[extropy-chat] Game theory of common cold

[Mike Lorrey]

--- Anders Sandberg <asa at nada.kth.se> wrote:
> söndagen den 18 januari 2004 15.53 wrote Mike Lorrey:
> > What would be the public health benefits of universal home
> > schooling? How many adult work
> > days would be saved (i.e. increasing economic productivity) by
> > universal home schooling?
> 
> How does homschooling really work? We do not have it here in Sweden,
> so I have no intuition of its effect on my model. In particular,
> does parents stay at home teaching (full time or partial time)?
> How large are the economic savings? 

Actually, David Lubkin is probably the best reference on this list for
these questions, as he homeschooled his daughter (as a single dad,
too). From people I've talked to, home schooling takes far less of the
day than children spend in school. Most school time is babysitting and
horsing around.

Parents who homeschool their kids either run a one earner family, or
the primary educator works full or part time in the evening when the
other parent is home. Single parents who homeschool typically either
work out of the home (as David does), or work full time and manage to
teach their kids to self-study.

Given the broad variability in family structures, attaining universal
homeschooling may not be practical (especially given the feminist
pressure to have a career that many women feel). As an solution for
those who cannot or will not homeschool, I'd suggest that monolithic
schools serving whole towns or regions be broken up and a return to the
one room schoolhouse be sought. This would concentrate kids in the same
neighborhood only and separate them from other neighborhoods. Kids in
the same neighborhood would likely be playmates out of school (and thus
act as a vector anyways).

I also think that the primary beneficiaries, health-wise and
economically, of the reduction in disease spreading, would be those who
need it most: young families who can generally not afford many sick
days off for the wage earners. I know many young parents who say
they've never gotten as many colds in their lives as they did when
their kids started going to school.

=====
Mike Lorrey
"Live Free or Die, Death is not the Worst of Evils."
                                       - Gen. John Stark
"Fascists are objectively pro-pacifist..."
                                       - Mike Lorrey
Do not label me, I am an ism of one...
Sado-Mikeyism: http://mikeysoft.zblogger.com

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