The Success of America’s Public School System

George H. Smith

George H. Smith was formerly Senior Research Fellow for the Institute for Humane Studies, a lecturer on American History for Cato Summer Seminars, and Executive Editor of Knowledge Products. Smith’s fourth and most recent book, The System of Liberty, was published by Cambridge University Press in 2013.

George H. Smith was formerly Senior Research Fellow for the Institute for Humane Studies, a lecturer on American History for Cato Summer Seminars, and Executive Editor of Knowledge Products. Smith’s fourth book, Themes in the History of Classical Liberalism, is forthcoming from Cambridge University Press, and he is also a regular blogger and essayist at Lib​er​tar​i​an​ism​.org.

In this video from a 1985 Libertarian Party of California conference Smith lectures on the success of the public school system. He claims that state schooling is successful insofar as it accomplishes it’s true goal: not to educate children per se but to turn them into civic-​minded, obedient citizens. Smith gives an overview of the history of state schooling, which stretches back as far as the 5th century B.C. to the time of Ancient Greece.