Review: Public Schools in the United States: Agenda Mills or Academic Institutions? (Martha W. Daniels, Trafford, 2003)

reviewed by T. C. Pinckney                                                                 Vol. XVIII, No. 1, January 2005

Martha Daniels small book (paper back, less than a hundred pages) is an excellent introduction to the academic failure of America’s government schools. Moreover, it is an easy read for the layman.

The first chapter presents a concise review of educational history starting with Athens and Sparta and then jumping to the pilgrims and Puritans. Many of us do not realize that, as Mrs. Daniels writes, “from the time the Pilgrims landed in 1620 until the mid-nineteenth century, essentially all education in America was private religious education.” She goes on to cite studies demonstrating the superior results of that approach compared to government schools in Europe.

“By mid-century” (i.e., 1950s) “the public schools were firmly entrenched as agencies of social indoctrination.” And she goes on to quote, “Harvard psychiatrist Chester M. Pierce [who] stated these objectives in 1973 at the Childhood International Education Seminar in Boulder, Colorado.

    “Every child in America entering school at the age of five is mentally ill because he comes to school with certain allegiances to our founding fathers, toward our elected officials, toward his parents, toward a belief in a supernatural being, and toward the sovereignty of his nation as a separate entity. It’s up to you as teachers to make all these sick children well – by creating the international child of the future.”

Does every teacher or local school administrator believe such trash? Of course not. But the vast majority of those who at the national level design the curricula, establish standards for writing textbooks, and make the basic decisions as to what goes on in every school, do.

Daniels demonstrates that much that goes on in government schools has to do with learning how to learn, not learning content: spelling, grammar, and arithmetic, for example.

Social training, self-esteem, is a major current, a tidal wave in government schooling, even to the point that studies show American students are much more confident they do very well on international tests, even as they score at or near the very bottom of students from all the nations tested.

This is an excellent treatment with but one omission: Daniels omits the spiritual heart of education. In a way this is a strength of the book, for she condemns American government schools on their own turf ... academics alone. But obedient Christians cannot limit their judgments of education or any other sphere of life from a purely secular perspective. In truth, there is no such thing as a purely secular subject or activity. God is omnipresent not merely spatially, but also topically. Nevertheless, if the reader keeps this important reservation in mind, a great deal can be gleaned from this brief book.

Obviously there is much more in the book than can be covered here. I strongly recommend you order a copy from: Martha W. Daniels, 2611 NW Gill Court, Bend, OR 97701, or by email: mdaniels@bendbroadband.com, phone: 541-322-0951. The cost is only $8.00 including shipping.