Education is a Privilege

Schools have become associated with many things which have nothing to do with their original purpose.* It is accepted that they serve a variety of functions and that that is what they are for and it can't change. There is a general, unexamined assumption that schools are places that look after your children while you do other things (work, go shopping, get pissed and so on); there is a further assumption that society needs somewhere to keep its perverts happy (this is true, although we pretend it isn't), and that if we shove children in rooms with people who have studied something they will learn and make something of their lives. That's not the way it is.

Most children never understand the point of school, and think they are wasting their time. They are. They accept the idea and as soon as they are free, they do whatever they can. Which will not have been the original purpose of their 'education.' Teaching, showing the young what they could be if they wished, the things it is worth understanding, is a much more difficult business than most people realize. And teaching is controlled by the unions.

Today's lesson- it shouldn't be compulsory. There are many children who can take no benefit from education, or who don't want it. Teach the ones to whom it can be useful. That's a good start.

*Real life is a great nuisance. The curse of the blogging classes. But I also know- because I read a lot of blogs as well as writing them- that no one cares why a blogger is not writing, they want to read what he writes. So I offer minimalist blogging, but it is at least blogging.