Sometimes it strikes me as really really immoral that schools exist. They seem like an almost universally terrible experience, though I suppose that might be biased by who I discuss things with.
I don’t really see why more people haven’t tried something different, especially considering how painful the entire thing is. You’d think that the Elite would at least realize that school sucked.
Maybe it’s a way for them to control their children, though.
it’s free childcare
I don’t think so, though- there are easier ways to get free childcare. It’s probably aimed at edifying the children and preparing them for adulthood.
It is often not-great at that. This is quite possibly an organizational problem, in that it’s very hard to control and also educate a large number of people who often have a bad grasp of their own preferences and long-term needs.
What it probably comes down to is that a standardized set of Stuff to Learn and ways to judge that is far easier and more coherent to measure and encourage. In general people want to make sure that schools are Actually Working to educate children, and standardization gives them a good measure.
(To be clear, it is perfectly reasonable to want schools to Actually Work and I myself would like, in theory, to ensure that schools Actually Work. It is just the implementation that is often botched.)
It is way harder, less reliable, and probably leads to more upset or worried parents to set up a non-railroady, truly open-ended experience. It might also have not-that-many appreciable benefits, except to a few students.
School is probably also in some sense a competition for positional goods and status. If your kid doesn’t go to school, then they’ll lose out! If they don’t get into this school they will be a loser forever. I suppose that part of this is also tradition/family based.
(I’ll address other responses later today.)
Please keep in mind that the supply of high-IQ individuals to run both our nation’s institutions and industries is very limited.