"We seem to think that education is a thing—like a vaccine—that can be designed from afar and simply injected into our children." ~ Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr
This is a quote from the State of the State address by the Governor of California, and it is one of my new favourite quotes on education. Thanks to Scott Mcleod for spotting it.
It’s a pretty interesting analogy. I wonder how many parents, students, teachers, administrators, and education policy makers believe that education is like a vaccination against ignorance. I see education as something developed within a community, by a community, for their community.
The challenge I see here is when a community begins to trample on the rights of its community members, neglects its duty to ensure everyone has equal access to happiness and opportunity, and therefore creates an education system which does not serve everyone in their community. In this case, I think the state should be able to intercede, but otherwise (unless they are coordinating projects between communities where scale matters) the state should stay out of the way.
