Education Quote by Kelly Millar

Millar’s line is an argument for the emotional technology of belonging: the idea that a school can do more than teach facts, that it can manufacture a “we.” The phrase “racial and denominational schools” lands with a double edge. It treats race and religion as parallel civic identities, then quietly elevates them above the supposedly neutral “general educational institution.” That neutrality is framed as a deficiency, not a virtue: the public, mixed, secular model is “wholly unable” to “inculcate” what these community-specific schools can.

The verb choice is telling. “Impart” sounds generous and organic; “inculcate” is harder, almost disciplinary, implying that what’s at stake isn’t just knowledge but a repeatable worldview. Millar is sketching an education-as-formation theory: children are not simply students, they’re future members. The “something” left unnamed does a lot of work. It’s presumably solidarity, moral codes, shared history, linguistic or liturgical fluency, a sense of safety from erasure. Leaving it vague lets readers project their preferred virtue onto it.

The subtext is also defensive. This kind of claim usually emerges when community institutions feel threatened by assimilation, majoritarian curricula, or policies that treat difference as a private matter. It’s a pitch for the legitimacy of separatism, framed as cultural survival rather than exclusion. The rhetorical move is subtle: by insisting the general institution cannot do this job, Millar makes pluralism sound like neglect and makes identity-focused schooling sound like necessary care.