Why Public Education Matters

First off I just want to note that for the third week in a row Kuru Lounge has been dissed in the Full Metal Jacket Reach Around Saturday round up over at The Other McCain. If they aren't careful I am going to take my reader and go elsewhere for my linkwhoring.

Now onto serious business. In the Around the Moronosphere round-up this morning I noted that Pakistan is supposedly starting a crack-down on Madrasas.

This article got me thinking about the role of education in America.

There is the most basic role - Teaching basic life skills that the child will need to survive. A lot of conservatives would argue that this is the role of the parents or the church. It is a responsibility of the parents I agree and on the subsistence level, how to cook a meal or put gas in the car, most are doing ok. As far as teaching reading and math that is a little debatable.

There is the economic component - Most businesses cannot survive without a relatively well educated workforce. Some (many??) would argue that if that is the case then business should assume the responsibility of educating the children. I have made the argument myself that businesses may be better off if they assumed that responsibility. (here and here)

But there ia another component. The one that I would say is arguable the most important.

The social aspect.

I don't mean this in the sense of kids learning to play nicely with each other. I mean it in the sense of learning the common values that allow a country to function. In the US and Western Europe those ideas are mainly encapsulated in the "Great Books" or Liberal Arts tradition (a broad based general education) and until 20 or so years ago almost every student would receive some exposure to the underlying philosophy of our society. It brought people into our society on a leveler playing field.

Removing that social aspect from a students education is a recipe for societal fragmentation.

That is part of what the madarasa experience in Pakistan shows.
By concentrating solely on the Koran to the exclusion of everything else these students are not ready to enter society as productive adults. This makes them ripe for radicalization. The same can happen here.

In some ways, such as ever increasing gang membership, it has. It is just that the radicalization occurs externally to the school but the schools don't provide the underpinnings to counter it.