American Schooling System, Is it effective? Options

[ersatz]

in dumbing us down: the hidden curriculum of compulsory schooling, john taylor gatto presents the seven-lesson system that american public schools teach children: confusion, class position, indifference, emotional dependency, intellectual dependency, provisional self-esteem, and that one cannot hide. our school system enters children into a system that breeds fear of curiosity, short attention spans, fear of authority, and drowns out any individuality and eagerness for learning that we innately have and would have if we were put to our own resources.

what is the american school system attempting to achieve with the compulsory schooling & curriculum that we currently have? does it work? is this truly education? what can we do to fix it?

our country had higher rates of literacy before compulsory schooling was in place. people learned to read and write and count, on their own terms, when they needed to, for their own reasons. individuals had intellectual curiosity and if they didn't necessarily, they learned a trade and were happy that way without being discouraged and graded on their merits in subjects that didn't apply to them. people learned to do things for themselves; the thinkers were the thinkers and the doers were the doers. the american school system does not breed great thinkers; we are one of the most intellectually devoid countries in the world while at the same time claiming to be the most prosperous. does that strike anyone as odd?

[sixfive]

I learned that if I get poor the government will take care of me, why should I try?