[Catharsis.]

Originally Posted by Of Mike and Men

Actually, private schools have turned out very intelligent people. The problem is that ALL schools should be privatized and left up to the decisions of parents and their kids. Some politician doesn't know what's good for Jim, John, Jack, or Susie. But I bet those kids and their parents have a better idea than someone who just steals their money and calls it "tax" to make theft legal. Privatized education would encourage children to become entrepreneurs, and not be make them into squares who can only fill a bubble on some sheet for an answer that a teacher indoctrinated into them.

Plot twist: I attend a public school which has produced numerous entrepreneurs. A compulsory student enterprise project takes place in one grade, the same project is offered by the vast majority of public schools in the country and sponsored by the local enterprise board of each city or county. Business and entrepreneurship subjects are compulsory up until the grade I'm currently in, where they're still offered and uptake levels are amongst the highest.

I personally feel widespread public education has been my country's most successful social advancement of the last century, and not just for allowing all us ordinary kids to be educated. The truth is, our educational system, while far from perfect, allows schools a certain amount of freedom which is quite beneficial for the standard of education received by students. As well as allowing freedom, our education is pragmatic, for the most part, encouraging personal development. Our standardised examinations don't consist of filling in boxes, because that's not much of an education, like you've rightly portrayed. I know people who attend a private school around the corner from my own school, their curriculum is essentially the same as ours. Parents send their kids there either because they feel the standard of education is better, or, more likely, because Heaven forbid upper-middle class children attend the same public school as your normal Joe Sixpack's child.

In short...does education need an overhaul? Hell, yes, it does. Is privatisation the answer? I don't think so. I feel the education I have received in my public school is as good as it would have been if Dad earned three times the wage he does and I ended up going to a private school. I've learned to think for myself, which seems to be the key skill you're trying not to blatantly refer to. Part of my school's ethos, a public school, is to develop the student's capability to do so. Public education is great, when it's well-executed. After all, I'm sure not every anti-establishment knobhead was privately educated, I happen to sit next to one in my Maths class at Ballygobackwards Community Comprehensive.