Vitaliy wrote:

> Gerhard Fiedler wrote:
>> I don't know whether Vitaliy's idea would fly. Maybe so; I'd be
>> interested to check out a place where it has been practiced for fifty
>> years :) If so, it would create something similar to a good public
>> school system, and probably be better than the current mix in the USA.
> 
> Public schools are a relatively recent invention. Aristotle, Archimedes,
> Newton, and Einstein were all products of private schools. :)

Well, maybe... but you know, since you're bringing up Aristotle, I'm really
glad that has changed before my time. I'm no aristocrat, and I was
nevertheless able to attend a pretty good school :)

BTW, where are your references WRT Einstein? For all I know, he studied in
European public schools.

IMO public schools is what made the industrial revolution successful -- and
capitalism, FWIW. Is there any country with a certain degree of development
that achieved this without public schools?

>>> If student attitudes have become problematic, where do we see the
>>> origins of this?
>> 
>> I'm old enough to be susceptible to the "in my time things were better"
>> syndrome, so I don't really know whether some things have become more
>> problematic; the 60ies and 70ies had their share of problems :)
> 
> They did, but if I'm not mistaken, school schootings are a recent
> phenomenon. So is fifth graders having sex in the classroom: [...] It is
> my belief that the school system is directly responsible for the
> decline.

I disagree. I think this is mostly the product of an interaction between
parents, peers and the general environment; I don't see anything special
that the school would be contributing (other than contact with peers and
some with the general environment).

Gerhard

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