Fw: [extropy-chat] Re: Public Schools

[Olga Bourlin]

From: "Technotranscendence" <neptune at superlink.net>

> I have never met a homeschooled individual who wasn't a success, though
> I admit that I've only met a few.

And what do you mean by "success?"  A happy person?  A rich person?  A
professional person?  A compassionate person?  A creative person?  A
responsible person?  A person who grows up to be a "home-schooler" (in which
case, who gets to pay for that person to be able to stay home)?  A person
who grows up to be a critical thinker (in which case, all those religious
home schoolers are not doing their job, tsk, tsk ...)?

I'm curious - since you brought it up, Dan - what, in your view, is a
"successful" person?

> > My point was that the public school system
> > must be there as an option as well since
> > there are many who either can't or won;t
> > home-school.
>
> So the only choice for you is homeschool or send them to public school?
> What about private schools or no schooling?

No schooling?  Would this one of the libertarian solutions for humankind?
*No schooling?*  Wow, are libertarians typically (1) childless? or do they
(2) stay home from work to watch over their unschooled children? ... and
party like it's 1955? ... no, no, no - make that 1655, as public schools of
sorts go back a long way in our history:
http://www.goodschoolspa.org/students/index.cfm?fuseaction=history)

> Wrong.  How did people learn these things before public education?  They
> learned them because there was an incentive for it.  In a modern economy
> with the need for these skills, I reckon the incentive will even be
> stronger to acquire these skills.  I've known illegal aliens who acquite
> English skills and the like for similar reasons.

A lot of people didn't learn.  Some people were *not allowed* to learn.

> Get rid of it and then> there will be no option to live off the
productive.

Live off the productive? People exhibit an array of predispositions.  Some
people are dynamic - some people are passive.  Not all people turn out to be
 "productive" (whatever that means).  What do you propose to do with
"unproductive" people?  People - for whatever complicated reasons - are
*not* all alike, but all people need a few basic things to be able to
survive and thrive.  Can libertarians deal with this fact?  How *do*
libertarians deal with this fact?

>  In truth, though, if you allow people to voluntarily> interact, they
generally will improve their lot.

Really?  I haven't seen much evidence of that in recent U.S. history.  And
Martin Luther King's words (from his 1963 Letter From Birmingham Jail) still
ring true today:

"Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor, it must be demanded by
the oppressed."

Remember, libertarians did not improve their ... or anyone else's - "lot"
during the civil rights era.

I would like to believe:  "if you allow people to voluntarily interact, they
generally will improve their lot," but would like to see evidence of this.

Olga