[new299]

With respect, the problem is that you are both using gut reactions and anecdotal personal experience in order to determine the correct government policy.

You could approach it from a civil liberties angle. But if you're really interested in what would be best for the population overall, perhaps try and cite some data? It took me 5 minutes of Google searching to find some interesting results...

[guard-of-terra]

> for the population overall

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ones_Who_Walk_Away_from_Om...

It was definitely good for them to hold that child in the basement! As a population overall.

Why would I care about "civil liberties" if they come at cost of ruining my life? And I know I'm not in any way an exception. I won't be around enjoying them, right? Do I look like a person who enjoys anything right now?

[new299]

I think I wasn't clear on my meaning of "civil liberties".

My meaning was this you can argue the following: That home schooling is a kind of basic human right. That there are some rights that a parent has to determine how their child is brought up.

I'm not making that argument. But I would be interested in hearing it. And hearing a justification for it.

Sounds like the Ursula K. Le Guin story is exploring individual versus group wellbeing. Thanks for posting it, I'll try and read it sometime.

On a personal note: I do know that school can be a horrible place. It can also be a huge time wasting exercise. I intensely disliked it. I'm sorry that you had a bad experience there, schooling can be particularly distressing because it's an experience forced upon you at a young age. I hope you are able to work through your problems.

A few weeks ago, at a local school (in Japan), a teacher beat a child in an after school class with a Kendo stick. The child was in hospital for a month. Very bad things happen at schools...

But... these are all single data points. And I honestly want to understand the wider picture.

[guard-of-terra]

I can't understand why are you arguing for school if you didn't like it at all? Do you honestly think you're so unique that everybody else has different experience? Because many of us don't.

I think that home schooling is a basic human right, just like choosing where to live and what job to take. That's because we are human and not ants. School for which there are no alternatives is a small Gulag camp.

[new299]

I think it's possible that other students had a different experience to me. I think it's possible that other students would have been much worse off without going to school.

I'd like to see more data, to better understand the situation.