The Solution

I've got the solution. I know how to fix education in America.

Just close the schools. Take the $10,000 to $25000 per pupil the government spends and give it back to people to educate their own children! Or better: Reinvest it. The government can use it as a tax subsidy to give to businesses so that they can 1. Give every employee a day off so they can help educate children--say people formed small groups and rotated days they spent with the kids, taking them to parks, museums, shows, etc. So what’s the money for? The businesses can hire another staffer to fill in for the people who are missing a regular day’s work. Look at me I'm a job creator! People will take days off from work and rotate turns with the kids on their new off days. Mike’s with the kids on Monday. They'll go to the library. Gillian's got them Tuesday. Bird sanctuary. And so on!

I know. It's a ridiculous idea.

But is it any more ridiculous than (via @cblack_) deciding that there are thousands and thousands of things people don't have to know and then punishing people for not knowing the rest? Or, (via @numbalum89) limiting kids choices in order to teach them how to make choices when they get older? Or, (via @Sisyphus38) teaching children about trees by making them read about them in a text book while there are real trees right outside? Teaching children about life by shielding them from it inside a building all day?

Like the metaphor of the monkeys the ladder and the banana,(click it and watch it! It's interesting.) we accept ridiculous ideas as doctrine often because we were born into them. Or as this experiment via the TV show Brain Games shows, it's not just metaphor, but hard wired into the human condition to accept what we are presented as normal, and to join in.

So...now what?