#1. There is overwhelming evidence that children are harmed in myriad ways by our dysfunctional schools. They do function as they exist as hierarchical and authoritarian institutions in turning out automatons. However, in terms of education or adequately serving their own stated purposes with respect to socialization, enculturation, growth and development, etc., they fail miserably as evidenced by tons of empirical studies and research. If you were serious and actually cared, you would have had something to say about all that or you would have delved into the literature which I have recommended numerous times. You have not followed up on a single reference or shown any awareness relative to what is actually happening in those prison-factory-schools. You are more interested in playing some ego game and proving something.

#2. As I have explained many times, the term “compulsory education” is an oxymoron and is highly obnoxious and offensive. Education cannot be forced. If something is learned under duress, that is indoctrination or information which is compromised and not integrated knowledge, since integration requires willful attention, intrinsic reward, personal initiative, interest, and a meaningful context.

#3. Students who attend “free schools” are not illiterate and are certainly not ignorant, while a large proportion of students under compulsion are illiterate, semi-literate, and disengaged. You assume incorrectly that students would not attend schools if there were no laws forcing attendance. THAT is ignorance. If students found schools hospitable and if schools were providing real services and were able to focus on what students need and want to learn about, without arbitrary authority, bureaucracy, and interference from outsiders pushing a conservative agenda, parents would stop hating schools and you wouldn’t be able to keep kids away. You simply do not have a clue.

#4. There is an entire universe of “alternative schools” and “alternative education”. The primary difference is that the student is self-directed and autonomous, the teachers are autonomous, and the parents are not treated as a nuisance and as incompetent to have a voice in their child’s school experience. The reason alternatives are sought is because the laws create conditions which are counterproductive and injurious to the spirit, the soul, and the intellect.

#5. As I repeat over and over: School is NOT education. Education happens in schools under certain conditions when the rules are suspended, or when teachers circumvent rules and students are exceptionally active because of their own initiatives and influences. Otherwise, schools often inhibit intellectual endeavors and discussion, and the environment/climate is repressive or oppressive, stifling, boring, and repetitive.

I waste my time with the vague hope that someone else will be watching. You obviously will still be demanding that I give you my magic formula and denying that coercion is inimical to education. You may be educated. But you know precious little about education. And, as you have stated, you do not care. BTW, textbooks are an abomination, regardless of who writes or publishes them. Students should have original materials and should be interacting with each other in studies of real-world questions, answers, and solutions to problems. Go fly a kite or find some other way to entertain yourself.