Re:Some overwhelmed parents are abandoning at-home schooling
by concordDance on Wednesday April 29, 2020 @08:38AM
(#23018342)
> The fact is that the main purpose of school is to educate kids, which is necessary to prepare them to live in a complex society.
90% of secondary school is not necessary for living in modern society.
As long as you can do arithmetic, percentages and fractions and can read and write? You've got all you need really.
If you want particular jobs there may be extra requirements of course.
Re:Some overwhelmed parents are abandoning at-home schooling
by adrianN on Wednesday April 29, 2020 @11:27AM
(#23020365)
I couldn't disagree more. Modern democracies only work if large parts of the population are educated enough to hold informed opinions on matters of public policy, at least in the topics they care about. A lot of the problems we see today can fundamentally be attributed to the failure of reaching that goal and leaving room for demagogues, misinformation and outright lies to manipulate people into voting against their own interest and the common good.
Re:Some overwhelmed parents are abandoning at-home schooling
by concordDance on Friday May 01, 2020 @08:00AM
(#23041170)
As you point out, school fails horrifically at this goal.
It teaches a huge amount of stuff in a manner that does not help at all in forming opinions on public policy while failing to instil the most important basics, such as an understanding of sampling bias and appreciation for nation-level scale.
I know this is a popular opinion but it’s ahistorical. Compulsory education was introduced in the late 1800s when about half of Americans still worked in agriculture, by far the largest sector of the economy at the time. Most families did not need childcare outside their home.
Today, school ends well before the professional workday does—pretty poor childcare.
The fact is that the main purpose of school is to educate kids, which is necessary to prepare them to live in a complex society. But, to teach kids you also have to care for them, hence the “fillers” like lunch and exercise.
Sadly, it’s true that for some kids, school is a major source of food and care in their lives. This is a failing of society, not of schools specifically.
> at home you can tailor the lessons to your kids, and you don't keep getting interrupted because some kids out of 30 in your classroom are being disruptive.
Which is why it’s legal to home school your kids if you want to, even when there is not a global pandemic. :-)