American Authoritarianism Starts at School

What led to our current crisis- and what might save us

“Don’t American schools prioritize freedom and independence? Isn’t that what your country values most?”

This summer, during a trip to The Netherlands and Switzerland, I met up with friends working in education internationally. When the conversation turned toward education in the U.S., one friend remarked that she assumed American education would foster freedom and independence, given the strong cultural values America espouses on those topics.

Yet, she was surprised when I told her that for the vast majority of young people in the United States, the opposite is true.

In fact, our public education system—based in traditional schooling—demonstrates through our systems that we value authoritarianism and state violence.

From the moment children start school at age three or four until age 18, they are told what to do, when to do it, how to do it, where to go, and how to act. They are judged based on metrics they had no say in and punished when they do not conform to those metrics.

They’re given no opportunity to self-direct their learning and are taught to follow orders, to succeed in a system of compliance and control. In such a system, the goal is not learning- it’s doing what you’re told.

Then, at 18 years of age, they emerge into American society, where we expect them to be full-ranking members of a democracy—to think critically, engage in productive and respectful dissent, and make their own path in life. We expect them to take the freedom and autonomy they’ve been denied their whole lives and suddenly become masters of it.

In what world does a childhood of authoritarianism prepare young people to live in a democracy?

We wonder why we have a second Trump administration, why a majority of Americans who voted wanted an authoritarian leader. We want that because that’s what we have been socialized to want.

We wonder why people in this country are so able to disconnect from the pain and suffering of others, why they’re able to easily “other” people.

In traditional schooling, we socialize the desire to connect with others and develop empathy out of our young people. In a system that says any collaboration is cheating, in a system that says you’ll only succeed if someone else fails, we tell young people from the earliest ages that they’ll do well only when others are not doing well and that it’s devious to collaborate with others.

When our schools foster such an attitude, we create a society where people either believe or actively seek to put others down to lift themselves up.

Furthermore, our schools are predicated on state violence for noncompliance.

That violence might be as simple as low grades, punishments, or detentions for not following rules and expectations.

I have seen teachers and administrators verbally abuse children to the point of tears and severe emotional deregulation for “offenses” such as: not walking in a straight line, talking out of turn, and asking to use the bathroom. They may not physically hurt these children, but such abuse is equally harmful violence in the name of compliance.

It’s also documented clearly that such violence at the hands of the state happens disproportionately to students of color- contributing to the school-to-prison pipeline.

Are We Incapable- Or Is It Our Beliefs?

I’ve come to the realization that we limit ourselves, and our children, with our own beliefs.

In an early podcast episode on Breaking the Paradigm, my friend Tom Brown said that we control in children what we hate about ourselves as adults.

In a similar sentiment, John Holt wrote the following in his book How Children Learn:

“Trust Children. Nothing could be more simple-or more difficult. Difficult, because to trust children we must trust ourselves— and most of us were taught as children that we could not be trusted.”

I truly believe we don’t trust children because we don’t trust ourselves.

We don’t believe they can handle freedom and autonomy because we believe we can’t (or couldn’t, at their age). We think we need structure, to be told what to do and where to go, or else we feel incapable.

But that’s not born out in research on human behavior.

Self-determination theory shows that when humans experience environments of autonomy and when their fundamental needs are met, they thrive and seek to connect with others in meaningful ways.

The opposite is also true. When we put young people in environments of control, they exhibit antisocial behaviors. They actively want to hurt others because they believe that putting others down lifts them up.

From Rhetoric to Action

Even in schools which espouse autonomy and independence, there is still a cultural tendency to lean into our authoritarian mindset out of our mistrust of ourselves.

This brings me to one of the most misused phrases in Montessori education: “freedom within structure.”

This phrase is often used not to consider the developmental needs of young people or the ideal environment for such development, but to justify our authoritarian overreach on the freedom of children.

I often hear this phrase used to say, “We can’t give students this freedom because they need freedom within structure, and this adult intervention is what they need.”

Usually, the proposed adult intervention is authoritarian.

Montessori wrote very clearly that children in her schools should be free—not when they’re ready, but right now.

It is only through freedom and autonomy that they’ll be able to choose meaningful work and, through that work, have positive developmental experiences.

The truth is, we create the future right now by how we socialize our young people, by the beliefs—both limiting and opening—that we put onto them.

As we head into summer, I encourage you to consider and share in the comments how you’re undoing your limiting beliefs—not just of the children and adolescents in your care, but of yourself and our broader society.

How might we harness our collective imagination to change what we believe is possible for ourselves, our young people, and our society?

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