As a highschool dropout, I can say that having the ability to study and learn by myself is pleasing. A lot more than school ever was in its later years. But it comes with a price. Self teaching is dependant on the drive of an individual. Honestly, looking at the current school systems in place right now, I don't think they can be improved. You can't improve anything if your foundation is arse. They'd be better off demolishing most of the old structure completely and starting over. So, let's assume that I landed in a position of ability to change things. What would I do? For starters, I don't think that the concept of school is completely flawed. Teachers could and should still be used, but in a different way. One problem with school, is that there's too many kids. Assigning one person to teach a class of 24-36 kids is absurd. Because one teacher can't actively work with the varying levels of intelligence that they're going to encounter with so many kids. The faster learning kids are going to jump ahead of the group while the slower ones lag behind, therefore, slowing the whole group down because the teacher has to focus on them, and not the ones who are all now bored silly waiting for something new to do. Teachers should work on an individual basis, or a very small group basis, of no more than five kids maximum. If you want job oppurtunities in today's world, having more teachers to teach less kids creates that. Second. Almost everybody has a story to tell about how they didn't like school because they were surrounded by kids who made fun of them or beat them up. I've gone through hundreds of people who've all told that same story. So, it's fair to say that school is a poor social environment, isn't it? Kids who are out of the norm are always targeted by other kids. Which does wonders to an individual feeling well about learning when all they can focus on is the fact that every day they're essentially being thrown to a pack of wolves. And, simultaneously, schools take the wrong approach to solving this by essentially trying to shelter everybody. And third. This one's a little more philosophical. Schools do not equip people with the teachings of how to be happy in life. They teach how to function in a society at a bare minimum and their only end goal is a job. They don't allow a mind to flourish and look for what it wants to try. They only direct young kids towards a job. You actually see the biological programming if you look at it. Get up early in the morning, go to school, break time. Go through school, lunch time. Go through school, break time. Go through school, end of day. Almost every job functions like this structure. And fourth. Costs. Once you've been taught, you're given the boot on your ass into the real world to fend for yourself, and given a little push towards another form of school. One that teaches more than your old one and will allow you to potentially find something you like to do. But, there's a problem. There's an enormous paywall in the way. As a young learning, and still growing individual, you're expected to hold a job to pay for your costs, and many kids can't hack it. They go into debt. So, nevermind learning again, because assuming that you manage to reach the end of college or university, nevermind what you've just learned, but now you have a debt to pay off because of it, so you know what you do? You go out and get anoher job. I could talk my butt off for days on this subject. But I'll call it quits here. I know I didn't exactly state what I'd do. Mainly because I haven't considered everything yet. It's big, complex multi faceted problem on multiple fronts. But, obviously it needs to change. And now I think I'll retire from posting here for a long while. I bid everybody here farewell. Thank you for the intriguing thought post Smiggles. Couldn't keep myself from not commenting. Thought posts are my bait, it seems. Ya got me hook line and sinker, ya master fisherman. Couldn't ask for a nicer sendoff. No messy stuff. Just intriguing thoughts. Thank you, most kindly.