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Comment by codeonline | Hacker News Reader

There is so much about this comment that I disagree with that's its hard to know where to start.

I'll choose just one point, hopefully the least contentious.

Your child isn't being educated by 'some stranger'. They are being educated by someone with the required level of educational attainment themselves. There is a robust regulatory framework in place to ensure this as well as to address issues relating to the physical school environs and the curriculum taught.

They have passed the necessary background checks and continue to do so.

Those chose to become educators, at time and expense to themselves.

I could go on but I won't labour the point

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This doesn't address the issue of whether teaching the way schools teach is actually not very effective.

Self directed learning (which is basically unschooling) is so powerful and it's not uncommon for kids to go from zero reading to reading thick books (like Harry Potter, for example), within 6 months.

Kids/people have to want to learn and it's hard to manage that in a school setting.

I know as an adult that I can't learn things that I'm not interested in, it's the same for kids. And the curriculum is generally not very interesting.

> This doesn't address the issue of whether teaching the way schools teach is actually not very effective.

Learning to see through bullshit, and play along enough to get by has been a valuable skill in my life.

It can also lead to massive burnout and mental health problems.

Passing a background check and getting the required level of educational attainment at great expense does not give the teachers the right to exclude the parents from key decision making. We really need to get past the deification of university trained teachers as though they hold mystical insight into the child's mild beyond the knowledge and grasp of the parents.

>Your child isn't being educated by 'some stranger'.

This person is not my friend or family. They are a stranger. How they conduct themselves during an annual parent-teacher conference, PTA meetings, etc. is no indication of their behavior when I am not around.

>There is a robust regulatory framework in place to ensure this as well as to address issues relating to the physical school environs and the curriculum taught.

That does not stop them from inserting their own biases or whatever nonsense ideology they want to peddle. If what you said was even true, there wouldn't be lousy teachers that make the process of learning more difficult for students.

When I read such comments I just feel so sorry for the kids.

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