We’ve Collectively Created the Federal Education Collapse

“If we make money the object of man-training, we shall develop money-makers but not necessarily men.” - W.E.B. Du Bois

The current state of public education has many confused, anxious, and even fearful. Depending on the day, I feel any combination of the above, among other less-than-ideal adjectives. Simply, the future is uncertain. Schools are simultaneously cutting budgets and trying to remain relevant, all during an increasingly tense political climate.

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In fact, it is often in the name of relevance that we are sacrificing the core of what it means to cultivate an educated citizenry. Despite the current moment being visibly unsettling, I’d argue that this is the logical culmination of what we’ve been asking for over the last generation of public education.

Over the last decade alone, the humanities have been increasingly cut at the university level. At the secondary level, the vast majority of funding is allocated to either subjects with state assessments or subjects that will “best prepare students for the 21st-century workforce.” We’ve collectively decided that the best form of education is utilitarian. The strength of our economy, rather than the strength of our society, has become our guiding light for how we structure our education system. Our current context is a feature, not a bug, of this approach.

W.E.B. Du Bois prophesied this outcome over a century ago in his 1903 essay, “The Talented Tenth.” We’ve successfully developed money makers and we have built a system that rewards them. Need proof? Our current president is the richest man to ever hold the office and he has allocated much of his on-the-ground governing to the richest man in the world. We have money-makers but, in Du Bois’ words, have we created men?

In his essay, Du Bois immediately follows with his vision for education: “Men we shall have only as we make manhood the object of the work of the schools—intelligence, broad sympathy, knowledge of the world that was and is, and of the relation of men to it—this is the curriculum of that Higher Education which must underlie true life.” A deep education cultivates humanity. Almost a half-century later, in 1947, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. agreed. “Intelligence plus character—that is the goal of true education.” Intelligence may make someone money but character preserves society.

At the core of my role as executive director of the social studies nonprofit Thinking Nation, is to empower students to thrive as engaged and critical thinkers. We believe that this is imperative for the future of our democracy. We seek to reorient the social studies classroom around the discipline taught rather than the content explained. This empowers students to think deeply and equips them with the civic dispositions our current climate craves.

For instance, I was at a partner school classroom in Ventura, CA in February where 6th graders humanized the study of history through a Socratic seminar, comparing the ideas between Confucianism and Daoism. These students cited evidence in their discussion, asked for clarification, and encouraged one another. They were practicing the “broad sympathy, knowledge of the world” that Du Bois called for.

But, when many students look into their education mirror, they are told to see economic beings that only focus on the skills necessary for monetary success. This utilitarian approach demands us to cut funding in those more abstract disciplines like history and literature. Eventually, it leads us to potentially cut an entire executive department that services educational needs.

I saw this focus on our students’ humanity again at the California Council for the Social Studies Conference on March 7-9. Educators were discussing how to cultivate the needed dispositions in our students for civic success. The students, in their humanity, were our focus, not their utilitarian preparedness.

Du Bois and King centered the idea of human flourishing in their visions for education. We’ve chosen a different vision and we are experiencing, in real time, the consequences of that choice. If we want education to do more than reduce us to economic entities, we need to reevaluate our priorities, fund them accordingly, and work together to build an education system where students see themselves and others as the unique human beings we are.

At Thinking Nation, we are taking this seriously and prioritizing the teaching and assessing of critical dispositions like evaluating perspectives, historical empathy, and contextualization. We believe that this is the way forward: integrating civic dispositions into the curriculum wherever possible. This way, we are not simply creating absorbers of information equipped to join the utilitarian world as economic beings, but we are empowering thinkers and fostering a student’s humanity so they can contribute to a flourishing democracy and thrive in an ever-changing world.

I’m not sure what will happen in the next few years to public education. But, as a student of the past, I know nothing is inevitable. Changes can be made. We have the opportunity and tools to cultivate thinking citizens equipped with the skills and dispositions to contribute to a thriving democracy and society. But will we?

Zachary Cote is the executive director of Thinking Nation, a social studies education nonprofit based in Los Angeles. Prior to this role, he taught middle school history at a public charter school in south Los Angeles.