The constitutional basis for public education has been lost in the system’s ill-equipped power grab for the “whole child.”
Let’s start with the law. The Texas Constitution, Article 7, Section 1 states:
SUPPORT AND MAINTENANCE OF SYSTEM OF PUBLIC FREE SCHOOLS. A general diffusion of knowledge being essential to the preservation of the liberties and rights of the people, it shall be the duty of the Legislature of the State to establish and make suitable provision for the support and maintenance of an efficient system of public free schools.
Public education has abandoned its primary purpose to efficiently disseminate knowledge. In pursuit of the “whole child” (Marxist and Communist ideology), the system has taken on too much. The system lacks the resources, the knowledge, the relationships, the wisdom, and the skill set to succeed.
Why are teachers leaving the classroom?
Teachers, for the most part, are great, but they are not called to babysit 3-year-olds in state-funded pre-K, provide mental health care, endure violent behavior, navigate sexual and gender orientation, teach to the test, balance competing directives from administration and parents, cultivate social justice warriors, collect private student data, etc.
It’s too much to ask.
The system has set itself up for failure. As hard as it may try, the public education system will never successfully replace the family and/or community.
The result of the “whole child” approach leaves: (1) some parents making greater demands and other parents pushing back, (2) under-qualified school administration elevated to “experts” and also spread too thin, and (3) teachers overburdened and underpaid for the tasks required.
To save the public education system, the “whole child” must be shifted back to the family and the community, and the public education system must return to the efficient dissemination of knowledge.
The more the public education system takes on, the greater its failure. We are witnessing the battle between its unraveling and the system fighting to increase its grip.
Hang on. It’s going to be a bumpy ride while we preserve the liberties and rights of the people.
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