The decline of our school system can be traced directly back to Scotland in the 1920′s when Alexander Sutherland Neill found out about Freudian psychology from a guy named Homer Lane. The men thought that children should be able to study whatever they wanted; whenever they wanted; and as much or as little as they wanted.
Neill and Lane became pioneers in progressive education based on Freudian psychology. To progressives of the time, parents who suggested boundaries for their precious ones were evil child abusers—especially if discipline was rooted in religion. Neill preached that parents (or teachers) who repressed the sense of freedom a child felt would be responsible for creating an adult with psychological disorders He was determined to do away with the moral boundaries instilled by religion. Part of Neal’s modis operandi included the early introduction of sex education within the school.
If the bar for excellence and good grades is too high or requires too much effort to reach, the best way to reach it is to simply lower the bar. If you want to know where giving trophies to every child regardless of performance came from, look no further than Neill. His conclusion that absolutely nothing should interfere with a child’s happiness leads to the conclusion that if the child does not reach too high, he or she will never suffer the agony of defeat.
In order to achieve educational Utopia, Neal’s plan meant doing away with grades, squelching competition (which he believed was bad for the child) and having the students call teachers and other adults by their first names. Although The Colombia Encyclopedia biography about Neal indicates he did not believe in letting children have everything they want, the facts prove otherwise. Not only did Neill’s schools do away with grades, attendance at classes was optional. If children are allowed total free rein, where is conflict that would lead to denial? The conflict arose during the collective makeup of Neill’s classes. If teachers were not to keep order, that fell on the students themselves. That a collective where children are in charge of each others’ behavior might lead to bullying never occurred to Neill. After all, what is bullying but self-expression—and how could that ever be bad?
It didn’t take long for Neill’s native Scotland to realize the damage Neill was doing and they quickly put a stop to it. Neill went looking for more fertile ground to germinate the seeds of his radical philosophy. He bounced around Germany and Vienna unsuccessfully trying to advance his Summerhill Schools. He got a toehold in England before finding the perfect incubator, United States liberalism.
Along the way, Neill concluded if a child had enough freedom, he would never need psychotherapy. Montessori schools popped up to reinforce the notion that children do not respond well to living within set boundaries.
Apparently softening or doing away with boundaries has not produced fewer children with psychological problems as Neal insisted would occur. It could be argued the opposite has happened. Inventing catchy presidential phrases for programs that throw money at school systems while maintaining or increasing Neal’s methods are clearly not producing better scores, nor are they producing better test results. They never will.
Parents who realize the damage school systems are doing to their children resort to private schools or home schooling—but only if they are financially able to do so.
Statists believe children belong to the state instead of parents. They want to control the information that goes into childrens’ heads. In Idaho, a recent law. designed to throw a big wet blanket over home schooling was averted, but legal battles between parents and government are likely to continue in the future.
Parents who fear restrictions will lead to the banning of home schooling have good reason to worry. Restrictions have led to out-right bans in some countries.
The Romeikes, an evangelical Christian family sought political asylum in the United States in 2008 in order to home school their children.
The arrived at the end of a sympathetic Bush administration and ran into a chilly Obama administration, which wants the family deported. On the battle to remain in the United States, we now have 12 million people from Mexico vs. 1 family from Germany. Guess who is winning?