Invitation to an Investigation into American Ideology

One of the primary failures of education in America is that it suffers from inadequate objectives and purpose, thus often serving to train students in disciplines designed by narrow utilitarian objectives. This idea is thoroughly articulated by Neal Postman in "The End of Education" where he discusses the importance of purpose in making the education process effective. In "Paradoxes of Education in a Republic," Eva T.H. Brann points out that our third President, “proposed to institute his own political cannon” which would have prepared its students to become republican rulers. To that end, he identified certain great books, to be used as text books for such an educaiton. The required texts were to be Locke’s Essays on Government, the Declaration of Independence, the Federalist Papers, the Virginia’s Resolutions in the Alien and Sedition Laws, and Washington’s Valedictory Address.” See Brann at 99. This cannon directs the mind to appreciate the republican form of government, and the concept of participatory democracy for which it is erected. This is the mindset with which we are invited to ascribe. This ideology is that humanity is inherently well suited for democratic society, but for democratic society to function, the citizenry must be properly sculpted to be fully engaged in that democratic republic. According to Professor Thomas Jewett, writing in Early America Review (Winter 1996), Jefferson saw universal education as an essential companion to universal suffrage, and went so far as to support federal support for education. Per Jewett, Jefferson’s educational system had six objections: (1) To give every citizen the information he needs for the transaction of his own business; (2) To enable each citizen to calculate for himself, and to express and preserve his ideas, his contracts, and accounts, in writing; (3) To improve, by reading, his morals and faculties; (4) To understand his duties to his neighbors and country, and to discharge with competence the functions confided to him by either; (5) To know his rights; to exercise with order and justice those he retains; to choose with discretion the fiduciary of those he delegates; and to notice their conduct with diligence, with candor, and judgment; and (6) in general, to observe with intelligence and faithfulness all the social relations under which he shall be placed. Thus, American ideology says society is well organized when its citizenry are properly educated and situated to establish and participate in democratic institutions. In this blog, in further essays, I will seek to best understand, define, and question this ideology.