What is school for?

[Agnapostate]

Brian, I agree with you, with one addition: Kids don't know what they need. If they did, many probably wouldn't be in public education.

This is an odd statement. Attendance of public school is compulsory for a large part of a students' career. It's not necessarily a matter of not knowing what they need; it's a matter of them lacking the legal capacity to explore other options.

Part of the problem; our education system is designed to promote obedience and to crush independent thought. The goal is proper, functional citizens, not thinkers and innovaters.

That's correct, as we've thus far noted with the basis of modern American schooling in the Prussian model that likely conditioned Germans into accepting the rise of fascism.

 

[Amanda]

That's correct, as we've thus far noted with the basis of modern American schooling in the Prussian model that likely conditioned Germans into accepting the rise of fascism.

Oh no you didn't...

 

[Agnapostate]

If you make 5 more posts, you'll be 1337!

 

[Toro]

To learn how to think.

 

[Amanda]

If you make 5 more posts, you'll be 1337!

I already am, sweetness.

 

[Agnapostate]

I already am, sweetness.

Puppy thinks she's a pitbull.

 

[hansom]

Ha, I summarized too much in one sentence, and i don't think it came out right : )

Legal Schmegal Kids can test up to higher grades, and test out when they reach a certain level. That's how we get 10yearolds going to college, because they bucked the traditional system to learn at their own pace.
And legal takes us back to homeschooling, which you can breeze through.........

But aside from that, my point was that kids arent getting proper perspective in the nazi-based age-segregated system we USA-ers use. I didn't pick up on the (1) limitations and (2) agenda of public ed. until years down the road, for example. If school is to teach, then homeschooling is the best option, where you can get a good agenda-free (or 'lite') education.

 

[Amanda]

I already am, sweetness.

Puppy thinks she's a pitbull.

Thinks? I don't waste my time with mere thinking. I just know, it's good enough for me.

 

[Agnapostate]

Legal Schmegal Kids can test up to higher grades, and test out when they reach a certain level. That's how we get 10yearolds going to college, because they bucked the traditional system to learn at their own pace. And legal takes us back to homeschooling, which you can breeze through.........

It's not quite as easy as you think it is. There are additional legal restrictions on homeschooling, which made actual unschooling impossible for me in the month I, for instance, attempted it. I was technically required to have a parent instructing me (which I didn't), and the school district started harassing me, and I was in danger of being sent to court for truancy if I didn't register at the continuation school I had been transferred to after being expelled from regular public school. I ended up liking continuation school; I was bored and lonely as hell at home anyway. This, of course, was prior to what essentially amounted to the criminalization of homeschooling in my state. (A battle that is still being fought, if I recall correctly.)

College admission is similarly difficult. I couldn't immediately go to a university because I never received a high school diploma (I got an equivalency degree) and didn't formally graduate from high school or take advanced honors courses that were necessary for admission. I also had a GPA of about 1.1 in regular school, which obviously posed another problem. I'm actually unsure how child "prodigies" are legally able to attend college at the age of 8 or 10, and it's something that I've been meaning to look into.

Most 10 year olds could probably go to college if they were conditioned to from early life. The philosopher John Stuart Mill, for instance, accumulated a vast amount of knowledge in his early-to-mid childhood, though his father indoctrinated him in an authoritarian manner, which likely led to his nervous breakdown several years later. I favor a system which is able to impart the level of knowledge that Mill received without forcing it upon a person or coercing them into accepting it, an essentially libertarian model as opposed to Mill's authoritarian experience.

But aside from that, my point was that kids arent getting proper perspective in the nazi-based age-segregated system we USA-ers use. I didn't pick up on the (1) limitations and (2) agenda of public ed. until years down the road, for example. If school is to teach, then homeschooling is the best option, where you can get a good agenda-free (or 'lite') education.

Perhaps, but again, my concern would be that parents would simply mimic the authoritarian conditions of the classroom in their own houses, which would be an issue among Christian Right parents who remove their sons and daughters from school out of fear and hatred of Darwin and condoms.

Thinks? I don't waste my time with mere thinking. I just know, it's good enough for me.

Mmkay.

I should just lurk moar, amirite?

 

[Unkotare]

These days, i'm afraid it's more for teaching left wing ideology in the Social Studies category........

No

 

[ScienceRocks]

1. To teach people how to be civilized
2. To teach people the basic skills to get through life
3. For people to be able to get a job
etc