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So yeah, I want to hate compulsory education, but I can't figure what a good alternative would look like. After primary school, around 12-13yo, boys should have the option of choosing an apprenticeship type route. They would spend most of their time with beginners' chores in a fire station or on a farm or with plumbing or electrical companies or whatever. It's only a minority of boys that are suited to the full-time schooling of the sort that is compulsory today. Most boys would be far better, thrive in fact, if they were able to, in the traditional way, join a male group and start being actively involved. This could be combined with continuing formal education. Basically, move the apprenticeship model back to the start of adolescence where it belongs. It wouldn't be that hard to come up with a suitable model. But we would need to get over our terror of letting boys mix with men. Back in the 90s, I remember a few docos on "problem" boys. Boys around 11yo, usually in single-mother households, who were becoming pyromaniacs or otherwise behaviorally out of control. They started a program of making these boys spend their days in a local fire station, being given jobs to do, having to straighten up and fly right. And it worked. At least in the cases they were showing us. I remember being struck by what a positive development this was. It was obvious that these boys spending their time in the company of men was what did the trick. Disappeared in the ensuing woke tsunami of course. The current declining performance of boys in our education system is a sign that the goal is not equality of outcome. Some kids, it turns out, are more equal than others. |