America's Public School System --- Brutal And Spartan
The public school system in America has become a dismal failure.
But education in many other times and cultures has been quite
successful. The ancient Greeks, whose civilization was at its
height around 500 B.C., founded Western civilization as we know
it. The Athenian Greeks invented or perfected logic, drama,
science, philosophy, astronomy, mathematics, literature, and
much more. Yet ancient Greece had no compulsory schools.
Other than requiring two years of military training for young
men that began at age eighteen, Athens let parents educate their
children as they saw fit. Parents either taught their children
at home or sent them to voluntary schools where teachers and
philosophers like Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle gave lectures
to all who wanted to learn. These great teacher-philosophers did
not need a license to teach, nor did they have tenure.
The ancient Athenians had a free-market education system. The
thought of compulsory, state-run schools and compulsory
licensing would have been repulsive to them. The Athenians
respected a parents