Benefits of Compulsory Attendance

“Benefits of Compulsory Attendance?”

Forcing anybody to do anything they don’t like is hard to accomplish, but rules should still be required. Dave Kopel, the research director of the Independence Institute argues in the article “Are They Schools or Are they Prisons” that “Schools are, after all education centers, not holding pens for people who don’t want to learn.” Throughout his article, Kopel disputes the Colorado Constitution making it mandatory for every child under 16 to attend school. He argues that laws like these make it harder, and impossible for schools in the U.S. to advance, with reduced violence, drop outs, and disturbed classes. Dave explains that back in 1876, the libertarians tried to pass a law requiring children to do something against their will, and the wills of their parents which exceeds moral rights. And even though small governments feel that as long as welfare states like Colorado exists, pushing children to learn and be educated is beneficial so that they wont grow up to be a burden to taxpayers. But in contrast to most people’s view on this matter Kopel says, “even people who accept the philosophical premise of compulsory schooling are beginning to recognize that forcing people into school against their will may be profoundly harmful to safety and education especially in the junior and senior high schools.” Compulsory schooling can cause negatively rebellious behavior, therefore making it unbeneficial to the power of learning. As the article progresses, Kopel explains the effects of many “obstinate non-learners” which may disrupt the whole classing making it hard for teachers to teach their subject. “The teacher may be so busy trying to control one or two troublemakers that the amount of teaching time declines dramatically.” In accordance to the article, it can be true to say that students who do not desire education rarely learn anything. “Besides wasting their own time, they also destroy the education of dozens of other students.” Because the idea of compulsory schooling, teenagers don’t realize that they are not only wasting their own time, but conflicting many other students around them who wants education. Harboring obstinate non-learners creates conflict, and makes learning even more difficult, and unbeneficial to teachers, and the school of which they teach. With enlightening truths, Kopels describes that “Proponents of government schools as training centers for global economic competition often point to Japan as a nation which produces highly literate, numerate high school graduates.” The key to their success is the high rate of students who come to school wanting to learn. In his article, he articulates that “One of the reasons that Japanese high schools are so successful at teaching calculus, science, foreign languages and other subjects whose mastery eludes so many American high school graduates is that attendance at Japanese high schools is completely voluntary. Nobody has to go to high school in Japan unless he or she wants to.” Since the high school students of Japan volunteer to learn, their studiousness is easily obtained compared to involuntary students of the U.S. And for those reasons, Japanese teacher are hardly assaulted, and are able to teach without any disruptions. Furthermore, compared to involuntary learners, students who want to learn are beneficial to a class environment, and consume less money. Regarding school safety, Kopel says that, “While in the United States, school violence is greater in high schools than in junior highs, the reverse is true in Japan.” Since the majority of Japanese high school students voluntarily attend school, violence is present in junior high where violence is perpetrated by a small percentage of junior high student, due to compulsory attendance. Kopel follows up his statement saying, “Thus, abolishing compulsory attendance beyond the fifth grade would almost certainly have an immediate, dramatic effect in reducing school violence in the United States.” Also, it’s a given fact that when student drop out of schools, or commit truancy, the schools receive less money from the state or local government. “The fact that government schools receive funding on the basis of their body count is a major reason why government school employee and administrator organizations are such energetic promoters of compulsory attendance.” But why have compulsory attendance, if the disruptive student who cause more trouble everyday forces schools to consume most of their resources? “Disruptive students consume a disproportionately large share of counseling, security, administrative and other expensive resources, losing the troublemakers might be a net financial gain to many schools.” Students wanting to learn can not only benefit themselves, but the efficiency, and safety of many public school in the United States. Maintaining a learning environment is important to teachers and public schools in any country. Most laws in the United States require students to attend school at all times. Laws such as these can create conflict, and waste the resources and time of those who attend school seeking an education. Because of voluntary learning, foreign countries are beginning to surpass the U.S. in education with higher rates of literate learners. We should start changing our laws so that education can be focused on, and not trampled down by the disruptive kids who don’t even want to be there. Changing the compulsory education laws may transfer the obstinate non-learners from schools to the streets, but Kopel says that “the drop-out will have no opportunity to ruin the peaceful educations of dozens of other children everyday. Schools are, after all, education centers, not holding pens for people who don’t want to learn.”