Ben Sasse on Public Schools

I have a longer post on Ben Sasse and his 60 minutes interview. But he also has spoken about public education.

Sasse basically warns that parental instruction should not be replaced by an institutionalized childhood. In maybe one of the greatest quotes uttered about modern-day public education, he stated the following:

…And today for the vast majority of 4-18 years olds’ waking hours, many are indoors, sitting still, passive, on receive mode, entirely disconnected from productive labor, and surrounded by people that merely have the accident of the same birth year. There is no pedagogy that is written on stone tablets from heaven insisting that this is the way children must learn. Education and school are not synonyms. School is an important tool many times for parents. But today it is usually an ineffective tool that stifles the kinds of learning that our kids most desperately need into the disrupted era that we are now entering. Despite receiving nearly 1 trillion dollars per year, public k-12 education in America produces abysmal results. 70% of eighth graders are not proficient in reading, and more than 70% can’t do basic math. We have lead the next generation on a path to more soul deadening complacency. And this is the institution we have decided to outsource habit formation to? Modern school is systematically terrible at forming well adjusted, curious, intellectually creative, entrepreneurial adults. ~ The Honorable Ben Sasse, 2026 Alexander Hamilton Awards

Boom. IMHO public education, during the past two decades of teaching-to-the-test, has robbed our students of the joy and fulfillment which comes from true learning and learning to be good at something.

These comments should begin around 19:20. Maybe let it run to 24:00.

Licensed thumbnail photo by Perkasa Rambe