The more than 50 million American students enrolled in kindergarten through 12th grade spread across more than 115,000 schools, are headed back into classrooms this month and next.
In recent generations, schools have become a lightning rod and soft target for radicals determined to indoctrinate the rising generation. This abuse of the forum has prompted many parents to rethink and reconsider sending their children to public schools.
It’s estimated that more than 3.7 million children will be home schooled in the 2025-2026 academic year – more than double from before the COVID-19 pandemic.
That’s not to say that all the children currently enrolled in public schools are happy and thriving. According to a 2024 survey by the Gallup organization, just 43% of parents are satisfied with their child’s educational environment – and it’s no wonder.
In recent years, radical ideological propogandists have executed a full-court press in the hope of shaping and winning the hearts of our young people. They’re promoting and championing abortion and spreading lies that boys can be girls and girls can be boys. They’re working overtime on a grand scale to wrest parental rights away from mothers and fathers.
Thankfully, we’re seeing a growing and strengthening resistance comprised of parents and even some school board members who are pushing back.
But the ideological revolution and warfare aren’t the only things that moms and dads should be monitoring. That’s because innate to public schooling can be a dangerous spirit of uniformity and “one-size-fits-all” philosophy. This approach leads to frustration and a whole lot of lost potential.
The late Apple founder Steve Jobs was a complex person, but a pioneer in more fields than personal computing. Considered by many to be a rebel, Steve broke with the Silicon Valley crowd and came out strongly in favor of school choice largely for this very reason.
Back in 1995, Jobs told the Smithsonian, “Equal opportunity to me, more than anything, means a great education. I believe very strongly that if the country gave each parent a voucher for $4,400 that they could spend at any accredited school, several things would happen,” he later said.
Jobs continued, “Number one, schools would start marketing themselves like crazy to get students. Secondly, I think you’d see a lot of new schools starting…. I believe that they would do far better than any of our public schools would. The third thing you’d see is… the quality of schools again, just in a competitive marketplace, start to rise.”
Jobs famously dropped out of college after a single semester. He said he felt guilty wasting his parents’ money on something that wasn’t clicking for him. School frustrated him on numerous levels.
The Apple legend once told his daughter, “They [public schools] teach you how other people think during your most productive years. It kills creativity. Makes people into bozos.”
Steve seemed to save his strongest feelings for junior high school.
“In general, I think middle school is so awful it would be better if kids just sailed around the world instead,” he quipped.
In addition to advocating for school choice, Steve Jobs stressed the importance of cultivating curiosity in children. When a young person chases their interests, they’re going to inevitably work harder, smarter and more enthusiastically.
“I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did,” he said. “You’ve got to find what you love. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking.”
Cultivating a strong spirit of curiosity in our children is an investment in their future. It’s an effort that pays dividends in both the short and long-term. Apple soared in popularity because they had the audacity to advocate for thinking differently. Moms and dads should press to do the same.
Image from Getty.
