March 29, 2006

United we stand; divided we fall

Public education is the glue that holds democracy together. Without public education binding us, introducing us to each other and our varied beliefs, values, and backgrounds, we risk entrenching ourselves in our own ‘tribes,’ unfamiliar with the ways of others — untrusting, hostile, parochial.

A respected researcher traveling the world documented some years ago that cultures living alongside others prevail in natural harmony unless someone orchestrates trouble. Cultures that are isolated, and unfamiliar with others, face friction and disharmony when introduced to a new culture. 

How then, in our own society, do we avoid the social tribalism that is bred off ignorance of the ways of others? Public education is the antidote.  

In 1647, more than a hundred years before our nation was formed, those who lived in the Massachusetts Bay Colony said that every village must have a schoolmaster to teach reading and writing to every child, regardless of circumstances. The premise was that public education embodies the community good. 

Our nation was formed believing in this principle — that education was not the exclusive domain of children and their families, but that the entire community’s health and future was at stake in its schools. This was a given for 200 years.

Somehow, that idea became distorted, and support for community schools became less enthusiastic. As a society, we no longer feel the strict community obligation to shore up our schools. 

It is understandable that some retired people, whose own education was supported by the adults of the day, and whose children are grown and no longer in need of school services, have begun to waver in their support of schools. But they are not alone. Even parents of school children are beginning to focus on what’s best for their own children, rather than what’s best for all children. Some no longer believe that what is best for all children will become what is best for their own.

Where will this lead if we stop believing that a community’s schools are its ticket to a better tomorrow?

Democracy was a great experiment and America the great proof that it could work. We were a melting pot — many came and blended in to one great nation working together for a common good. I like to think we can still do it. But first we’ve got to fight the instincts that set us apart. We’ve got to remember that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, and that those institutions that keep us together are more valuable than those that divide us.    

Let’s fix our public schools, not turn away from them. Let’s continue to learn from each other, understanding that our similarities are more compelling than our differences. Our schools are far from trivial. They teach much more than the three Rs. They bind us. And in the land of E Pluribus Unum, united we stand; divided we fall.