Public Schools Week

My local school district posted the above image with a reminder that it’s Public Schools Week. On Facebook, I noted my gratitude for the public schools that educated me. I’ve honestly never felt outmatched by my private school counterparts.

On the larger issue of our public school system generally, this is a repeat, but we owe our public schools in Indiana to Caleb Mills, and I’m reminded of a passage from his Second “One of the People” addresses, published in 1847 and addressed to the Indiana General Assembly. Professor Mills wrote:

Awaken the public mind, and concentrate it on the question, “Am I not interested in the proper education of all that are socially and politically connected with me?” The bearings of such a question have not been duly considered. It needs to be discussed and examined. We are a shrewd people where dollars and cents are concerned. Many have never taken that view of their duty, and when it has been presented to them have frankly acknowledged that they have never thought of it in that light. Does not the Farmer derive as large a percent upon what he expends in the education of his children, as from any investment he can make of his funds? Does the amount which he pays to sustain a good school for the instruction of all the children in the district or township in which he lives, never find its way back again to him in the improved character of the community for intelligence, enterprise, and morals? Is not real estate in such a community more valuable, capital more productive, and enterprise more intelligent and successful? Would not the general thrift and prosperity caused by this intellectual and moral elevation, lighten public burdens, increase social enjoyments, enhance the value of property, multiply the facilities for its acquisition, and increase the security of its possession? Such cultivation could not fail to diminish pauperism and crime, lessen poverty and suffering, throw around the gardens, orchards, and the products of the field, an enclosure that would never be passed, improve the highways, and materially increase the substantial comforts and conveniences of the house, the farm, and the implements of husbandry.

Our public schools are not just for the benefit of the children being educated. They enhance our community and even if a kid’s education is of no interest to a citizen, his or her own self-interest should persuade them to support the public school system. Our own individual efforts are doomed to failure if we are surrounded by people who are ignorant and vicious.