Lindalyn, a happy coincidence it was to read your post when I had taken to the LR to submit the following quotation from Bastiat:
a nation that does not want to be the prey of political parties should hasten to abolish public education, that is, education by the state, and to proclaim freedom of education.
I was drawn to an essay of his entitled “Academic Degrees and Socialism,” since it sounded topical to what I consider a puzzling fact of our times. At one point during the essay Bastiat addresses the problem of political parties and public education, quoting both Thiers
Public education is perhaps the greatest concern of a civilized nation; and, for this reason, control over it is the foremost objective of political parties.
and Leibnitz
Make me the master of education, and I will undertake to change the world.
Bastiat then undertakes to illustrate Leibnitz’s point with this list:
“We have made the Republic,” said Robespierre; “it remains for us to make republicans”?an attempt that was renewed in 1848. Bonaparte wanted to make only soldiers; Frayssinous, only religious zealots; Villemain, only orators; Guizot, only doctrinaires; Enfantin, only Saint-Simonians; and I, who am indignant to see mankind thus degraded, if I were ever in a position to say: “I am the state,” would perhaps be tempted to make only economists.
I could very well echo Bastiat’s sentiments there. I’ve frequently expressed great frustration with economic reporting in our media, as well as with economic thinking among our fellow citizens in general. Nothing seems to bring out economic ignorance more than theorizing about gasoline prices.
So I have exclaimed that, if we are going to have public education, a part of it ought to be economics. And if we must have college journalism departments (which I think are unnecessary ? there is a trade that can be learned on the job), then they ought to require at least a year of economics to receive the superfluous certification.
