The results of force are bad enough as related to the pocket-book, but they are far worse as they affect the educational process. Force is precisely as inefficacious in education as when applied to religion and for the same reason. Merely look about and observe the countless thousands of "teachers" who cannot read or write in the realm of ideas; indeed, many of them cannot even get a good grade in spelling! Reflect on this lamentable situation: 1. Coercion is a ramming-into procedure. Education is a taking-from process. 2. "Graduation" in many schools requires no more than attendance; learning is no longer a criterion. 3. To really appreciate the extent of coercion, try to run a private school and observe how your freedom of choice and action is restricted. The power mongers insist that you run your school their way — no other. This coercion — backed by physical force, the constabulary — is rapidly on the increase.

So I ask, why not separate School and State as Church and State are now separated? Leave education to the free market where the wisdom is. Let organized force — government — have no role, none whatsoever, other than to inhibit fraud and misrepresentation.

Leonard Read (1898-1983) was the founder and president of The Foundation for Economic Education, Irvington, New York. This is an excerpt from his book, Vision, published by FEE in 1978.

Send to a friend