Should school attendance be compulsory?

[Bandit3 the Worker]

Why should it be mandatory to go sit in a building for six hours and learn nothing.

Because all the big corporations want students to be molded into cheap, docile labor.

That's the only reason there's such a big emphasis on school these days - because corporations want people in their unshakable grasp, and they push their agenda through the school system.

[John Dibble]

Why should it be mandatory to go sit in a building for six hours and learn nothing.

Because all the big corporations want students to be molded into cheap, docile labor.

That's the only reason there's such a big emphasis on school these days - because corporations want people in their unshakable grasp, and they push their agenda through the school system.

Right, it has nothing to do with parents desiring a good life for their children.

[Gabu]

I personally think it should be up to the parents.  I only went to school once or twice a week until fourth grade because my parents recognized that I was not learning a thing and they didn't want me to grow up hating school.

[Bono]

Why should it be mandatory to go sit in a building for six hours and learn nothing.

Because all the big corporations want students to be molded into cheap, docile labor.

That's the only reason there's such a big emphasis on school these days - because corporations want people in their unshakable grasp, and they push their agenda through the school system.

Right, it has nothing to do with parents desiring a good life for their children.

FI they are so concerned about it, why do they want to send them to place ruled by a vicious heirarchy of smart, handsome, popular, athletically-gifted students belittling others born without those gifts through mockery and physical violence? 

[dazzleman]

FI they are so concerned about it, why do they want to send them to place ruled by a vicious heirarchy of smart, handsome, popular, athletically-gifted students belittling others born without those gifts through mockery and physical violence? 

How different do you think the working world is?  Everybody needs to be taught to hold their own against that sort of thing.  It doesn't end with school.

[Gabu]

FI they are so concerned about it, why do they want to send them to place ruled by a vicious heirarchy of smart, handsome, popular, athletically-gifted students belittling others born without those gifts through mockery and physical violence? 

How different do you think the working world is?  Everybody needs to be taught to hold their own against that sort of thing.  It doesn't end with school.

I remember I read an article in the local newspaper that was basically saying just that.  Paraphrased, it said roughly the following:

"I can't understand it whenever I hear people trying to find ways how to make school fun, how to make kids enjoy school, how to make it interesting and engaging.  Why?  Because this is about as unlike real life as it possibly can get.  We should make school as horribly boring, as horribly tedious, and as horribly unforgiving as it possibly can be, because if students can cope with that, then they'll be well prepared to face the real world."

I'm not entirely sure I agree with it, but it's an interesting view nonetheless.

[John Dibble]

Why should it be mandatory to go sit in a building for six hours and learn nothing.

Because all the big corporations want students to be molded into cheap, docile labor.

That's the only reason there's such a big emphasis on school these days - because corporations want people in their unshakable grasp, and they push their agenda through the school system.

Right, it has nothing to do with parents desiring a good life for their children.

FI they are so concerned about it, why do they want to send them to place ruled by a vicious heirarchy of smart, handsome, popular, athletically-gifted students belittling others born without those gifts through mockery and physical violence? 

My school wasn't like that to any large degree.

[angus]

I guess I part ways with the Right on this issue.  Yes, I think school attendance for folks under 18 should be compulsory.  I defend that formally by stating simply that those folks are not yet full citizens so there's no right to deny.  But less formally, and more honestly, I say that the benefit to society of an educated populace far outweighs any perceived disadvantages.   As a latent function, school also has the effect of lowering unemployment by removing from the pool competitors in the 15-18 agre group.  I think the social worker who has to drive out to some farm in flyover country to pull a 14-year-old kid away from his dad's farm where he's doing chores ("school ain't helpin' the boy, and it damned sure doesn't pay the rent") is a hard job.  But somebody has to do it.  I'm willing to pay that person's salary, if necessary.

That said, certainly parents are free to teach children at home if they feel the local public schools aren't up to the job.  But I can imagine being so dissatisfied with a school that I'd choose to do that myself, as I'm a pretty judgmental asshole when it comes to things like that.  Still, it'd have to be a pretty bad school for me to resort to that extreme, as I think the students suffer socially in those cases.  Still, it's a common phenomenon in many places.  I'm not sure how you go about enforcing truancy laws in those cases. 

[opebo]

But I'm just trying to understand opebo's general outlook.  We're close to the same age and have one great thing in common:  I'd always voted for Democrats, or for candidates from parties other than GOP, until this last election.  At some point they became absolutely reprehensible with the holier-than-though moralism.

Exactly how I feel about the Religious Party. 

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Same attitude from the Religious Right.

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I don't see why not.  Basically one day I saw the 72% vote in Missouri against Gay Marriage and I suddenly realized - you're associating yourself with hate-filled intolerant scum out of concern for the top tax rate (a rate I won't even be faced with until the parents die assuming they don't stiff me).  The other epiphany was returning to Paradise (S.E.Asia) and discovering - surprise, surprise - the christians (admitedly with the collaboration of a few feminists, but mainly the christians) were busily trying to destroy it and turn it into another sexless hellhole like the United States of Puritanism.  

You woke up one day and realized that some Democrats were.. what?  Slightly annoying?  I woke up one day and realized the Democratic Party is Right Wing - certainly sufficiently Center-Right not to scare anyone with capital.  So why vote in a bunch of religious who's fondest dream is to stamp out everything I consider to be the joy in life.

[angus]

fair enough.  I think the democrats had a much more socialist bent in the early 70s when my folks were support McGovern et al., and I think many of the Leftists of their generation remember fondly the Great Society and the New Deal.  I'm not nearly as Leftist as my parents, but then no one in my generation is, what with the Me decade and Reagan and the internet and all, so it isn't surprising that the Democrats are, by the standards of a time when you and I were little kids, a Center-Right party.  And, being a centrist myself, I'm certainly not put off by their general economic vision, as it exists now.  But there are a number of salient economic points of dissent for me.  The reluctance to try new ideas such as "school choice" and "personalization" of retirement, which attests to the New Conservatism of the DNC, is a big one.  Affirmative action being another huge one.  In fact, I'd suggest that it goes beyond pure economics.  It's a insult to the 35 million african-americans, to be sure, but it is also morally reprehensible to create a second-class citizenship that way.  I can go on and on, but I think you get the point.  In particular, the point about "anyone who disagrees with us is fundamentally flawed..."  Now, you see that more among Republicans, no doubt, because you probably hang out with lots of them.  Since none of my family (except one of my dad's 9 siblings, who lives in San Jose and with whom I used to occassionally spent holidays) are republicans, and none of my friends or colleagues (with the exception of one black female professor) are republicans, I really don't see that side of the GOP much.  Almost everyone I know and talk to friends, family, acquaintances, colleagues, etc., are Democrats.  And from Democrats, I see that holier-than-thou attitude all the time.  and it stinks.  and it's not something I ever want to be a part of or give money to or support with my ballot.  enough of this!