Education

[Guest]

Hi there,

It’s my first post here. I just want to say that English is not my first language, so sorry if I make some mistakes. I want to add that it makes a certain time that I read and tried to understand anarchism. I read about a lot of theories (including anarcho-capitalism – I don’t want to make a debate here about whether or not is it anarchy at all (!)), and I have to admit that I don’t really know where I stand.

My question here concerns the position of anarchist (excluding anarcho-captialism, for the moment) on public school. First, I know that anarchist didn’t like state public school, so do I. But what is the position of anarchist about private school?

Of course, some private schools are just a ‘for the rich’ version of public school. Still, others just teach particular things (e.g. religion) to children, which isn’t very far from public school. While I disagree with that type of schools, I do thing that parents who want to place their children in those forms of school as the right to do so, as long as these schools do not received public funding (the way I understand it, most received some forms of public funding, but I could be wrong on that).

On the other hand, there is some more progressive (based on John Dewey thought) private school, which could be an interesting alternative.

Personally, the best school system that I know will similar (or identical) to those presented by anarchist (e.g, free school (I’m not sure if it is the good name in English…) However, I do not want to impose this view on others. I think that those who want other type of education (e.g. conservative, more authoritarian, etc.) as the right to do so (while I disapprove I tried to convince people changing their minds), as long as they do not received public funding.

Therefore, some people told me that my position was closer to anarcho-capitalism, because I let people choose for themselves, (but it was closer to some left variation of it, like the one presented by alliance for libertarian left), even if I prefer one system VS another.

I was a little bit surprise to hear that, since I’m strictly opposed to the propriety right defended by anarcho-capitalism. Furthermore, I never heard left-anarchist talk about make those types of schools compulsory. I always thought that left-anarchist tried to show other ways to people, while I think that they better understand the notion of control/power/social structures that anarcho-capitalism (e.g. I do thing that equality before the law is a necessary but not sufficient condition for liberty, which is not the case for most anarcho-capitalist (except maybe those in the line of Roderick).

Finally, I don’t know exactly what is my question. Maybe it would be what is the position of left-anarchist to public schools and private schools, do we they let people go to private (none progressive) schools if they want, where you thing I stand on education, and so on.

Thank you!