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Separating School & State: How to Liberate America’s Families
In Separating School & State, Sheldon Richman effectively and comprehensively analyzes the failures of public schooling in America and explains the ideas and ideology behind the case for compulsory education. But beyond a historical interpretation and a critical evaluation of the state of public education in America today, Mr. Richman offers a vision of what a fully privatized educational system might look like — and in what ways it would solve many, if not most, of the problems that parents, students, and even a sizable number of professional educators see as the fundamental shortcomings of the present system. This book moves the debate over education in America to a higher and more fruitful level of discussion.
128 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 1, 1994
7 people are currently reading
137 people want to read
About the author
Sheldon Richman
16 books21 followersSheldon Richman is the executive editor of The Libertarian Institute, senior fellow and chair of the trustees of the Center for a Stateless Society, and a contributing editor at Antiwar.com. He is the former senior editor at the Cato Institute and Institute for Humane Studies, former editor of The Freeman, published by the Foundation for Economic Education, and former vice president at the Future of Freedom Foundation. His latest book is Coming to Palestine.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
March 26, 2018
Impressive collection of references to why the school system was built. And a nice complement to The Case Against Education: Why the Education System Is a Waste of Time and Money
February 13, 2011
I only got through forward, introduction and a couple of chapters. I hate books like this.
I agreed with everything I read in this book. That can be OK in a book if it can help with greater integration or something, but this is an example of one of those books that does pulpit-pounding preaching to the choir. It Godwin's Law-s itself in the first few pages and blasts the opposition with turns of phrase and arguments that aren't even that clever.
No one could possibly be convinced by this book. It would be hopelessly alienating to anyone who believed in public education or who even was unsure on the topic. It won't do anything to change the world. I don't know why such books are read or written.
I imagine that this book is popular with Objectivists. The person who put it my hands is one and the person who put it her hands is one. We Objectivists make this mistake over and over again. We build inward-looking communities with no challenge and then celebrate work like this. We enjoy being spoon-fed lines such as that the literacy rate was higher before the institution of public education was created and we pass such things back and forth. The first time someone reasonably intelligent comes along who is well informed, but disagrees, and challenges such a notion by saying something like that the time that is being celebrated not only disqualified a large slave population but also limited to little or none the education received by the poor and that if you limit the analysis of public education to those children of wealthy people today the literacy rate is essentially 100%, we either tend to fall back arguments of dishonesty or fundamental claims that public education requires force and initiating force is evil.
Initiating force *is* evil and that is the basic reason why school and state should be separated. But every single person who believed that after reading this book believed it before... and they don't understand it better. The prospect in reading a book like this is to gain a more nuanced understanding of the matter so that applying the notion that the initiation of physical force as evil isn't a mere deductive matter, but one that can be seen in the particulars in this particular space. I grant that I read only a very limited amount of the book because its style so annoyed me, but it wasn't headed in that direction. Rather it was headed toward simple demagoguery with an already aligned audience.
May re-write this after I have coffee. :-)
I agreed with everything I read in this book. That can be OK in a book if it can help with greater integration or something, but this is an example of one of those books that does pulpit-pounding preaching to the choir. It Godwin's Law-s itself in the first few pages and blasts the opposition with turns of phrase and arguments that aren't even that clever.
No one could possibly be convinced by this book. It would be hopelessly alienating to anyone who believed in public education or who even was unsure on the topic. It won't do anything to change the world. I don't know why such books are read or written.
I imagine that this book is popular with Objectivists. The person who put it my hands is one and the person who put it her hands is one. We Objectivists make this mistake over and over again. We build inward-looking communities with no challenge and then celebrate work like this. We enjoy being spoon-fed lines such as that the literacy rate was higher before the institution of public education was created and we pass such things back and forth. The first time someone reasonably intelligent comes along who is well informed, but disagrees, and challenges such a notion by saying something like that the time that is being celebrated not only disqualified a large slave population but also limited to little or none the education received by the poor and that if you limit the analysis of public education to those children of wealthy people today the literacy rate is essentially 100%, we either tend to fall back arguments of dishonesty or fundamental claims that public education requires force and initiating force is evil.
Initiating force *is* evil and that is the basic reason why school and state should be separated. But every single person who believed that after reading this book believed it before... and they don't understand it better. The prospect in reading a book like this is to gain a more nuanced understanding of the matter so that applying the notion that the initiation of physical force as evil isn't a mere deductive matter, but one that can be seen in the particulars in this particular space. I grant that I read only a very limited amount of the book because its style so annoyed me, but it wasn't headed in that direction. Rather it was headed toward simple demagoguery with an already aligned audience.
May re-write this after I have coffee. :-)
April 26, 2017
This book could have been titled, "The libertarian view of education: a short introduction." Gives you an excellent primer on all the arguments, history, and a lot of resources for further reading. Richman does his homework and distills it down to just what you need. His short books for the FFF are fluff-free, packed with excellent information, and written in clear and engaging prose.
January 11, 2012
A very readable and useful history of state run schooling.
July 31, 2009
Clearly and concisely written, economically and spiritually grounded, this is a must read for anyone who supports families' rights to choose and direct their children's education without government interference. Educating one's own children is a fundmental right, and Mr. Richman elegantly explains the principles of this.
June 10, 2008
Though the author is of a libertarian persuasion, and I do not subscribe to all his ideologies, his views on education resonated with me. He just didn't complain about the problems with public education, he had some valid solutions for fixing those problems.
January 4, 2011
a lot of generalizations and opinions, leans pretty far right, i disagree with much of what he says
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September 23, 2010Separating school & state : how to liberate America's families by Sheldon L. Richman (1995)
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews