[jasondrowley]

Simple:

1) Some people like following rules, not making them. 2) Financial stability and job security.

My personal observation: I think the set of people who like working in large corporate structures overlaps significantly with the set of people who really enjoyed the structure and orderliness of school.

[codeslush]

I disagree with point (1) and only somewhat agree with point (2).

For point 1 - I definitely don't like rules, and I have found that if you create enough value, you get away with making your own rules and can come very close to having a feeling of running your own business.

For point 2 - in the high tech industry, you can make as much, or more, income without the uncertainty of self employment/own business. Running a business is HARD. I tried it, for many years, and ultimately failed (well, I failed financially, but learned a hell of a lot - so not a complete failure). Perhaps I was in the wrong business, but I simply didn't enjoy the non-technical aspects of it, which consume the majority of your time. The ROI wasn't there - not for me. Not every business is going to make you rich - in fact, most of them will not. I can't say I've given up permanently, but I have gone back to the corporate world for now and do not regret it. I disagree with the job stability portion of this point - you have ZERO job stability when you work for someone else. I firmly believe you have more stability working on your own than for a vast majority of companies. The concept of job security is a false sense of security.

[jasondrowley]

I apologize for being somewhat flippant with the wording of point #1.

It's late in Chicago, where I'm writing from, and I have to hit the hay, as it were.

I'll rephrase/explain tomorrow.

[fleitz]

That's not coincidental, the modern compulsory school system is designed to create 3 things: nations, worker drones, and soldiers, and pretty much in that order of priority.

Read the 6 lesson school teacher by John Taylor Gatto. http://hackvan.com/etext/6-lesson-schoolteacher.html

excerpt:

I teach the lesson of dependency. Good people wait for a teacher to tell them what to do. This is the most important lesson of all, that we must wait for other people, better trained than ourselves, to make the meanings of our lives. It is no exaggeration to say that our entire economy depends upon this lesson being learned. Think of what would fall apart if kids weren't trained in the dependency lesson: The social-service businesses could hardly survive, including the fast-growing counseling industry; commercial entertainment of all sorts, along with television, would wither if people remembered how to make their own fun; the food services, restaurants and prepared-food warehouses would shrink if people returned to making their own meals rather than depending on strangers to cook for them. Much of modern law, medicine, and engineering would go, too - the clothing business as well - unless a guaranteed supply of helpless people poured out of our schools each year. We have built a way of life that depends on people doing what they are told because they don't know any other way. For God's sake, let's not rock that boat!

You may also want to read Ivan Illich's Deschooling Society if you're interested in a more in depth critique of these themes in society at large.