One function of public education is to set a limit on the influence that parents at society’s extremes can have on their children. This is most conspicuous when we consider parents in extreme poverty, who likely struggle with mental health and various maladaptive habits and beliefs. Maybe they’re poor because they deviate from society’s expectations of competence; maybe they deviate from society’s expectations of competence due to the demands and stresses imposed by poverty. Regardless of which way causality is flowing there, school gives their kids a chance to be exposed to styles of thought other than the ones that contribute to their continued misfortune.
Public school also serves an important social function, at least in the modern US, as free daycare for those who may not be able to afford other childcare options. It can help counteract the extreme ideological indoctrination that kids may be exposed to at home—if a set of beliefs is serving the parents in such a way that they can’t afford to keep their kids at home all the time, they get less chance to force those beliefs uncontestedly onto the kids. If school were abolished, the world would be worse unless some intervention was added to help children from this type of background have a choice of whether they want to mimic their parents’ lifestyle or choose a different one.
School is useful for allowing children to practice socializing with peers, with whom they have little in common other than their parents happening to live in the same area and procreate within the same few months. Schooling which keeps a group of children together for a decade also teaches about long-term games and consequences, in a way that many alternatives might not.
Can you suggest some alternative to school which is uniformly no worse than the current system?
One function of public education is to set a limit on the influence that parents at society’s extremes can have on their children. This is most conspicuous when we consider parents in extreme poverty, who likely struggle with mental health and various maladaptive habits and beliefs. Maybe they’re poor because they deviate from society’s expectations of competence; maybe they deviate from society’s expectations of competence due to the demands and stresses imposed by poverty. Regardless of which way causality is flowing there, school gives their kids a chance to be exposed to styles of thought other than the ones that contribute to their continued misfortune.
Public school also serves an important social function, at least in the modern US, as free daycare for those who may not be able to afford other childcare options. It can help counteract the extreme ideological indoctrination that kids may be exposed to at home—if a set of beliefs is serving the parents in such a way that they can’t afford to keep their kids at home all the time, they get less chance to force those beliefs uncontestedly onto the kids. If school were abolished, the world would be worse unless some intervention was added to help children from this type of background have a choice of whether they want to mimic their parents’ lifestyle or choose a different one.
School is useful for allowing children to practice socializing with peers, with whom they have little in common other than their parents happening to live in the same area and procreate within the same few months. Schooling which keeps a group of children together for a decade also teaches about long-term games and consequences, in a way that many alternatives might not.
Can you suggest some alternative to school which is uniformly no worse than the current system?