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On LewRockwell.com my new article, titled The Terrible Effects of Public Schooling, is now published:
There are many stories of Sweden being a Utopia: a high-tax, massively regulated and politicized, anti-capitalism, egalitarian socialist society that not only works – it thrives. Each and every one of them is nothing but a lie, even though there are many Swedes who will tell you how wonderful it is – they refuse to see the truth even though they live it everyday.
Recently yet another myth of the Swedish socialist supremacy was revealed to be completely untrue: the exquisite quality of Swedish public education. “Preliminary” statistics of the current state of Swedish public schooling made available by the Swedish National Agency for Education show the continuing degeneration of the so-called Swedish Model – and that it is ever increasing. After having spent nine mandatory years in school, 11.4% of Swedish children don’t meet the requirements to go to high school.
Of course, in other countries this might not be such a big deal. But it is in Sweden – a country where an education and a university degree is a human right. Also, the requirements to go to high school are set on such an absurdly low level that no one should be able to not make it.
For starters, in the requirement only three subjects actually count: mathematics, Swedish, and English. These are the “core” subjects, and you need to get a “pass” in all three in order to be able to go to high school. One would think this is not too tough a requirement.
However, it is much easier than it would seem.
Read all of it here.
You might enjoy reading “My Grandfater on Public Education” at http://www.constitution.org/col/one_room_schoolhouse.htm He taught first in one-room schoolhouses, then in public schools, and feared that grouping students in classes by age would result in a nation of adolescents.
I have been wondering about the supposed success of European schools as compared to the U.S. We always have the TV shows about how the Europeans do so much better, and the American schools are failing. But the European schools are just as socialized as American schools, if not more. So are they truly better or not?
Some things that maybe are not taken fully into account: Different educational tracks. In the U.S. pretty much everyone goes to the same kind of high school. In Germany and maybe other countries, there are the Realschulen and apprenticeship tracks. Maybe we are comparing average U.S. high school students only against those who are on a university track in Europe (Gymnasium). Maybe it is cultural attitudes about education. Europe seems more culturally homogeneous for any given area. In the U.S. you often have immigrants with limited English skill and no family tradition of going to college.
In the U.S we often blame the teachers unions or some aspect of state control, but I don’t imagine it is much different in Europe. In fact, a good portion of U.S. students at least have an opportunity to go to a private school or home school, so you can escape the system. Still there is this widespread “truth” that the Europeans do better. Maybe standards have declined everywhere, and it is just a relative measurement.
Responding to jlivermore:
I cannot really comment on all school systems in Europe, but I know the Swedish school system quite well (I have myself been forced through it, and my mother has been a teacher for many decades). Even though the Swedish system is quite egalitarian, high school does offer different kinds of education – you can choose to study natural sciences, social sciences, or e.g. mechanics or construction.
In national tests of knowledge the latter are not included simply because they generally don’t study theoretical subjects. They have mathematics, Swedish, and English, but apart from this “core” they do practical work. So they simply don’t qualify for the national tests that span more subjects. This could very well be a reason for Swedish youngsters “looking good” knowledge-wise in comparison with other countries.
Also, even though Swedish schools have generally abolished the concept of giving grades (as a way of making people more equal), it is still possible to fail. But you don’t fail through getting poor grades – you fail only through not getting a grade at all. Therefore, those not doing well in school are automatically excluded from statistics of how young Swedes do in school.
As for your last remark, I totally agree. The Swedish school system is not far from a total catastrophe, even though everybody pretends this is not the case, and I believe most European systems, perhaps except for the former Eastern bloc countries, are heading in the same direction. And the USA is not far behind, but you still have “ways out” through private schools and home schooling (both of which are illegal in Sweden, even though the former to some extent are “allowed” – only within a very strict framework of government licensing and financing).
It is a race to the bottom, and in such a case comparisons don’t shed much light on the true state of education.