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Originally Posted by Dante Hicks
I agree with your overall point but the education system doesn't operate in a vacuum. Even if you improved the education system massively I still think that society in general would be have a continuous disruptive effect on children's upbringing.
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I agree it's not the sole variable in the equation, but it's the most powerful and affects all the others significantly. To paint a nightmare scenario where the kid doesn't get along with his parents, steals, bullies, constantly misses classes, watches his parents sit at home watching big brother all day I only see one way out for him: to become engulfed in education. I don't see his social setting helping him or pulling him out of his emotional false economy.
I'd say it's wrong to force people to, for example, watch BBC 4 and UK History instead of what they want to watch (mindless violence, jade goody, etc). But I'd also say solely watching those kind of programs is detrimental to society. The only thing I would say the state has a right to force upon people is a decent education (more specifically the ability to read, write and calculate to differentiate from using the education system as a euphemism for disseminating propaganda). And when the kid has a decent education I hypothesise he'll be able to work out his life resolves around an emotional false economy and that his parents' life and social setting perhaps isn't what he should be aiming at. He'll also probably realise that there's more to watch than Jade Goody and mindless violence.
I'd also like to point out all the countries that are at the top of that list are social democratic countries and the ones at the bottom are mainly capitalist.
I always remember some free market economist canting about letting the entrepreneurial spirit akin to basic animal instincts reign free as those animal instincts reign free in the wild. But in the wild animals don't educate or look after each other; they kill each other.