had to go to a department, where the items you needed were kept under guard. If you needed, say, a can of spinach you went to the canned goods department and waited in line until you reached the counter, whereby you put your order in for spinach. Generally the counter clerk told you they were out of spinach, but you could have a can of creamed corn. You agreed, because it was either creamed corn or eating the soles of your shoes. You were then issued a bill, which you then had to take to the cashier to make payment (waiting in line) and then, with your paid receipt, you went back to the canned goods line, waited, then presented the clerk with your stamped receipt. He then gave you your can of creamed corn.

You did that with every department in the store. A grocery expedition could take 8 hours or more.

THAT is what we are doing with our schools; enshrining utter incompetence.

And with teacher's unions to zealously advocate for public employees, there is very little actual teaching. It's little wonder that many children graduate from high school functionally illiterate.

I worked in an American grocery store for many years. It was hard, because the public had to be accomodated. You never, ever wanted to run out of goods, which meant you had to keep all sorts of things on hand, and had to deal with these commodities. You had to keep the shelves full and make them attractive (meaning cans had to all face the same way, and had to be stacked properly, produce had to be laid out artistically, etc.) You had to keep the place clean. You had to provide all the old favorites but work in all sorts of new products. You couldn't make shoppers wait long to check out. It was very demanding.

How much easier to let things go, not worry about running out, not worry about cleanliness, or convenience. Having a government store meant precisely that; you could take things easy, and the customer could like it or lump it. That is what happens in public schools throughout America.

Anyone who believes we are better served with public schools is ignorant beyond words. We fed the poor in the grocery store where I worked, too, via food stamps, WIC, and the like. THOSE programs did not require the recipients to go to a government-run store. Perhaps they should; less people would scam the system.

Yet we care little about the parents being scammed by public education. We should call it what it is; socialized education. We need to seriously rething how we teach our children, and take a page from the free market. Of course, public education is one of the cornerstones of the Left's power; they will fight reform to the bitter end.

An end which may come sooner than we think if we continue to allow the future generations to be ignorant and brainwashed by government schools.