> The default model of civilization is that children are absent from life. There's nothing "default" about Civilization, which entailed intentional centralizat

> The default model of civilization is that children are absent from life. There's nothing "default" about Civilization, which entailed intentional centralization and creation of bureaucracy. We don't live in a society where 80% of people farm shitty land to survive, and no one of sound mind wants to turn back that dial. We're not bringing our kids to roam sheepishly around oil rigs, mines, labs, sales floors, whatever. I think everyone has an opinion on how education could improve, but there's no superior (or viable) substitute for it at scale. Notwithstanding, this isn't zero sum in the first place: parents can teach their kid at leisure, and they do. They expose them to their interests and their work, to some extent. And lastly, there's no such thing as "absent from life". Even if this is only meant to convey the idea that schooling shelters kids away from any and all interesting things in society, this is untrue (and by extension, it would suggest that you're "absent from life" if your shit job doesn't meet some arbitrary criteria, or otherwise that your shit job is "full of life" but school isn't).