Why Is School Compulsory?

“A right to free speech does not mean that authorities have the right to force people to use their right to free speech. Somehow, the “right to an education” has been misconstrued into the obligation of authorities to force people to utilize that right.” * Compulsory education

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The Why Is School Compulsory? by David Crossland, except the quotations and unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.
March 2, 2008 |

Comments

3 Responses to “Why Is School Compulsory?”

  1. Brook Elgie on March 2nd, 2008 18:13

    School isn’t compulsory (at least, in the UK). Though there is an obligation for parents to take responsible for their children’s education, “either by regular attendance at school or otherwise.”

  2. Dan Reynolds on March 2nd, 2008 18:19

    Actually, I think that full civil rights and protections do not always apply to minors. Especially to young minors. Every country seems to vascilate as to when a child is an adult… even in some countries where the legal age of adulthood is 18, children of slightly younger ages may be considered adults for criminal procescution, military draft in wartime, etc.

    But I think that most countries would clearly always see 6–13 year-olds as children. And these children do not necessarialy have full legal rights. Therefore, they may be forced to go to school even if a court were to rule that you cannot forcefeed children with ideas found appropriate by the state. Although I cannot see a court realistically coming to such a conclusion anyway.

    The purpose of state-backed education, btw, is not to expand children’s minds or make them love learning, but rather to build them into the state wants its citizens or subjects to be. Some states want to instill learning in the minds of their children, and some do not. In a democracy or a republic, one purpose of education is to give future citizens the knowledge that is deemed they should have in order to vote. Also, at least in many societies, job training is a key part of childhood education. Buisnesses in these countries tend to appreciate that. It saves them time and money. And they pay taxes that support education…

  3. David Crossland on May 17th, 2008 13:34

    Brook, thanks for pointing out the Education Otherwise website :-)

    Dan, I’m glad to hear we agree about the purpose of state schooling.

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