QOTD

[jjlc]

Quote of the day (from Buried Treasure"Doesn’t it seem a little disquieting to you that large government vehicles go out every weekday into the countryside, round up the children, ferry them to centers where they are taught materials officially approved by that government, they are sent home with these materials to study at night, they are not

Comments

[sirroxton]

It's a fair point. I'd love to see a greater emphasis on increasing the availability and accessibility of well-staffed, properly funded private schools. I have my reservations, however. We could end up like Japan, where failing to get your kid into the right school will relegate them to second-class citizen status for life.

[pezzonovante]

I think the US has too much diversity of values to let that happen. In a society like Japan's where individualism isn't nearly as prevalent as it is here, groups of people's evaluation criteria of a "good school" are going to vary.

Think Evolution by Natural Selection is a crock? Maybe that MAMaS diploma and that Biology degree from MIT aren't as impressive. Maybe a place like Holden Christian Academy followed by Southern Methodist or Bob Jones is more in tune with what you want. Maybe you're more interested in a school that turns out radical secular humanist activists. Then you'd be more interested in people with degrees from UC Berkeley or Brown, and their equivalent high schools.

Different schools take different approaches to teaching and learning, and people know which schools use what methods. In a society where different people always want different things, you're never going to get an underclass, just subgroups that aren't better or worse than any others.

[petercooperjr]

Right. The issue is just that I pay for the public schools whether I use them or like them or not.

[sirroxton]

I have no problem with paying for public schools as a person who does not and never intends to have children. I believe in equal opportunity and don't want children to have radically diminished educational opportunities just because their parents are poor.

My three concerns are lack of opportunity based on location, efficacy, and government indoctrination. I haven't thought of a cure-all, however.