Schooling is possibly one of the most difficult topics on which to write an objective article. Experts, specialists, and professionals are in abundance to comment on the pros and cons of our modern school experiment, but it is doubtful that any of them can provide any more insight to the argument of schooling's usefulness than the millions of people who have spent over a decade of their natural lives compelled to go to school each day. Anyone who spends thirteen or more years engaged in a certain activity, whether it be school, playing basketball, or operating a forklift, can be considered an expert in his or her field, confident enough to speak about the subject and inform others of the intricacies of the activity. Why, then, do so few people seem able to think critically about the function of school in our modern society? Some of the answers to this question lie in the idea of compulsory schooling and the mass production global economy.

Until it became a forced activity for the entire child population, school was considered important for those who wanted to go. For the children to did not want to sit in a classroom, being instructed by a teacher, there were simply other ways of learning. This may have involved working in the family business, becoming an apprentice of a local craft worker, or children, such as Benjamin Franklin, simply learning on their own. Most times, education in lieu of schooling involved young people asking questions of the world around them and going to work to find the answers. School was one route to understanding the world, but it was not considered the only viable solution. Nowhere but in America in its earliest decades of independence was such a large majority of ordinary people educated, literate, and able to understand complex concepts.

It was this widespread literacy and ability to think critically, however, that caused such concern for the early modern economists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. People who were able to think for themselves and could persuade others presented a valid threat to the idea that people should risk their lives crawling through dirty coal mines, working for pennies in dangerous textile mills, or even spend a meaningless life answering phones in an office. Workers who were aware of the destitution of their lives were much more likely to rise up and demand fair treatment, rather than proceed indifferently with their empty lives and unhappy existences.

Thus, a project had to be created to keep children from learning about themselves and their world, and would instead teach them to conform to a superior and look at everything in life with the same indifference that they were later to use when examining their jobs. The obvious solution was a mass schooling experiment that compelled parents to send their children away until they had been molded into efficient workers and half-completed human beings. The very fact that school is a forced activity should explain nearly everything about the institution that is necessary to understand. The modern tools of the modern schools, as well, give some indication as to their purposes in controlling and directing the development of other people's children

School children are grouped by their age, thereby ensuring they learn nothing from those who have come before them, and making sure they are themselves able to teach nothing to those younger than them. Standardized tests take away from the teacher any sponteneity in educating young minds, as a too large proportion of students failing to perform on these tests is seen as a sign of failure. The minds of children are to be standardized the same way half-gallon milk bottles are standardized in shape, texture, size, and even labeling (not to mention content).

Even the compulsion of schooling itself represents a deliberate injection of children into the system that simply do not want to be there. The argument for schooling goes that "everyone needs to learn reading/writing/arithmetic," but there is little reason to believe that forcing anyone, even a child, to learn is possibly the best guarantee that the child does not learn. In fact, it may guarantee that that necessary learning never happens, as school children come to equate education with school.

People of all ages voluntarily submit themselves to school when they find a topic they believe to be worth studying. In these cases, teachers can provide the guidance and mentoring that allows students to take the subject and grow with it. Furthermore, independent study by people goes on all the time, through reading of books, watching of documentaries, self-reflection, and even the writing of articles (such as this one) to continue an intellectual discussion. Arguments may not ever be solved, truth may not be found, and understanding of another's position may not be reached, but voluntary education attempts to bridge these gaps.

Forced schooling only guarantees that some former students will harbor such dislike of school that they decide never to read another book, confining themselves for the rest of their lives to the surrogate schooling of television. Others may develop such dependency on the school system, spending their young years chasing A's, gold stars, and smiley faces, that they are simply unable to educate themselves or create new experiences and develop new ideas. They will always look to the teacher, the manager, or the government, to tell them exactly what to do, how to do it, and when to be there to do it, as well as to take care of them and reward them when they perform adequately. School sets up all of these dependencies, indifferences, and frustrations by forcing children to go and then by forcing their conformity to a predetermined set of procedures and rewards for compliant behavior.

It is up to everyone to educate himself or herself on what it means to be an individual and live a life of self-determination and reflection, rather than the life of an actor, pretending to be happy in life and work, all the while living vicariously on the edge of financial, personal, and spiritual ruin. Is it any wonder that, when recently homeowners realized they had been given too much ability to borrow, they face foreclosure in record numbers, and call on the government to solve the problem for them? A life of being taught to consume (bored people buy more), work for a corporation that may move overseas at any moment (critical thinking breeds entrepreneurs and widespread competition, a danger in an economy praising huge business), and respond to every advertisement (buy a new car and get $1,000 cash back and a smiley face on your loan application) came to its inevitable conclusion: these same overgrown children complained that the bullies had forced them to the point of constant instant gratification.

In a sense, they are right: ripped away from family and community, given countless stimulus-response type activities in school, there was no other option for many than to continue looking to advertisers to reward their good buying behavior. The loan application became the new standardized test, but consumers did not realize that failure awaited either result of the test. Any current foreclosure crisis, credit crisis, or business crisis can be traced back to a school system that teaches people exactly how to respond to the messages of the engineers of these crises. It is up to every person who has been schooled to obtain the real education of being able to live his or her own life and create new ideas, rather than responding to the ideas of the newest marketing campaign.