1) Reduction of the undesirable element in
public and other formal schools |
Currently, the parents who homeschool their
children are more likely than not to be
reputable parents with reputable children. The
worst-behaved children—the bullies—are not likely to be homeschooled. They are, rather,
quite likely to attend public schools, where
they make life miserable for the others—especially for the most intelligent and
industrious students. The parents of these
children are not particularly invested in their
educations or futures, but, in the current
compulsory system, they have no choice but to
send them to some school—and they
certainly will not pay for a private education
or contribute the time for a quality education
at home. Thus, the negative externalities of the
bullies are imposed on everyone else.
Abolish compulsory schooling laws, and this
undesirable element will simply not attend
schools—either out of apathy toward schooling
or out of a desire to live a different kind of
life. Schooling is wasted on these individuals;
however, they might be drawn toward finding jobs
and might thereby learn skills that might
increase their productivity and respectability
in work environments where bullying is simply
not tolerated. The absence of such persons from
the schools would make the lives of the better
students immensely easier and would greatly
increase the level of overt intellectualism in
the entire society—as many intelligent people
today actively repress their abilities from a
young age in order to avoid bullying. This
repression needs to end, and giving the bullies
an option not to attend school is the best way
to accomplish such an immensely important goal.
Moreover, it is simply fallacious to assume that
everyone in the general population
requires twelve years of schooling. Most people
do not retain nearly the amount of information
communicated during that time and would be much
better served—both financially and in terms of
personal growth—developing job-specific skills
through experience and moving up the ranks of a
profession starting in their early teen years.
(This would be possible assuming, of course,
that the ambition-stifling child labor laws are
abolished as well.) If they later come to
recognize the value of a more academic
education, they should be free to re-enroll in
schools or engage in self-study. Intensive,
protracted schooling—especially early in life—is valuable only to individuals with
considerable intellectual ambitions. Compelling
everyone to undergo such schooling devalues its
quality by incentivizing teaching to the lowest
common denominator.
2) Elimination of government-imposed educational
standards for students outside of public schools
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Even homeschooled students today are subject to
detailed mandatory curricula imposed by the
educational authorities. This greatly limits the
flexibility and speed with which parents and
private tutors can educate homeschooled
students. Abolish compulsory schooling laws, and
there would not remain even an apparent
rationale for retaining educational standards
for non-public schools or homeschooled students.
This will greatly increase educational
competition and variety and will enable
experimentation with new educational approaches
that currently would not be accommodated under
the mandatory curricula imposed on everybody.
3) Elimination of the prison-like environment of
public schools |
Abolishing compulsory schooling would mean that
even the students who attend public schools
would not have to remain there.
Currently, public schools especially are de
facto prison facilities where students are
locked in during the entire school day. If they
cease to be compulsory, this would imply that
students could leave at any time during the day,
if they so choose—of course, with possible
associated reprimands as well as grade and
reputational penalties. However, at present,
even students who do not particularly mind being
penalized in their grades or in the opinions of
their teachers are not allowed to leave, and the
schools have a captive clientele. There would be
far greater incentives for schools to provide
competent and effective education if students
could walk out at any time they perceived the
schools not to provide a quality product.
Presently, each public school exerts the worst
kind of coercive monopoly over its students—a monopoly where even the choice not to consume
the product is disallowed. If compulsory
schooling is abolished, this travesty of justice
will end. Schools would actually endeavor to be
hospitable, enjoyable places for students
to be—rather than islands of totalitarian
discipline and enforced uniformity.
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