They don’t build up a step by step fact based critique, they make sweeping ,emotive claims about how generally terrible it is.
For the record, the other side doesn’t make any better arguments. (And sometimes they go horribly insane, like when you are in the middle of a pandemic, where the #1 health recommendation is “avoid rooms with other people”, but some countries insist that kids must spend their days in a classroom, otherwise the sky would fall.)
But I agree, we are supposed to do better.
That’s good enough for the top 20% , but what about the bottom 20%,
Admitting that there are differences would be a good starting point.
How about this? The government would create a standard “what our citizens are required to know”. This knowledge would be tested by organizations independent from schools. If you pass the test—if you get as many points as an average school student, who is also tested by an organization independent from their school, -- you don’t have to attend school. Also, you get educational credentials for passing the tests, regardless of school attendance.
Shortly, make homeschooling conditional on doing as good job as the school system on average.
This is not my whole plan to fix education, of course. Just the part that is easiest to explain and doesn’t require too much work (which arguably could go wrong). The other part would be creation of free and accessible educational materials (like this or this), to be used either at school or at home. My educational utopia would not have the school/homeschooling binary, but rather “knowledge” as the central concept, and various organizations that would help you achieve it in different ways, and of course you are allowed to try it on your own or create your own organization. (Some of those organizations might resemble the schools as we know them now. They just would be once concept among many, not privileged by law.)
For the record, the other side doesn’t make any better arguments. (And sometimes they go horribly insane, like when you are in the middle of a pandemic, where the #1 health recommendation is “avoid rooms with other people”, but some countries insist that kids must spend their days in a classroom, otherwise the sky would fall.)
But I agree, we are supposed to do better.
Admitting that there are differences would be a good starting point.
How about this? The government would create a standard “what our citizens are required to know”. This knowledge would be tested by organizations independent from schools. If you pass the test—if you get as many points as an average school student, who is also tested by an organization independent from their school, -- you don’t have to attend school. Also, you get educational credentials for passing the tests, regardless of school attendance.
Shortly, make homeschooling conditional on doing as good job as the school system on average.
This is not my whole plan to fix education, of course. Just the part that is easiest to explain and doesn’t require too much work (which arguably could go wrong). The other part would be creation of free and accessible educational materials (like this or this), to be used either at school or at home. My educational utopia would not have the school/homeschooling binary, but rather “knowledge” as the central concept, and various organizations that would help you achieve it in different ways, and of course you are allowed to try it on your own or create your own organization. (Some of those organizations might resemble the schools as we know them now. They just would be once concept among many, not privileged by law.)