My grandmother, born in 1867, was a school teacher until she married. The Holy Bible was the primary text book in her class. She was a strong Christian until she died in l950, God rest her sweet soul. Schools were locally managed until much later, visibly until the mid ‘50’s.
Yes, I agree that earlier socialist-funded government schooling was far less damaging to the student and the nation...but...the foundation upon which it is built is corrupt and that is why we have the problems we do today not only with our socialist-funded schools but with our nation's culture.
1) The first foundational block:
Even though the earliest socialist-funded government schools were locally run, they were mandated by nearly state. Merely by attending, children learned to be comfortable with the state power to take money from a neighbor for a socialist and tuition-free service. Well?...If the state can force a neighbor to pay for free school, why not thousands of other wants and needs? Within one to three generations of socialist government schooling we had Franklin D. Roosevelt and his New Deal.
Second foundational block: Government schools are in fundamental conflict with the First Amendment Right regarding establishment of religion.
It is impossible to have a religiously neutral education. This is axiomatic. It can't happen. Every sentient being has a non-neutral religious worldview and this is true for schools as well. ALL schools have a non-neutral religious worldview that is reflected in a non-neutral curriculum and school policies. Government schools establish a religious worldview that was not ever, and is not, and never can be, **neutral**. Government schools establish the religious worldview of the most powerful voting mob, and trashes the worldview of the less powerful.
So?...What bible did your grandmother use? Was it the King James version? Where you aware that in Philadelphia there were riots when the first government schools opened,( with **deaths!**), because Catholic immigrants objected to teaching from their King James bible and not the Catholic version of the bible with its Catholic imprimatur?
The earliest socialist-funded government schools compromised with a generic and lukewarm Protestantism that sidesteped ( as best it could) Protestant denominational differences. Catholics responded with starting their own schools. The result was that children learned to be lukewarm and generic about their faith. By my grandmother's day,( born 1894) her Philadelphia schools were **secular** with a mere nod to God in the Protestant version of the Lord's Prayer and a scripture or two from the Protestant King James bible. At this point, we saw the increasing secularization of our nation throughout the 20th century.
Third Foundational block: Government schools are run, and have always been managed, by the voting mob or people's collective, ( wrongly called "school board")
Even if school districts were the size of a suburban subdivision of houses, the most powerful voting block of neighbors would be using government power and government schooling to impose their anointed religious, cultural, and political worldview on other people's children.
And...Even if school districts were the size of a suburban housing division, attending these schools helps to acculturate children to obediently accepting the will of the most powerful voting mob.
Fourth foundational block: Government schools treat children like state prisoners.
Even in the earliest government schools, children were compelled by law to attend. In other words, they were under police threat. And...Once in the government school, every First Amendment Right was crushed by the government: press, speech, free exercise of religion, and assembly. There is always the danger that children will become comfortable with being prisoners of the state.
Paperdoll, can you see why government schooling can not be reformed. It must be abolished.