Who should own the minds of children?

The most common answer to "Who should own the minds of children?" is, "The government." People wouldn't necessarily answer that way verbally, but almost everyone answers that way in practice by sending all of the kids to government schools.

According to the United States government, through the National Center for Education Statistics, for the school year 2020-21 there were 98,609 government schools in 19,254 districts with 49,356,945 students and 3,032,471 teachers, and a pupil to teacher ratio of 15.4 to 1.

With these being government institutions that means there is necessarily a political contest over control and influence. By definition the minds of the children are owned by the government in this case, but who is able to control that government can be different, this can be Republican, Democrat, conservative, liberal, communist, etc. This can be different at the local, state, and federal levels. In that sense a political party owns the minds of the children, and there's probably a political faction controlling the party, so the minds of the children are owned by that political faction. This can operate directly through the school systems, but often operates primarily through the teachers' unions.

The other main way that people outsource the ownership of the minds of kids is to private schools. The NCES says that in the fall of 2021 there were 4.7 million kids in private K through 12 schools: 1.7 million in Catholic schools, 2 million in other religious schools, and 1.1 million in nonsectarian schools. This means that the main secondary option is for a church or religious organization to own the minds of children. There are quite a number of different church options.

For the nonsectarian schools the options vary quite a bit. One vulnerability that isn't immediately obvious is that it might mean the children's minds end up owned by a foreign government. For instance, the New York Military Academy is now owned by Chinese financiers, and the Chinese company Primavera Capital Group owns Spring Education Group which, according to their own website, owns over 230 schools across 19 states under the brands: Stratford School, Chesterbrook Academy, Merryhill School, BASIS Independent Schools, LePort Montessori, Laurel Springs Schools, Xplor preschool and school age, Enchanted Care Learning Center, Discovery Isle Preschool, Carrington Academy, Camelback Desert School, The Honor Roll Society, Southern Highlands Preparatory School, The Rhoades School, Bethesda Country Day School, Heritage Oak Private Education, Sagemont Preparatory School, Park Maitland School, L'Etoile French Immersion School, Van Avery Prep, Kid's World Preschool, Ready Set Grow, Evergreen Academy, Brighton School, Touchstone School, Montessori Academy, Paragon Prep, and Wood Acres School. How would you even know?

So, for people that don't want kids' minds owned by the government, political parties, religious organizations, or foreign agents, then you have very limited options. There are some private school options. Another issue to be aware of there is that many schools are using artificial intelligence to teach kids. This reduces costs and allows each student to get the personal attention of an artificial teacher. There are obvious concerns with teachers being artificial intelligence rather than human intelligence.

The other obvious option is homeschooling. The NCES says that in 2019 there were just under 1.5 million kids between 5 and 17 years old being homeschooled. The main reasons for homeschooling cited by the NCES are: 1) a concern about school environment, such as safety, drugs, or negative peer pressure, 2) a desire to provide moral instruction, 3) emphasis on family life together, 4) a dissatisfaction with the academic instruction at other schools, 5) a desire to provide religious instruction, and 6) a desire to provide a nontraditional approach to child's education. With homeschooling there are the obvious logistical issues.

The obvious answer to who should own the minds of children are the parents and the children themselves. The final education option, which only a small fraction of the populace uses, but has been effective for thousands of years, is private tutoring. In that case there are three stakeholders in the education process: the parents, the child, and the teacher. Not the government, political parties, teachers' unions, foreign agents, corporations, or religious organizations. This is the way.

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