A lot of these are seen as POSITIVE effects. Acculturation and habituation to (some forms of) workplace environment is often given as a reason for enforced schooling. And don’t forget the need for childcare—just keeping kids out of the hair of their parents.
The thing that’s so often missed in these discussions is the sheer SCALE of modern schooling. Even just in the US, it’s hundreds of billions of hours per year. It’s incredibly expensive to do badly, and probably infeasible to do well for all or even most students. Combined with the variation of children (including ability, interest, peer groups, and outside-school opportunities and activities) and the social inability to acknowledge these differences, it’s probably impossible to have an actually good system.
If you have the means (in time, ability, and/or money), you are strongly encouraged to supplement or replace public schooling for your kids. If you don’t, you’re kind of stuck.
A lot of these are seen as POSITIVE effects. Acculturation and habituation to (some forms of) workplace environment is often given as a reason for enforced schooling. And don’t forget the need for childcare—just keeping kids out of the hair of their parents.
The thing that’s so often missed in these discussions is the sheer SCALE of modern schooling. Even just in the US, it’s hundreds of billions of hours per year. It’s incredibly expensive to do badly, and probably infeasible to do well for all or even most students. Combined with the variation of children (including ability, interest, peer groups, and outside-school opportunities and activities) and the social inability to acknowledge these differences, it’s probably impossible to have an actually good system.
If you have the means (in time, ability, and/or money), you are strongly encouraged to supplement or replace public schooling for your kids. If you don’t, you’re kind of stuck.