EP 316 Should Compulsory Schooling Be Abolished?

  Did you feel imprisoned as a student in K-12?  Was the experience one that caused you harm and that you would like to see your child avoid?  Cevin Soling, the l’enfant terrible of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, who writes and directs films about this topic, has a very dark vision of what the stringent, conforming aspects of public schools does to the psychology of the child.  While I admit that some children are constrained and abused in the system, and their unique learning styles ignored, my questions to him focused a good deal on practical alternatives. After all, this is an advanced a society that requires learning and certification in a formal process in order to go on to the next step in life. We explore a range of topics including my assertion that these institutions act as stabilizers for families and communities where structure and order are in little supply.  It’s a very provocative topic and our exchanges are healthy and challenging.  It will get you to think about whether schools, which clearly are failing by many measures, can be improved or is there any conceivable way to abolish them altogether.  Then what?

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