ABSTRACT
Imagine public school principals greeting each parent at the beginning of the school year with the question: “What do you want your child to learn and how do you want it to be taught?” Of course this doesn’t happen. What is to be taught and how are usually decided by the time children begin the school year. Learning goals and instructional methods are determined by a political process involving local, state, and federal officials and, in some cases, the courts. Politically determined goals of public education guide what is taught and how it is taught. When students enter a public school they are submitting to the will of the public as deter mined by local, state, and federal governments. The goals of Amer - ican schools are politically determined.
