Nobody kept their kids home for 18 or 20 years just discussing life with them, hanging out, playing games.
We probably wouldn't be either, if it weren't that we're biding time until the clock runs out on compulsory education.
photo by Sandra Dodd
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Friday, September 11, 2015
Just discussing life, hanging out...
Nobody kept their kids home for 18 or 20 years just discussing life with them, hanging out, playing games.
We probably wouldn't be either, if it weren't that we're biding time until the clock runs out on compulsory education.
photo by Sandra Dodd
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"Compulsory education" is an archaic term I used out of habit. Due to lawsuits in late 20th century America, many states quietly changed the term to "compulsory attendance."
ReplyDeleteThe lawsuits came because some kids in the U.S. were high school graduates, but they couldn't read or write or do math (one or two or both) and the parents got angry at the schools for having kept them in there without providing that "compulsory education." So the terminology toggled over to make the law say that it was compulsory that the children attend (children and teens, because in that same time the drop-out age went from 15 incrementally up to 17 and 18 in many places).
Ta-daa!!! No more obligation for the state to provide education, just for the parents to press the students to attend.
Sorry for the political historical commentary, but "compulsory education" jumped out at me as a sort of error—an anachronism. :-)