The Conscience of a Conservative by Barry Goldwater - In-Depth Review 📚 [ Conservative thinkers often have sound ideas about public education ]

As a long time independent democratic socialist I am well aware that conservative thinkers get right a number of things - like education in " OUR democracy " : Education [“We have encouraged the teaching profession to be more concerned with how a subject is taught than with what is taught. Most important of all: in our anxiety to ‘improve’ the world and insure ‘progress’ we have permitted our schools to become laboratories for social and economic change according to the predilections of the professional educators.” “It is the fashion these days to say that responsibility for education ‘traditionally’ rests with the local community-as a prelude to proposing that an exception to the tradition in the form of federal aid.” “We have forgotten that the proper function of the school is to transmit the cultural heritage of one generation to the next generation, and to so train the minds of the new generation as to make them capable of absorbing ancient learning and applying it to the problem of its own day.” “We have forgotten that purpose of education. Or better: we have forgotten for whom education is intended. The function of our schools is not to educate, or elevate society; but rather to educate individuals and equip them with the knowledge that will enable them to take care of society’s needs.” “We have forgotten that a society progresses only to the extent that it produces leaders that are capable of guiding and inspiring progress. And we cannot develop such leaders unless our standards of education are geared to excellence instead of mediocrity. “]