In Which President Garfield is a Puppet: Public Schools Should be for the Public

In Which President Garfield is a Puppet: Public Schools Should be for the Public August 28, 2016

20160820_175625681_iOS_optOf all the things I expected when I got a bust of James Garfield (circa 1880), one of those things was not that it would become: The Voice of James Garfield. Yet this is what happens when one must go from college students to kindergarteners in the space of one hour. I work at an Orthodox, classical school that extends from kindergarten through college and James Garfield is an example to us at every level. . . and maybe he can serve the same function for you.

For the “littles” James Garfield is the boy who worked on canal boats, valued learning, and made it to the White House. For the “middles” James Garfield is the kid who studied in school until he saw the last candle go out in other rooms. For the college students, James Garfield is the man with a passion for justice: if the African-American was not treated as an equal before the law, then he would not rest.

Almost no American shows the power of classical, Christian education to transform a life better than James Garfield and so his signature graces our executive office and his bust sits in my office. Of course, if you teach, nothing “sits” for long. This week the bust of James Garfield toured the elementary, middle, senior schools and was present in the first college classes.

What can he teach?

James Garfield is quiet when the teacher says to be quiet. Why? He knows that a classical education helped him escape poverty. Used as a puppet, my James Garfield statue encourages students to participate by reminding them that they may not have to go from a canal boat to the White House, but they can go from inner city Houston to the White House.

James Garfield learns many languages including Latin, Greek, and German so his expanded mental vocabulary can help him master many skills. Used as a puppet, my bust of James Garfield tells students that English is not “real” and other languages have treasures to give to them. The Arabic they speak at home should not be forgotten, because every word helps capture a slightly different idea and there is no language more precious than the one learned from mother.

James Garfield’s life poses hard questions: “Why is he allowed to be shot, suffer horrific medical care, and die with less than a year in office?” The statue of James Garfield sits in my office reminding The Saint Constantine School college students that civil service reform was made permanent by the great man’s death.  Not even the old grifter Chet Arthur could go back to milking the treasury after Garfield was murdered by a man looking for government patronage.

James Garfield used “public” schools to rise to greatness, but never shook the bigotry against Catholics and Orthodox he learned there. Government schools would teach the establishment orthodoxy, which was the creed of the Protestant establishment. He was better than his times on race, but he messed up on localism. He failed to see that imposing Protestant values on a Catholic or Greek neighborhood was tyranny.

Government schools are not public schools. They have become arms of the state and big business often hostile to local values and morals. We need public schools that are open to all, but tied to a local community. As I introduced Garfield to my students, in fun and in serious discussion, I knew this-  James Garfield was right:

Next in importance to freedom and justice is popular education without which neither freedom nor justice can be maintained.

We must give the resources to each community to educate their own children as they would. Some will choose secularism, some Islam, some Christianity. A republic has room for all ideas and we will prosper when freedom and justice are not denied by a school system that imposes secularism as the door.

James Garfield would agree if he could see how little public is left in public education.


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