I simply can't resist.  I have a paper that talks about the subject of
education and what is wrong.  It was written in 1987, but I have just
revised it and included it in chapter six of my book, The Restoration of
Truth, and this chapter wi appear in the Real Truth section of my
Restoration website later this week.  Enjoy!

HOW SOCIALIZATION AT HOME, IN THE SCHOOL, AND
BY THE COMMUNITY PREPARES CHILDREN TO
ASSUME ADULT ROLES LATER IN LIFE.

Many people go through life taking how they act and what they believe
for granted.  They do
not seem to comprehend that they have been carefully prepared by the
organized system to
assume the role in society that they are now playing.  They have
unquestioningly accepted what
the system has taught them, and would, indeed, in many cases fight for
those beliefs to the
death.  But, just HOW have we come to believe what we do?  How have we
acquired the
habits and followed the role models that we take so much for granted?
The answers to these
questions can only be found by probing back into the childhoods of all
of us, for it was there
that the genesis of what we now are occurred.  Without the early
conditioning we received from
out families, schools, and communities, we would not be performing the
roles we are today.
We could just as easily have assumed the roles of Roman society or
Russian -- what we are
and what we believe is inextricably intertwined with the impact these
institutions had on our early
lives.  In this paper I intend to briefly touch upon the impact of these
institutions on the minds of
children to prepare them for their roles in adult life with special
emphasis on the role of the
school.
The first institution that touches our lives, and therefore the one with
perhaps the most profound
implications for the future is that of the family.  Despite what people
say about the impact
schools and society have on a child’s chances in later life, “Of greater
importance than either of
these,” according to Audrey Schwartz (1982), “are children’s experiences
at home; within their
families they acquire perspectives about themselves and the world around
them which influence
in some way most of what they do in later years” (p. xiii).  As if this
was not enough, Schwartz
goes on to state that, “In spite of American folklore that desirable
positions are equally available
to everyone, most people still end up in a relative social position
close to that of their parents.” It
can be concluded, then, from these statements that it is the family
which acts as the first and
perhaps the most important determining factor in the later success or
failure of the child.  As we
shall soon see, though, the schools certainly do their job in insuring
that people stay in their so
called places.  In other words, despite all the hoopla people make about
upward mobility and
opportunity in America, the sad truth is that we already are virtually a
stratified, class oriented
society.  It is the rare person indeed who can escape the circumstances
of his or her birth, and
the schools simply reinforce this tendency.
Many will protest that, despite this fact, America still provides equal
opportunity for all.
Perhaps, the critics maintain, lower class children ENJOY begin where
they are in life.  To some
extent this may be true.  It a person does not know what he is missing
in life, it is hard for him to
visualize anything different and thus break the cycle of lower class
existence.  However,
according to Christopher Hurn (1978), “All the odds are stacked against
lower class groups --
they simply lack the resources to teach their children how to do well in
school, and they lack
the resources to change schools to serve their interests rather than t
he interests of more
privileged groups” (p. 179).  In fact, he continues to state that,
“Lower class children attend
inferior schools and there receive an inferior education.”
It would seem, then, that we have a self perpetuating cycle of social
stratification that is
reinforced by both the family norms and environment as well as the
school system.  In fact,
Schwartz indicates that social order (or stratification, with everyone
staying in his or her place) is
upheld in three basic ways:
“1.  Power is used by stronger members of the group to force weaker
members to comply with
their preferences.
“2.  A social contract is entered into by most members of the group,
each of whom willingly
relinquishes some personal freedom out of enlightened self-interest and
promise of personal
reward.
“3.  A core of values is held in common by most members of the group
which guide and control
their behaviors” (p. 5).
As we begin our exploration of the role of the schools in socialization
and in helping keep
people “where they belong,” the enforcing agent of this social contract
will be revealed.  It is
interesting to note that it was business and industrial leaders of the
early twentieth century who
really pushed for compulsory education so that they could have a trained
work force for their
industries and businesses (Schwartz, p. 11).  This fact is conveniently
left out of most history
texts, probably to try and hide the relationship that has existed from t
he beginning between
business and the school system.
Further, it is interesting to note in passing that the rich and powerful
have always enjoyed the
benefits of education.  And today they still enjoy the benefits of their
own private educational