There is, of course, one school system where none of this is true - home schooling.  The administrators, teachers, parents and curriculum selectors all have the exact same motivations, and a tremendously greater incentive to ensure the future success of their students .  Not all parents can or should homeschool, but for those that do, at least their motivations are aligned around the individual child, rather than the statistical mean of a population.
Although what you say is true I have to say that I have met more home-schooling disasters than successes. For my own part I place a higher value one the socialization aspect of school than what I (or rather, my wife) could achieve at home.
Also, no one can be good at teaching all subjects - so even if you are not crippling one’s child’s mind with fake science (ID), you could simply fail utterly at say, math education.
Also there’s the free time of the parent to consider - and working at home is still working and can’t double up with schooling.
Comment by Walter R. Moore — November 26, 2007 @ 7:16 pm
Nod. Like I said, not everyone can or should. As for socialization, in our circles, there’s quite a bit of field-tripping, park days and other social events with other families. There were multiple social groups in the Alpharetta area, and significantly more in Northern Virginia.
Comment by jb — November 27, 2007 @ 3:33 pm
Who can truly believe that a centrally-planned government education system is better than a market-oriented one?
The Product of an education is the child. As the party who creates the demand for a child’s education, the parent fills the role of the customer. Just as any society benefits from great products and services, the State benefits from well-educated citizens. However, the State is not the customer, and it is a very poor supplier.
In my analogy, the State has obtained a monopoly over the production of educations. The problem, as with any monopoly, is that the bureaucratic State has little organic incentive to improve products or services. Exactly, why should government bureaucrats place my interests in obtaining the best education for my child above their own personnel or bureaucratic interests? As the situation deteriorates and the customers clamor, the monopolistic State uses such mechanisms as standardized testing & No Child Left Behind to create an artificial demand/incentive to improve the educations of our children.
To JB’s point, the State can never create the same demand for the best education for any given child. Only the parent can do that. I thank God that we live in a nation that allows me to home school freely. That State has failed, but thankfully it has the wisdom to get out of my way because it realizes it can use the excellent product that I create.
Too often in our society we see parents who just don’t care. Whether we like it or not, we are responsible for the education of our children. If we relinquish the responsibility of educating our child, it is no different than relinquishing your responsibility for providing for your child. One outcome of this irresponsibility is an education system akin to our welfare system that educates children because parents cannot or will not.
Finally, regarding socialization, what is socially normal about having children in an environment with only children for 12 years? This is a construct that is abnormal to a normally functioning society. I meet very few government educated children who can even look me in the eye when speaking. Better to free children from this phony construct and let them flourish, learning to interact normally in a society with adults who respect them for real accomplishments
Comment by Eric B. Gabhart — December 3, 2007 @ 9:58 pm
[...] JB’s point, the State can never create the same demand for the best education for any given child. Only the [...]
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