Tell me again that we don't live in a police state....

[kayjayuu.livejournal.com]

President Obama has called upon the states to increase the mandatory school attendance age to 18 or graduation, across the board. Joy.

Leaving aside those kids who do better outside of a traditional classroom; or those who benefit from more focused education but can't get into magnet schools; or those who sadly opt out by suicide because of bullying; or those who cause behavioral disruptions for the students who want to be there; or the sexual assaults, drugs, and criminal activities that run rampant in some areas; or the massive amounts of infrastructure upgrades and repairs to the physical plants; or those who literally find better things to do with their time (the short list) than snooze through homeroom... here's another solution in search of a problem that parents nationwide would have to deal with for an additional couple of years:

Mom handcuffed for tardy kids

Here in Loudoun, VA, I am a the mother of three little girls at an elementary school who was just ARRESTED for getting my girls late to school. After the fifth offense there was a meeting with a truant officer. We were late twice since then, which resulted in the surprise of three officers showing up on this Sat night ( 1.21.2012), where I was literally handcuffed and brought to the Adult Detention Center to meet with the magistrate who chose to release me with a $3,000 bond promised to be paid if I fail to show up for the arraignment in a few days.

Apparently it's not just the kids we need to worry about.

My take: I'm an unschooling parent who was a tow-the-line straight A student in high school. I'm extremely proud that we followed an alternate path with our now-grown son, because I've seen that not everyone is meant for the standard educational experience. While I think there should be some accountability for parents who simply don't give a damn about their kids, what we see more and more are zero-tolerance policies for everything except what actually works for the individual child. I believe that our schools are more like prisons, designed to keep people in when they may want out. Common sense is dead.

And I loved school. Now I know I really loved learning. Whole 'nother ballgame.

ETA Jan 27: I'll just drop this here, then. It's official. Mother Arrested in Apparent Truancy Case

Comments

[dzlk.livejournal.com]

"And I will point out, as is constantly pointed out to me, that 'anecdata' does not make an argument around here."
I was giving a counterexample to your generalization about what "we" do. When the claim is "x are y" and the counterclaim is "no, not all x are y", even one x that isn't y is sufficient to demonstrate the counterclaim.

"It worked for him"
Really? Not "it seems to have worked", not "we think it was the right way to go, for reasons x, y, z", just ... "it worked"? Yeah, this is that profound dishonesty I alluded to earlier.

Firstly, you don't know that.

Plenty of people who start out happy with their early education come to realize that it was flawed in important ways. It's not at all unusual for that realization to come relatively late in life, once they've experienced enough to run up against their shortcomings consistently enough to draw some conclusions. A young adult just starting out is in no position to judge whether their education prepared them adequately because it hasn't been tested yet. Give it fifteen or twenty years, we'll see. Maybe time will show your choice to have been the right one. I'm not disputing that possibility at all. I hope it does.

But, second and more important point: That's not your call to make. It's his. He may not be in a position to pass that judgement right now, but he's the only one who ever will be. I'm not. You aren't. Not now, not ever.