Tim Daneliuk wrote:
wrote:

Tim Daneliuk wrote:

Duane Bozarth wrote:


Tim Daneliuk wrote:

...


I would prefer there were no public schools and people sent their
children to private school (they paid for themselves) that taught
the values most aligned with their own.

...

That can be a major disservice to the unfortunate "student" who is thus
never exposed to anything except a very narrow view of the world. One
can think of lots of such possible "curricula" that can even a much
worse outcome than the shortsighted view you seem to want to promote.
Things like neo-Naziis, for example, come to mind...


Those are _possible_ now.


Do you seriously think that making education "public" solves this
problem? The elementary schools have become babysitting services.
The middle- and high-schools have become breeding grounds for
thugs, gangs, and worse. The universities have become madrassas for
the ideological Left. Private education, however stilted, could not
be worse.



Would none at all be worse than public education? Even with today's
high droput rate in the public schools I tend to think some education
at least, is reaching more children that would be the case without
public schools. I suppose you have a way of addressing that, but
would rather not speculate on it.


The problem is that public education is the worst of all possible
worlds.

How does it compare to a world with no schools, or don't you
consider that possible?

You would have us believe that ALL of the public schools, or
at least so many of them, are so bad as to be a complete
or nearly complete failure.

... Public schools are required
to admit everyone and try as best they can to reflect the ideas and
values of the entire society - clearly an impossible task. Yes,
there is some slight residual effect wherein some education is better than
none, but the cost/benefit ratio is (IMO) not worth it. We are already
losing students today under the public system (to drugs, gangs, etc.).
Why not just admit that some percentage will always be lost and optimize
the system for the majority - i.e., Privately run and funded schools that
can enforce order and make education a priority...


Obviously:

Many of those who will always be lost have parents who can
afford to send them to private schools even if they fail all
their courses. While the management of all of those private
schools would rather not have students that fail many will
consider the receipt of tuition payment from the parents
to be more important than the success of the students.

Meanwhile, many of that majority who would do well, or at
least acceptably in school will NOT have parents who can
afford to send them to private schools.

I agree that public schools CAN be terribly inadequate, in-
efficient, and dangerous. Rather than looking at the
best of the public schools and trying to appy that to the
others, you propose a 'social Darwinism' of the worse sort.

Feh!

--

FF