Schools not tied to socialism

James Troxler wrote “Failures of public education, media are a boost to Hillary” (Letters, May 14). He said that America’s youth are kept from knowing the critical importance of voting because socialists are “seizing the public education system.”

Socialism is a system of social organizations that advocates ownership and control of production and distribution of capital and land as a whole. The schools in no way are doing this. Whenever possible, they promote mock elections where upper-class men take the parts of the real candidates and debate the issues on their level of understanding. Some get quite involved, just as their parents probably are. Everyone benefits from this. They get initiated into the workings of our government.

A representative assemblage of students who are chosen to Boys State or Girls State get even more idea of government. The program sponsored by the American Legion presents government on a small scale with election of local leaders like mayors, commissioners, dog catchers, etc. but it also links this to state government. Some are lawyers, judges, or representatives to state Congress. At every level, participants learn the workings of government.

Maybe Mr. Troxler just confused socialism with socialization. Socialization is the continuing process whereby an individual acquires a personal identity and learns the norms, values, behavior and social skills appropriate to his/her position. Schools definitely assist students in developing from kindergarten through 12th grade. That is just as important as the subject matter taught daily in the classroom.

While on this topic, local school districts chooses the curriculum for their district. Sometimes, the state or county has chosen a general program such as Common Core, but the local teachers, principals, parents, and advisers actually put definition to that. Teachers definitely write the daily lesson plans without intimidation from federal or state education departments. In fact, hundreds of hours go into choosing content which suits the local students best.

This story was originally published May 26, 2016 at 8:51 AM with the headline "Schools not tied to socialism."