The School Survival Movement: Abolish Compulsory Schooling

[James Comey]

Holy. Shit. I'm sorry, but I leave the site for about a month, and this happens?

I'm going to make some arguments about why School Survival should not focus on the immediate abolishment of compulsory factory model education.

One thing we need to ask ourselves is this: if we're going to overthrow the system, what are we going to replace it with, anyway? See, this is the question that has alluded most rebels for a long time. Yeah, this question has been successfully answered (the Declaration of Independence and later the Articles of Confederation, and later the Constitution, after the American Revolution, for example), but more often than not it hasn't (look at Libya, Egypt, post-Revolutionary France, etc for examples on what happens when you overthrow the system and you don't know what to replace it with). Imagine if we succeed in abolishing compulsory education. The question would be: what next?

Second, the abolishment of compulsory education is an incredibly unpopular viewpoint. Whether among adults, teachers, or students, it's not a popular viewpoint. Actually, I did a survey recently at my high school for government class. I asked many students whether they'd still go to high school if it weren't mandatory. Guess what? Most answered they'd still go! (I'll compile the data later and post) Why go for a radical goal immediately? Instead of appeasing to a small number, why not appeal to a much more universal audience?

Third, what I think SirMarty, DoA, and Soul don't see here, as passionate as their arguments are, they don't think of other people and their experience of school. They think that, because they suffered so much, their viewpoint is universal. No, it simply isn't. SirMarty, I mean not to insult, but please, take a step back, and stop thinking your the poster-boy for School Survival or something like that. In reality, the School Survivor peasantry is a lot larger and has far more diverse viewpoints that the ones you describe (these are the same arguments we had back about the whole "no advice or criticism" bullshit back in July that we went batshit insane about). I hate school, but that doesn't mean I never had positive experiences in school, and there are some parts of school that I'm glad to have gone through. I'm not saying to look at school in a different light, but I do encourage you to listen to the different viewpoints that will be presented.

Fourth, we need to focus on practical goals. Campaigning for the abolishment of compulsory education is a goal that is way far off (the most we could get to ever in my opinion would be possible exemptions for high school). Practical goals include more independent student unions as well as student clubs, actually effective student political bodies, more practical use of technology in school, more individualism in education (didn't Vermont make a law that made plans similar to IEPs mandatory for all students, regardless of anything? We could push for that), as well as a reduction in all the goddamn testing. Progress is slow and steady. Realize that.