School is prison

Still busy. In the meantime read this. It's a report by a cognitive psychologist into why children don't like school.

Via Dare to Know

Comments

[Rob Fisher]

I first encountered the idea that school is prison a few years ago in an essay by Paul Graham. It's a pretty good essay, although he does say he has "no problem" with schools being prison, if only the kids were told about it. I think we could do better than that (as Sudbury Valley apparently demonstrates).

Is there anything like Sudbury Valley in the UK? Could there be?

[manfromthefuture]

I always knew this. Furthermore, school has the same goals as prison - rehabilitation. The idea is to make you compatible to society. in other words, subservient to the general regime of your exploitation. your head is filled with irrelevances and you are not taught how to actually succeed in the real world - how things really work.

This is why you always find one of the "dumb" kids who didnt do too well at school, becomes amazingly successful outside. it's a different skill.

[Heng Sorlry]

Supportive as I am to the home schooling group, I think sometimes much of the anti-school ideology anxiety is aimed a state lock-step type institutions. I believe I benefited and enjoyed my school years. Variety, choice and competition always improve anything.

[Bishop Hill]

Heng

I agree actually. One of my children thinks school is wonderful and can't wait to get back at the start of term. Another hates it. Some people are quite happy being led.

[j ferguson]

The paper "Student as Nigger" was published about the time I was in my 7th year at a university where they had very cleverly compressed 4 years of material into a six year curriculum.

I already hated school and this paper didn't help at all other than to convince me that the quickest way out with a degree was to scrupulously do what I was told.

It can be found by googling its title.