A lot of interesting analysis has been coming out recently about the problematic education system, and it’s not just on obvious longstanding issues such as lack of funding and overcrowded classrooms. Peter Gray of Salon.com wrote in his article “School is a Prison – and damaging our kids”:

Parents send their children to school with the best of intentions, believing that’s what they need to become productive and happy adults. Many have qualms about how well schools are performing, but the conventional wisdom is that these issues can be resolved with more money, better teachers, more challenging curricula and/or more rigorous tests.

But what if the real problem is school itself? The unfortunate fact is that one of our most cherished institutions is, by its very nature, failing our children and our society.

School is a place where children are compelled to be, and where their freedom is greatly restricted — far more restricted than most adults would tolerate in their workplaces. In recent decades, we have been compelling our children to spend ever more time in this kind of setting, and there is strong evidence (summarized in my recent book) that this is causing serious psychological damage to many of them. Moreover, the more scientists have learned about how children naturally learn, the more we have come to realize that children learn most deeply and fully, and with greatest enthusiasm, in conditions that are almost opposite to those of school.

Read the full article here: http://www.salon.com/2013/08/26/school_is_a_prison_and_damaging_our_kids/

David L. Kirp of Slate.com writes about three new books which pick apart arguments for charter schools and vouchers in his article: The Wrong Kind of Education Reform

Today at Truthout there’s an op-ed by Marion Brady which critiques the Common Core State Standards program: http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/18638-a-quiz-on-americas-core-curriculum

Jan Irvin and Clint Richardson discuss Common Core in great detail in this lengthy but well-researched conversation at Gnostic Media:

mp3 link: http://www.gnosticmedia.com/podcast/GnosticMedia_PC_173_ClintRichardson_pt8_CommonCOREeducation_md.mp3

For more great information about the history and problems of compulsory education, check out John Taylor Gatto’s site: http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/

From the BBC series “Monkey Dust” (NSFW):