Amen, bro. Reads similar to my story.
The only good thing about regular school is you make some damn good friendships. But I`m sure you make some friends for life in prison too, but few will recommend you do some jail time for your socialisation.
I myself went through public schooling. Luckily, I figured out how to make straight C’s in all my classes with minimal work. The rest of the time I just worked on what I wanted to work on. I still made it out of high school with 15 hours of college credit from my advanced placement classes. The whole thing is both intellectually and morally bankrupt. It kills the passion for learning. Most of the people that I’ve met who’ve become interested in bettering their minds have come to this conclusion from some experience outside of school, or as a reactionary attack on the institutionalized style of the classes.
I wanted to attack many of the theories propounded in school. In our econ AP class, I and another very philosophically minded friend frustrated a teacher into giving up. He spent the next 6 weeks making paper clip chains and staring off into space while we taught ourselves economics and played monopoly. We passed our final, of course. Oh those were the days… Anyway, my point is that mandatory, coercive placement into the socialist indoctrination camps (yes, that’s what they are) leads to frustration and resentment across the board, not to mention “eduflation”. Just wait until this bubble bursts. Eventually it will have to - you’ll have janitors with phd’s in psychology all over the place - and I just can’t imagine that can continue to that point. Not everyone is made to be a philosopher or a doctor or an engineer. Some people just want to work and take care of themselves, start families, have fun, etc.
I advocate apprenticeships to replace most of what state-monopolized schooling does (badly) now. This saves on red tape, and gives students a better sense of what they are learning - what they can accomplish with their skills, allowing them to specialize more easily. What does a welder give a damn for the history of medieval Iceland or the names and philosophies depicted in Raphael’s School of Athens? It isn’t going to enrich his life any if he’s forced by gunpoint to learn that kind of stuff, and it’s only going to marginally increase his happiness if he’s forced to learn something he’s interested in, like welding. With the advent of free information and the internet, school is largely useless anyway, private or public.
I saw it brought up that motivation is a factor, that children won’t learn on their own. This is laughable, not because it isn’t true to some extent, but because it isn’t relevant! Forcing someone into an institution beleaguered with bullies, fools, and a mixed bag of teachers ranging from the truly good (only a couple the whole 15 years I was in school) to the deranged or stupid (a much more common variety, I am sad to say) or even abusive isn’t going to spark the grand spark in the mind which makes higher education a firm goal in the mind of the individual student. Every once in a while, it does happen. But by and large this is a rather silly argument. Sloth begets sloth, not work ethic, especially in a socially enforced setting.
My own lust for knowledge and truth began when I read three books: The Lord of the Rings, A Wrinkle in Time, and The Giver. I didn’t read any of them in school. I read them when I was a child, of my own choice, because it was part of the environment in which I was raised - at home, with my parents. Video games actually played a part in my intellectual development and drive to know more. Games like Final Fantasy 3 and Chrono Trigger got me asking sociological questions even at a young age, and inspired me to do something good with my one life. Groups like Rush taught me the joy of music - I play several instruments pretty well now and have a decent grasp of music theory. The point of all this is to show that we are learning all the time! None of these things have anything to do with school, which did little but slow me down. Institutionalized schooling is a dangerous, destructive waste of time. I’d rather kids be playing xbox and growing up to be nobodies, than having them go through 20 years of school to be nobodies - and then voting to continue the dissolution of society because of indoctrination.
Sorry for the length of the post.
Gen. Requirements. I flunked the Math portion of my placement test, while I did fairly well in English, I still have to take the beginning English course for College. I honestly didn’t want to chose those, but its a very slow process to get into any interesting classes. Hell, because of my College, I can’t take an independent study next semester like I had wanted to so that I could learn Japanese or Norwegian. Instead I might have to settle down for something like Spanish, just so I can meet the language requirement in two years.
I have to take certain classes, because only certain ones transfer into the University, and I can’t take anything like Drawing or Painting, only Art History.
He may care, but wouldn’t this be his own choice and liking to attend a class about it? You got it right that the state-monopoly on schooling should be attacked and that the system actually kills true learning.
Absolutely! As long as it is his own choice - then no problem. I’m a musician equally as much as I am a philosophic/historic/whatever type. Hopefully one day I’ll be able to make my living from music but also be taken seriously as a writer. There is no reason why anyone should be barred from doing similarly, or at least attempting it; there is no reason for a compulsory monopoly on education.
Frederick II disagrees.
and he was an “enlightenment” king -friends with Voltaire apparently.
A lot of the enlightenment philosophies stunk to be sure.