I am writing in response to the headline of Sept. 24, “No money for high schools’ consolidation” and Dan Fast’s remark favoring consolidating Wise County high schools: To the effect that those opposed to consolidation are motivated by fear and ignorance.
It is inexcusable to accuse those who favor keeping education of children and youth close to home and in their local communities of being afraid and ignorant. Research studies show that the most important factor in a child’s education is the influence of parents, not per-pupil expenditures, or the sophistication of the curriculum, or the size of the school or anything else. Parental participation in the education process and in the life of the school is paramount in educational achievement.
Besides this fact, another fact needs to be understood. John Dewey, the so-called father of American education, believe that for education to progress and for scientific achievement to advance, that school children would have to be weaned from the ignorance of parental and religious influences.
Thus, he advocated larger school districts and larger schools to achieve his goals. Dewey was an atheist and helped to fund the Humanist Society, which believes religion is an obstruction to education and democracy. Today graduate schools in education teach the philosophy and methods of Dewey’s humanist-based writings.
One other fact about John Dewey: In the early 1930s, he was invited to Russia by Joseph Stalin to set up a new school system patterned after the emerging American education system. Why did this happen? I believe both men had goals for influencing youth and controlling the educational process.
But the basis for American education was from the beginning local school boards, teachers standing in place of the parents and a Biblical-centered morality.
So hurray for those opposed to school consolidation in Wise County. Their “fear and ignorance” turns out to be wise after all, reflecting the name of the county that they live in.
Charles R. Dilks
Lebanon, Va.
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