I agree and, to quote John Green:Rachael wrote:In the end I think it's better to make education compulsory. Look to America for a good example of what happens when it's even slightly substandard... we really don't need that getting any worse.
Some children may not like it - and that's perfectly normal. But they'll be thankful for it in the end.
I think the last line should be "uneducated" or "ignorant" rather than "stupid" but, basically, it works.Public education does not exist for the benefit of students or the benefit of their parents. It exists for the benefit of the social order.
We have discovered as a species that it is useful to have an educated population. You do not need to be a student or have a child who is a student to benefit from public education. Every second of every day of your life, you benefit from public education.
So let me explain why I like to pay taxes for schools, even though I don't personally have a kid in school: It's because I don't like living in a country with a bunch of stupid people.
I agree that all people should be educated - or certainly have access to education - and some (the ones likely to be the biggest problem if they didn't get an education) would duck out of it if they could (some still effectively do) but the fact that you are compelled to be educated is a still bit weird to me.
Obviously, education can (and probably should) be considered part of child welfare but I still have a gut feeling that there is something odd about forcing a person to attend something they don't want to do for over a decade. I know it's not fully logically thought through, it just irritates me somehow at a fundamental level and I'm not even sure why.NeuralStunner wrote:Just like properly feeding them is compulsory. And proper discipline should be, too.*
Your post reminds me of one of my favourite quotes (often attributed to Mark Twain, but almost certainly not by him):Rachael wrote:I know some younger folks are going to hate me for saying this - but trust and believe, that like every other adult, I was a kid once...
When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years.