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Tuesday, February 22, 2005
schooling-related rant
This cartoon has been making the rounds of homeschooling e-lists around the nation for a week or so. (go ahead, click the link, I'll wait.) I've copied my post to one of these e-lists here.
Among the many aspects of this attitude that bother me (and there ARE many; I could easily spend a lot of time ranting about, say, whether the quantity of abuse stopped because it's detected at school comes anywhere NEAR the quantity of abuse that actually occurs at school), this one stands out:
Free public schooling used to mean that children could get educated whether their parents were wealthy enough to pay for it or not, hence poor children were not bound to grow up to be poor adults. This was a good thing.
Then it became mandatory, so that we would be "assured" an educated populace (or at least a constantly-replenished workforce). Meh.
With the advent of the two-income-household-based economy, school quickly became free babysitting as well.
Then somewhere along the line school was transformed from a free required education to free required education PLUS a free source of social development. Meh again. (It was quickly discovered that nobody could POSSIBLY reach adulthood and thrive without this source of social development. Who knows how culture even existed before school became mandatory in the 1900's.)
Then along came social education -- also known as The Three R's Plus Everything Else Under The Sun Including AIDS, Safety, Sex Education, Etc. Because of course parents can't be relied upon to teach their kids about these things.
And now the latest "official" purpose for school, according to mainstream thought: Allowing the state to keep an eye on everyone's children. It's not just about educating them (if you can still call it that), babysitting them, teaching them how to wear condoms, and letting their peer group be their main influence anymore. It's now the latest (free and already in place) extension of Big Brother's periscope.
WHAT IS NEXT??
I'm off to be a counter-cultural rebel and teach my own children. See you later.
