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I agree...at least in the US you have the option to pull your kids out of school and (theoretically) homeschool them. In Germany, if you tried that, you end up

I agree...at least in the US you have the option to pull your kids out of school and (theoretically) homeschool them. In Germany, if you tried that, you end up in prison and your kids in foster care. There the control over them by the state is complete. I grew up in Austria. We went to school also on Saturdays for a few hours - however the rest of the week we came home at 2pm. The rest of the day was spent outside, playing with others, roaming through forests, completely unsupervised (late 80s, early 90s). I cannot imagine seeing my kids forced to a desk the entire day with what little free time is left over spent in a highly addictive computer game. But as an adult, in a society that considers the new norm 'normal', it's not easy to give your kids more freedom.

prodmerc 10y ago
Yeah, that's just fucking ridiculous. http://www.independent.ie/world-news/europe/britain/father-loses-supreme-court-battle-over-taking-daughter-to-disney-world-during-termtime-35599228.html http://www.independent.ie/world-news/europe/britain/father-l... Fucking penalties and strict government mandates for school attendance/absence? Jesus Christ...
mschuster91 10y ago
On the other hand, forced public schools provide three very important advantages: 1) kids don't fall into religious sect schools as easily as in the US, e.g. the Amish - thereby the state ensures that kids have an experience outside a tightly controlled environment, as well as exposure to stuff like sex ed (which is apparently neither compulsory nor scientifically accurate in some US places). 2) it protects children from abuse going unnoticed (again, religious sects come to my mind, but also "ordinary" home abuse). Simply said, if a teacher notices that a student comes to class every other day looking badly beaten or complains being sexually abused at home, the teacher can inform police. In a homeschooling environment, this protection cannot be provided at all, because parents can literally prevent anybody else from ever seeing the kid. 3) it ensures at least some form of quality of teaching. In Germany there are some exceptions to the mandatory public school system, and these have been fraught with scandals ranging from fake degrees of the teachers to outright corporeal punishments of pupils instead of providing an alternative to public schools (and mostly been shut down). That said, our public school system is not perfect either - it's not inclusive to students with disabilities, the curriculums are biased towards economical, not societal, needs, it does not provide students with adequate time, place and resources for actual free play, and it selects pupils into the three different high-school tracks way too early. But it's way better than the alternative, whose downsides appear regularly in HN submissions and comments.

prodmerc 10y ago

Yeah, that's just fucking ridiculous. http://www.independent.ie/world-news/europe/britain/father-loses-supreme-court-battle-over-taking-daughter-to-disney-world-during-termtime-35599228.html http://www.independent.ie/world-news/europe/britain/father-l... Fucking penalties and strict government mandates for school attendance/absence? Jesus Christ...

mschuster91 10y ago

On the other hand, forced public schools provide three very important advantages: 1) kids don't fall into religious sect schools as easily as in the US, e.g. the Amish - thereby the state ensures that kids have an experience outside a tightly controlled environment, as well as exposure to stuff like sex ed (which is apparently neither compulsory nor scientifically accurate in some US places). 2) it protects children from abuse going unnoticed (again, religious sects come to my mind, but also "ordinary" home abuse). Simply said, if a teacher notices that a student comes to class every other day looking badly beaten or complains being sexually abused at home, the teacher can inform police. In a homeschooling environment, this protection cannot be provided at all, because parents can literally prevent anybody else from ever seeing the kid. 3) it ensures at least some form of quality of teaching. In Germany there are some exceptions to the mandatory public school system, and these have been fraught with scandals ranging from fake degrees of the teachers to outright corporeal punishments of pupils instead of providing an alternative to public schools (and mostly been shut down). That said, our public school system is not perfect either - it's not inclusive to students with disabilities, the curriculums are biased towards economical, not societal, needs, it does not provide students with adequate time, place and resources for actual free play, and it selects pupils into the three different high-school tracks way too early. But it's way better than the alternative, whose downsides appear regularly in HN submissions and comments.