Childhood Ends at Puberty

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Sat, 15 Apr 2006 09:31:18 GMT  <== Politics ==> 

Charley Reese at LewRockwell.com - why most kids should leave school at puberty and start working. And how the end of compulsory education would improve the schools. [lew]

Franklin's IQ might have been high, but his experiences were the norm in his time. Childhood ended with puberty, and young men and women were expected to get about the business of life instead of trying to amuse themselves until the age of 18. We would have far less juvenile crime and teen pregnancy if we treated young people as young adults instead of as children. Boredom is the devil's workshop, and I can't think of anything more boring that an American public school.

Add comment Edit post Add post

Comments (1):

Colleges are even worse!

Submitted by Carey Head on Wed, 19 Apr 2006 11:35:37 GMT

I was lucky in that I ended up at a very small, private, liberal arts college where I finally learned the things I should have been taught in primary school: how to communicate, reason, and research.

That our secondary schools aren't teaching these three building blocks of success is pretty well acknowledged. But what is amazing to me is how few college graduates have them.

As a project manager for an I.T. Department, I have to interface with technical and non-technical employees in my company, and for most of them, what they haven't learned OTJ, they don't know at all.

Dismantling the public educational system is a just and desirable goal, but I think that we should start with the college/university system, and the idea that every child deserves a college education.

Edit comment