Re: Not really

You should check John Taylor Gatto's "The Underground History of American Education", available free online, for the truth behind schools, and why the people of Massachusetts rioted when compulsory schooling was forced upon them. The militia was brought in to enforce attendance.

I'm already familiar with Gatto's work, and that people may have rioted against mandatory schooling initially proves neither that schooling is inherently bad nor that people rioted for the reasons those here object to schooling. There were several reasons people objected to compulsory schooling originally, but the main one as I understand it was that many kids were either working outside the home to support the family (quite often against their will--this glorified idea that many MAPs seem to have that kids were all working because they had more freedom then is a myth) or they were needed to work the farms. Thus, the three month summer break was invented as a compromise, since that is generally harvest time for most US crops.

America was a nation of independent-minded entrepreneurs and doers.

America was (and still is) an amalgam of all sorts of people, including (but not limited to) "independent-minded entrepreneurs and doers." Mandatory schooling has not changed that fact, nor ever will. America did have some advantages over Europe at the time, but Europe also had some advantages over the US. One in particular I can think of: prior to the late 19th century American culture (art and literature specifically) was largely insipid and uninspired compared to what was being produced in Europe at the time. American art didn't really become interesting (no real innovations) until Impressionism and luminism took hold here. Before that there was a lot of dull, stilted historical paintings and a ton of mediocre-to-bad portraits. The most interesting artists in America at the time were actually European-born anyway (e.g. Albert Bierstadt) or trained by Europeans.

Now, in school, you first undergo a medical exam for which your parents must pay, to be sure that you have not suffered sexual abuse.

Er, I'm pretty sure the medical exams are primarily to make sure your kid doesn't have any diseases or illnesses he or she can pass on to other kids. I very much doubt sexual abuse is a primary issue with the school examiners. In fact, I don't recall when I got my childhood physicals being subjected to anything but a cursory glance down my shorts. I think they have to make sure you are the gender the parents specify or something, so they know which restroom to send you to (I'm sure they've had issues with this before) or make sure you aren't mutilated down there or something. There's no way they could've seen if I had been sexually abused by that. In fact, if they could've they would've known that I had been. Obviously nobody can tell that by simply glancing at your junk.

Then you are conditioned to behave and conform.

Which is a good thing to an extent. At any rate, we have plenty of diversity in our population even though kids have been subject to mandatory schooling in parts of the US since at least the 1700s. Imagine that. So, perhaps we should rethink this: schools either aren't turning out little drone bees by design or they are fairly incompetent at it.

Meanwhile, the school has the right to search your locker, edit the school newspaper until it meets their guidelines, snoop on your life from day one, and keep cumulative records of your time in school which are not subject to review or editing by either the student or parents.

And that is dwarfed by the powers parents hold over their children. What's your point? That children are basically slaves in this country? Agreed, but that extends far beyond schools.

By the time you graduate you are ready to take your place as a mindless consumer who will acquiesce to authority in any form, since the rebelliousness has long since been crushed out of you. Only the hormones kicking in help you to regain that "chip on your shoulder" attitude that is necessary to keep any society from stagnating.

So, you're saying that by the time we leave school we have just about the right amount of rebelliousness? ;-)