The Hobgoblin of Public Education and Conformity

“brown arch interior pathway near trees” by Aman Bhargava on Unsplash

“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds…” Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance 1841.

Ralph Waldo Emerson was an American Transcendentalist Philosopher and Essayist. In this quote from his 1841 Essay entitled “Self-Reliance,” Emerson is highlighting the need for each individual to avoid conformity and false consistency. Emerson advocates for each individual to gain a reliance on self- perception and insight and avoid conforming to the status quo and standards set out by those in power.

The current educational trend in the public system is aimed at each student meeting a set of prescribed standards that are used to indicate academic potential, achievement and mastery. Repetition and rote memorization are used as a bench-mark for academic advancement and highlighted as a gold standard for what is considered, in modern terms, “learning.” Conformity to behavioral standards are also prescribed in the public system based on outdated behaviorist principles, namely Skinnerian thought, that are translated in to a fear-inducing, consequence-based set of criteria used to foster compliance and conformity. Skinnerian behaviorist principles were used to train animals. Skinner himself did not advocate the use of his methods, as administered in the laboratory, for use in the education system to train children. Let’s examine the role of…