The ‘Expert’ Delusion in Education

“Experts” have had a tough go of it lately.

Reputationally, I mean. In terms of power, they are at their apotheosis. Experts may lose their power quickly as people turn their backs on them, but then again, if Democrats win, their power will become entrenched further.

One of the places in which “trust the experts” has won the day–and for the worst possible reasons–is in public education. As a class of experts, they have the least claim to expertise and yet have some of the most power. There are some very fine public school teachers, but it doesn’t take a genius to notice that the results we get from all the money and power we give to the public education system are pathetic.

Educational achievement is going down, children’s mental health is cratering, and the schools seem to exist solely for the purpose of indoctrinating kids. Educators abandoned kids during the pandemic, and kept telling us that “kids are resilient.”

Oops.

But the cult-like belief in expertise hasn’t waned a bit. The fight to keep pornography in schools is based entirely on the claim that the educational “experts” know what kids need, and parents should take a back seat and let them drive the school bus.

Joy asks, “What is her expertise?”

Answer: She’s an adult.

I have a Ph.D. In Education … I didn’t ANY of those studies to know that it is inappropriate for minors to be reading about “strap-on dildos” and “anal rape” in school.

Stand up, America … never back down!

— Time to Wake Up! (@TimeToWakeUp247) January 21, 2024

Joy Reid’s argument against “Moms for Liberty” is that parents should defer to the experts, who know much better than parents what kids need, and clearly, kids need to read about anal rape and how to give blow jobs in school.

We know this because the experts say so, just as they say that kids need to socially transition in school behind their parents’ backs. Doing so is the only way to ensure their mental health. As is evidenced by the fact that kids’ mental health has been improving since these policies went into effect.

The concept of “expertise” in educating children is not absurd on its face; one can easily imagine that building on a framework of proven techniques might improve educational outcomes and even kids’ mental health. It just turns out that the evidence for this proposition all goes in the opposite direction. Experts, much more often than not, have proven to follow useless fads that harm kids instead of building on proven methods of teaching.

Phonics was dropped for decades, and reading skills dropped like a rock. Then a miracle happened: legislators got fed up with poor reading skills in kids and mandated phonics, and in the South states have been skyrocketing to the top in reading skills. Mississippi is now above average in reading skills, despite having been at the bottom forever. Florida is now #1 in public education.

Because they tossed out the experts. People with common sense knew there was a problem, and finally ignored the experts. And it worked.

Florida. Mississippi. Louisiana. Near the top of the achievement ranks.

Still, the Establishment is all-in on “experts,” at least for the kids of the proles. If their own kids are doing badly, they can afford alternatives.

As “experts” have increased their influence, the results have, let us say, disappointed.

Experts were given free rein to run the world for the past 4 years, and it has been a complete and utter disaster.

Reagan captured the essence of liberal expertise in one sentence: “The trouble with our Liberal friends is not that they’re ignorant; it’s just that they know so much that isn’t so.”