Phone book metaphor of schooling

All forms of involuntary education are notoriously inefficient. However, most of the modern world is steeped in mandatory learning. The self-perpetuation of compulsory schooling is a direct result of the fact that coercion extinguishes the best forms of learning (see: free learning). This in turn makes it hard to see the inefficiency of the system. The higher the standards of education, the harder it is to see the problem. New generations of officials responsible for supervising national education systems show no understanding of the theory of learning. They keep repeating the same old mantras ("school is good for children") and the same old archaic myths. The phone book metaphor is the simplest illustration of the phenomenon:

Metaphor. Why use metaphors?

The school system can be compared to memorizing a phone book in which every second page says "memorizing the phone book is good". As we keep raising standard by requiring more pages to memorize, we have less time to see that memorizing the phonebook is an act of utter mindlessness

This is why compulsory schooling must end.

This text is part of: "I would never send my kids to school" by Piotr Wozniak (2017)