Education

Do you talk to your baby in the womb? How do you discipline a 2-year-old? When is a child old enough to care for a younger sibling? Does religious education belong in the home, in the hands of a religious society, or is there a place for it in public schools? What is literacy? It used to mean you could read, but now includes facility with math (numeracy), technology, arts, music, Culture (our own), cultures (other people’s), social media; the list grows daily. These questions-and the practices and ideologies they reference-lie at the heart of human societies. Every human society entrusts its educational systems to shape children into competent, responsible adults. Educational questions are always deeply personal, deeply emotional, and profoundly important to maintain healthy societies. When considering education, we cannot easily compartmentalize individual from family from community from state concerns. Perhaps for much of human history that has not presented a problem. In the twenty-first century, however, in large diverse nation-states such as the United States, debates over education are intense and enduring.