Tolerance and Acceptance?
I’m not sure what exactly it was that made me think about this earlier this morning, but it reminded me about this great post by Matthew Ladner on Jay Greene’s blog last week, “Private Schools and the Public Interest.”
Mr. Ladner writes about a couple of recent reports from the Goldwater Institute: “Private School Students More Tolerant and Politically Accepting.” He notes:
I could fish up absurd quotes from people about how only public schools can teach proper civic values, and how scary private schools under a choice system are certain to indoctrinate children into all sorts of dangerous anti-democratic ideologies. You being a discriminating consumer of education blogs, however, makes the task unnecessary.
(It was probably one of those absurd quotes that reminded me of this blog post… but like Mr. Ladner, I won’t waste my time trying to dig one up for you.)
Anyways, the findings are very interesting- and I know they’ll come as a great shock to some staunch defenders of the public school system.
From the Goldwater Institute’s press release on the survey:
“My school teaches me to value, respect and tolerate differences in others.”
76 percent of students in private school agree with that statement, compared with 51 percent of students in public school.“My school treats all students with respect regardless of race.”
64 percent of students in private high school agree with that statement, compared with 40 percent of public school students.
Anyways, we encourage you to check out the blog and the report. Good reads.
And if you’re looking for some more Friday reading, good article from Louisiana about a relatively civil discussion about educational options.
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