Phi,
I agree that in a free society education would look a lot different (and hopefully a lot better!), but the simple argument that if compulsory attendance laws were banned or even if the public school system would finish that the vast majority of children who attend school today would stop attending and there would be no demand for private schooling is ridiculous and I’m attempting to dispel that notion.
^^^Neodoxy
Id gladly attend a school that taught what i am interested in.
The reasonw why everyone hates school is because we are taught things that dont even relate to real life.
@Neo
My bad. My intention was not to imply that without compulsory attendance laws and public education, the demand for education would drop dramatically. In fact, I believe that in a free society, directly due to widespread competition without government interference of any sort and emerging educational technologies being more within reach for most, not only will education be better, but it will be cheaper (overall) and much more efficient. The demand won’t likely drop too much, but what is demanded from educators will change (although, I guess we can’t say there is truly “demand” for public schools, since the funds are stolen instead of voluntarily traded). Again, my apologies.
Kelvin,
As someone who recently left the system I can say that most things which you don’t think relate to “real life” really do as long as you’re talking about higher skilled vocations. I was in the same boat that you are, I hated studying most of the subjects I had to learn and I was totally disinterested with most stuff outside of the social sciences, and everything in that subject I excelled at beyond a lot of my teachers (don’t worry, I’m really quite a modest internet anarchist). At any rate I found that few people were interested in anything as such. Anyway you can make arguments about how “real” any of the four main subjects are. Social Sciences are useless if you’re not going to be a history teacher, literature is useless if you’re not going to be an english teacher, science is useless if you’re not going to be a doctor, engineer, or scientist. Math is the only subject you can really proudly declare is used in pretty much all advanced vocations.
If high school students were asked to pick a course list then I think a good number of them would pick the easiest, especially if they knew it wouldn’t affect how colleges viewed them. This is part of why I really appreciate the German system of education which is a lot more career oriented and gives students a lot more choices that are practical.
“This is part of why I really appreciate the German system of education which is a lot more career oriented and gives students a lot more choices that are practical.”
This.
I hate the make everyone learn same shit cookie cutter approach. Id love to study computers later on and economics also.
Messy Mondays: Seven Lies about Homeschoolers
More here: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDEBEA276913F8838