What We Want of Our Schools

“By giving up freedom of thought and espousing indoctrination, the schools have failed to meet their responsibility to the nation. The crisis of society continues to exist, but we are not preparing our children to grapple with it. If they are to cope successfully with the complex problems of our shrinking planet, they have to be taught to face facts fearlessly, examine all ideas critically, and think for themselves. But this goal cannot be achieved through fear, purges and thought control. The school will be able to discharge its responsibility of education for democracy only to the extent that democracy returns to the classroom.”

Irving Adler, What We Want of Our Schools (1957), p. 106.