Comments on: Schooling is actually a net negative

By: Lucklucky

Lucklucky — Fri, 11 Nov 2022 03:18:53 +0000

There is a difference between learning to write and do elementary math, which can be learned in 3–4 years as a child, and all the remaining stuff. I learned stuff in school that was helpful, but that was at an elementary level. After that, it was a net negative. I learned more outside school.

Not all school learning is equal. We should avoid binary thinking in this stuff.

And another point, at University (1996–2000), I learned more because I had Internet access than because of my teachers, who were mediocre or bad. So in this case school helped me , but not because of curricula, but because of tech access I had while there.

By: Becky

Becky — Wed, 09 Nov 2022 19:53:17 +0000

I’m all for that after putting my kids in public school by mandatory no choice. My liberal college professor said you just hope the school doesn’t screw them up. That was in 1990.

By: Jim

Jim — Wed, 09 Nov 2022 16:55:11 +0000

So true, Isegoria, so true.

By: Jim

Jim — Wed, 09 Nov 2022 16:54:42 +0000

The schools do what they were designed to do.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Education_Board

By: Harry Jones

Harry Jones — Mon, 07 Nov 2022 23:11:59 +0000

Literacy means nothing if you don’t read anything but trash.

Numeracy means nothing if you don’t know what you’re counting and why.

By: Isegoria

Isegoria — Mon, 07 Nov 2022 17:47:47 +0000

Before mass, mandatory schooling, the great majority of people were literate and numerate:

Sheldon Richman quotes data showing that from 1650 to 1795, American male literacy climbed from 60 to 90 percent. Between 1800 and 1840 literacy in the North rose from 75 percent to between 91 and 97 percent. In the South the rate grew from about 55 percent to 81 percent. Richman also quotes evidence indicating that literacy in Massachusetts was 98 percent on the eve of legislated compulsion and is about 91 percent today.

By: Bomag

Bomag — Mon, 07 Nov 2022 13:49:15 +0000

“…the great majority of people were illiterate and innumerate.”

Yes, but they learned communication and calculating skills appropriate for their time.

We didn’t notice deficiencies until there was a need for such.

When the need arose for mass literacy in the written word, and more extensive use of numbers, mandatory schooling stepped in to good effect: the modal household had no access to such teaching materials. But a corner was turned when the needed knowledge became readily available to all, and school became largely superfluous to knowledge transfer. Now schools are drifting into political indoctrination and “subsidized dating”.

By: Bob Sykes

Bob Sykes — Mon, 07 Nov 2022 13:29:39 +0000

The historical fact is that before mass, mandatory schooling the great majority of people were illiterate and innumerate.

By: Bomag

Bomag — Mon, 07 Nov 2022 05:01:56 +0000

Reminds me of a blogpost that referenced a study that had education professionals evaluate a mixed group of 25 yr. olds; half finished high school, half either dropped out or were expelled.

The ed. pros were no better than chance at sussing who was who.