Public Schools in America To answer Kozol's statement about the nature of public schooling in America, one must consider the question of what exactly education is for in this country; What is its purpose? I believe that education is used to produce what Kozol calls "good citizens": "defeated and undefiant" people who will fill necessary jobs, pay necessary taxes, and perform all other government-mandated tasks such as voting. and jury duty. This is why the situation in American public schools hasn't changed since Kozol wrote The Night Is Dark..., and why things probably won't change without a revolution within the public school system. For my part, I don't think that schools are the places where children learn morals and ethics. I think these are things someone has to learn on their own. The method of authority, described by Charles Peirce in his writings, has no place in the formation of anyone's beliefs. Beliefs are totally subjective, meaning there are no "right" or "wrong" beliefs to hold. Why then should we condone the teaching of morals and ethics, which fall into the category of beliefs. According to Kozol, “could the first act of an ethical child… be to initiate the demolition of a manifestly unethical system”? structure like a public school" and "no institution consciously undertakes the task of subsidizing its own demolition." If public schools are inherently unethical, why would we want them to teach ethics to American children? The answer, of course, is that we wouldn't want them to. If, for the sake of argument, schools were ethical, then teaching ethics to children would not involve "its very demolition", but only a change in the way it is taught change the way public schools teach, the people in power, who currently run the schools, must be removed. They are the ones who do not “subsidize” their own demolition of the American public school system, as well as democracy. it's human nature. Once someone is in a position of power, they generally don't want to leave, even if their act of staying is harmful to the organization they're involved with. The problem of “lack of morals and ethics” in this country is a big problem. one, however, and it is continually growing. It is understandable that some, or perhaps most people, look at the state of the country and think that public school reform is the answer.