Over the years, I have been writing about misconceptions regarding the schooling process. The purpose of these posts is to explain why I disagree with various comments that I have heard people make about schooling. These are meant as personal thoughts rather than conclusive proof, and I will admit that I'm not always the best at explaining my thoughts. Regardless, I have decided that I should be willing to share these posts when I encounter someone online who makes an argument that I have already discussed.
There are some people who have actually sued their schools arguing that they deprived them of the right to literacy. On the surface, this makes sense. The approach taken by the schools can result in students who would have become literate outside of the schools instead remaining illiterate. The lawsuits take a drastically different approach. They have argued such things as the schools being underfunded.
Considering the schools keep breaking records for spending per student, funding is clearly not the problem. What is the problem? The system itself. No amount of money is going to magically transform our disaster into something vital to society.
I have long insisted that nothing mandatory is a right. Technically speaking, having to be literate is not a right. Being able to become literate is a right. As such, the government should not take away the ability of students to pursue literacy. For some students, schooling inhibits that pursuit.
If we truly want to treat literacy as a human right, we need to move away from forced schooling. We need to ensure citizens can pursue literacy without government interference. In some cases, government interference can legitimately prevent literacy. Schools can make literacy so distasteful that capable individuals might lose interest in developing this important skill. If schooling does not work for students, those students need to be able to pursue literacy without the government getting in the way.
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