Do You Think School Should Not Be Mandatory/Compulsory?

[EpicEnergy 23,259]

I'm curious who here supports mandatory education and who doesn't.

Also, what grades of school do you think should be mandatory, if any?

[Early Sunsets 2,112]

I think education up to adulthood should be mandatory, but the current education system we've got is largely pointless. Learning about taxes, the government, basic history, basic math, English, physical and mental health, life skills, etc.? That stuff is important for everyone. At least half of the junk required in school isn't.

There should really only be a few required core classes each year that prepare you for the world, with the rest being exploratory so you know what career you want once they let you loose into the world. Basically like college, except you're not locked into a specific department. You want to take a welding class, a law class, a woodworking class, and a web design class in the same year? Go for it. That would be more helpful than teaching every high schooler trig.

Edited May 4, 2021 by Early Sunsets

[Tom Gallagher 33,650]

School is the reason why I felt so depressed last year so I’ll be more than happy to see it dropped. 

[Northern Star 1,025]

Nice phrasing of that first question. 

Anyways I look at my grandparents: they went on and off(farm work) up to 8th grade and did fine, some very well in life. 

Now if it actually taught you about life, I would say yes make it mandatory, but anything I've been taught there...hasn't really helped.

Yes there are thing all should know, but they clearly do not teach them well today. Then it seemed to me that once you hit college you had to start over at 9th grade again, no matter your scores and grades. Then after you take those generals and crap then you can actually take what you're interested in...starting at the "explain it to a 2 year old" level. Then again that can be the US's lovely system. 

[Evil Pink One 13,557]

Please understand that school is not mandatory at all..... Good luck finding a job though....

[Lucky Bolt 35,271]

I believe only the very early grades should be mandatory. 

[Dreambiscuit 12,666]

No it should not be mandatory, at any grade. Apparently the prevailing consensus is that a lack of schooling will result in ignorant people who will grow up and become dependent on public support. This is absurd, assumes all people are incapable and overrates the benefits of public schooling, which is increasingly responsible for doing far more harm than good to its students. Basics like reading, writing and arithmetic are necessary and should be taught by the parents. I don’t care who says parents are too busy because that’s part of what parenting is about; teaching and preparing children to be self-sufficient. Schools waste too much time throttling kids with useless subjects that they’ll never use in real life. Even students with good grades will forget unused information anyway, rendering countless hours of cramming just to pass final exams essentially pointless.

College should be about learning the special skills applied to areas of interest chosen by the student to apply toward a career, and shouldn’t be bogged down by added courses required and dictated by colleges to make more money. The girl who cuts my hair said she took a hairdressing course but was further required to take a psychology course so she could handle ‘chatting to her clients’ while styling their hair! That’s just gouging for money on the part of the college. If there’s any concern about ‘ignorant’ people becoming a liability to society, then education, including college, should be free or at least a matter of strictly elective subjects. From there it’s up to any prospective employer to decide whether a person is qualified at their chosen career path.

When a person isn’t forced to cram for tests, simultaneously study so many subjects that they can’t retain any of them and even spend additional hours with homework, their minds open up and become very receptive to information. By nature, human beings want to learn; it’s enjoyable and addictive. It doesn’t have to be difficult and most times we’re learning when we don’t even realize it. If schools weren’t forced on people by law, there would be a lot more intelligent people, able to think and reason logically on their own, rather than the indoctrinated mass of emotionally beaten people churned out by the system today. School as a template for teaching en masse has never been effective and becomes even worse with every generation. The average IQ has been declining with each decade steadily since the mid ‘70s and stands as a testament to the fact that school isn’t preventing liabilities to society but creating them.

[ExplosionMare 28,976]

I think that giant tests at least should not be mandatory. They cause way too much unnecessary stress. If you wanna test someone’s knowledge, have them apply it to something real (like if they read a book, have them discuss it in their own words).

[DixonTheAdversary 1,638]

I believe schooling should be mandatory, at least up until Middle School. If you struggle through Elementary and Middle school, then High School isn't gonna be any easier for you.

[DubWolf 20,694]

Lol it will never change though.

Privatize it all, and make kids want to go to school by making it more engaging and practical.

I'm personally already kinda baffled by the fact that even in college you still have to take courses like history or some other social studies courses (albeit these were the most fun for me in college but that doesn't matter), when you've already taken about.... 12 years of it in high school. Wasn't it enough to learn it in high school? Was that not enough? Shouldn't college be trimmed down so that all courses you take are directly related to your profession you wish to excel in and you don't spend so much money on it? I digress.

Oof, gotta go  .

[The Kaeya Simp 13,999]

I don't believe that anything should be manditory

however, i don't believe that you'll have much luck when it comes to finding jobs, especially in this modern society

[Kyoshi Frost Wolf 42,208]

If school didn't feel like it was grooming kids to be cogs in a machine, I would see some kind of point in it being mandatory, but at least in the US, school is basically a factory that slowly builds workers to supplement those at the top.

I've learned more on my own time online in the past decade than I ever did from school. Sure school taught me the bare minimum basics but never did I have an opportunities to do anything that matters or have any real motivation. Being forced to spend 7-8 hours of my day on mind numbing sludge never was a motivation for me to "learn". I think that it either shouldn't be mandatory or make school days much shorter and more focused. 

[Fluttershutter 3,671]

I'm not into compulsion. If it weren't mandatory almost all parents would choose to send their kids to school anyway. I'd say not giving them SOME kind of education is tantamount to child abuse.

It would be much better if schools weren't government run kid processing centers and people had more options to learn about their interests in ways that were easier for them.

And then there's college.  People don't need four five years of extra classroom time to be qualified to be trained for some desk job but the business world has been convinced they do.

[Vefka 1,504]

Elementary school is considered fundamental for a reason. Middle/high school is preparing students for unis/colleges, etc, so I think it should be half-mandatory. Ability to choose what subjects to study in depth is needed

Seeing people from my parallel in-depth humanitarian class struggling with basica of math analysis is funny, but do they really need it? Will they ever use this knowledge in life?

[Fluttershyfan94 5,749]

Education is important, should it be mandatory I believe that it should be at least elementary. Though any type of brainwashing that happens in public schools should be illegal. Higher levels of education should not be mandatory. While I believe in the importance of education, I dislike the goverments involvement in it. Many times during my times of studying I've felt the true intention is to influence people to think certain ways essentially brainwashing them. There is not much desire for critical thinking, however critical thinking is a sign of high intelligence so to not reward that isn't that strange to anyone really. 

If schools cared more about teaching, education and using actual methods of research opposed to just buying everything at face value as they expect people to do then education wouldn't have to be mandatory as everyone would want to study.

Edited May 6, 2021 by Fluttershyfan94

[Never Returning 28,617]

I think education should be mandatory, but there should be far less required classes, especially in high school. The majority of classes should be electives tailored to the individual student's interests and future plans. If that were the case, I think the teens and young adults of today would be more motivated and less burned out.

I also think the current school system lasts a year longer than it needs to. By the end of 11th grade, you've already taken all of the main required courses, and it's kind of ridiculous to be a legal adult and still required to be in high school. Of course, maybe that's influenced by the fact that 12th grade for me was ruined by the pandemic, but I still think my point stands.

[Never Returning 28,617]

Another thing: I think classes should be based more around projects, not tests. That way, students are encouraged to apply the information they learn, instead of just regurgitating it and forgetting it immediately after.

[Sunset Rose 254]

Schooling should indeed be mandatory and mandatory until adulthood as it is now, but I believe there's a lot in the average curriculum that can be radically overhauled. Much of what is taught is fine, (with some historical inaccuracies, particular in elementary school kids, needing a beating with the truth stick in almost every country...) but how it's taught needs a closer look as each kid grows. Nobody learns the same way, and I feel like so many kids end up with poor grades and no self-confidence because nobody teaching them can take the time to figure out how to reach them. It's not always the teacher's fault- in fact I'd say in my experience it hardly ever is. Most of them want their lessons to sink in but don't have the tools or the time to make it happen.

Anyway, I do think that while it's most important for schooling to be a part of a person's life in their most formative years, I also think formative is, at least in some part, a relative term to any time before that person becomes an adult. I do feel like learning must be more dynamic and also a student's desires should be more of a factor when they're in their later teens but to not be learning at least something in the prime time of your life for learning is just self-destructive intellectual sabotage in my opinion.

[Twilight Sparkle97 405]

No. I think school should be mandatory. Children need to learn as much as they can until they are able to graduate at age 18 - 20. School is important. Why would anyone want to quit school and not earn a high school diploma? My mom for example was that kind of person. 

[Stardust 647]

I think kids need to have attend or have some form of education yeah at least in the younger years, what it is could be up to debate, but they should also be allowed to take breaks or skip lessons if they need to. 

[Luna the Great of all the Russias 3,224]

It should not be mandatory. The child's education is to be solely the responsibility of the parents.

If one is to say "everyone ought to be educated", what does that mean? Does that mean everyone ought to learn in whatever way possible or is it assuming that everyone is born an academic? What if child labour is a far more beneficial form of education than sitting at a desk for hours for some people?

Making education mandatory ensures that there is a guaranteed customer base for entities providing education as a service. It is even worse if government education exists as their guaranteed income from taxation weakens any incentive to improve academic performances. This is particularly bad when the teachers primarily serve the interests of the education system bureaucracy rather than the students themselves (i.e. the customers). It is through the bureaucracy where schools become less about education and more about indoctrination. The core of education ought to be to teach students how to learn instead of having them become political pawns who repeat slogans they do not understand of this or that special interest group capable of influencing the education system.

As well, people here have posted about what they think would be ideal or at least improvements to the education system for everyone learns differently. But we do not know which of these methods would actually be the best. Best to put all of these hypothetical changes to the test through the market; the most profitable education firm wins.

Abolish government education.

[Courageous Thunder Dash 7,828]

Education must be mandatory. However, what is learned should be catered towards the skills that people want to have versus something that could probably become useless in college. Starting from middle school, there should be a choice of what classes students could take, which then teaches them about choosing what to major in for college. 

[SparklingSwirls 21,609]

I think the whole thing should be mandatory, up through high school or at least 10th grade, but students should have more options to study what interests them starting at a younger age like in middle school.

As for college degree requirements, I think there’s some weight to the idea that students should be well-rounded, but outside of maybe a mandatory writing class how about only charging students for their degree-related courses.