Originally posted by
Vox Imperatoris
Now, this is a bit of a hijack, but I believe that school should be made voluntary, and that public schools should be abolished and possibly replaced with vouchers (it would certainly be a political necessity). That way, children can do what they and their parents think is actually best for them, instead of being forced to sit in classes all day that they don't care about. Schools could bring in classes like the ones you describe, where students are, theoretically, educated instead of "taught", where the schools are not beholden to standardized tests. Or they could stick with the plain, old-fashioned approach for families who would like that better (I, personally, would hate your ideas. Human kindness should not be forced down students' throats.). They could even try completely different models, like the education of old that focused more on rhetoric and logical thinking than on learning facts and doing problems. A student could even choose to work instead of learning things that will be of no real value to him. (Let's face it, some people are not as smart as others, and there is no real need for them to have a degree, or even a diploma. Besides, if you graduate public high school with a "D" or even a "C" average, you haven't learned crap.) And as long as it is used to further the child's interests, I don't see why they shouldn't be able to keep the voucher money. Some people do, in fact, need money more than they need education.
But there would be choice, instead of assigning people to schools in the local area (which, ironically, discriminates against the poor because guess where the poor live? In poor areas).