Poirot,
one of my kids has slight behavioural issues and tendencies to be hypersensitive, rather preoccupied, and to over-react. Such slight anomalies do seem to attract negative responses and I often think what wretched schooling such kids received in the system years ago. Put under any sort of pressure this boy of mine just seizes-up intellectually in a kind of panic. He's the only one of my kids I've ever really lost my temper with and smacked harshly, before I'd come to understand him, but no degree of chastising had or has any positive effect; indeed it only makes his fits of incomprehension worse. I thus always do my best to maintain an even temper with him, but this behaviour, which he really can't help, is extremely provoking and it's not easy, so I'm glad at least corporal-punishment's no more and that bullying is much less tolerated.
Nevertheless, no doubt for the same reason this boy's more likely to have negative experiences at school than his siblings, and cruelly, thanks to that hypersensitivity, he feels rejection or taunts much more. It's not a serious problem but I keep an extra-close eye and ear out for what goes on.
I think if homeschooling's handled well it has great advantages. It's not only the assembly-line nature of school I object to, but all the wasted time that goes on there, the isolation from nature and practical/tactile learning, and the enormous peer-pressure that absolutely configures kids' desires, priorities and behaviour, especially teenagers. From what I see, with four kids in the system so far, institutional education is almost entirely negative in terms of any educational/vocational ideal. It's merely another aspect of the commodification and denaturing of childhood. I really think the school-system should be semi or wholly dismantled or radically overhauled.

Squeers, Poirot,

Absolutely spot on, there are seemingly immeasurable social complexities in the modern society we have created. It is impossible to escape the fact that these complexities cause us all stress at some level. The Professor Stanley research was in response to the potential causal effects of societal pressures.

Our rule based societies have been discussed on OLO at length but in addition to these variables we have to add the further permutations of the nine personality types, seven different learning styles, levels of emotional intelligence, social intelligence, socio-economics, culture and religion just to mention a few.

You appear to have reached a remarkable level of understanding of your own domain, parenting can do that every time. One of our few defenses we have to protect ourselves and our loved ones from rampant “categorization” and “one fits all” solutions, is our own self knowledge.

“True wisdom comes to each of us when we realize how little we understand about life, ourselves, and the world around us”.

Socrates

Regards.

Squeers, spindoc,

That's the thing - "slight behavioural issues" tend to morph into significant behavioural issues in a rigid generic setting. British austism expert, Lorna Wing, once wrote that high-functioning children often had the most difficult time at school (and in society at large) because their behaviours were "so close to normal" that any "odd" reactions weren't tolerated, least of all understood. We now have distinct classifications in order to try and deal with and accommodate these kids. A "label" is required by parents as some sort of mitigation for the unyielding nature of mass education. An attempt to try and provide some sort of understanding and attention for their child in an institutional setting where they have little say in procedure, and often are downright intimidated by the school edifice. My son's formal diagnosis makes almost no difference at all in our situation. As it has turned out, I need not have bothered. He's really just n ordinary kid with a few behavioural quirks which aren't compounded by attending school. The main thing I value from the whole exercise is an increased understanding of him and other children like him.
Squeers will understand with his son the complexities that go hand in hand with a sensitive child who needs space and peace in which to function at his best.

diver dan,
I agree education's never been ideal en masse, but then I'm not nostalgically harking back to anything. Institutional education is dedicated to institutionalism, and as long as it's turning out dysfunctional robots--human beings are passively and symptomatically rebelling against this commodified life--nothing's going to change. Things must and will change, one way or the other.
My question then to Ted and Spindoc and Daffy and Poirot (it's a regular who's who!), and myself (and all those who are capable of free thought), is what the hell do we do about it?
We all talk talk talk and nothing changes; unfortunately we're too few in numbers to turn the tide : (

capable of free thought), is what the hell do we do about it?
Squeers,
Well, for a start don't vote Labor.

Squeers,

Our system of mass education is integral to mass consumerism.

Ivan Illich's book is titled "Deschooling Society" - the title says it all.

Here's an excerpt from his introductory page:

"Many students, especially those who are poor, intuitively know what the schools do for them. They school them to confuse process and substance. Once these become blurred, a new logic is assumed: the more treatment there is, the better are the results; or, escalation leads to success. The pupil is thereby 'schooled' to confuse teaching with learning, grade advancement with education, a diploma with competence, and fluency with the ability to say something new. His imagination is 'schooled' to accept service in the place of value. Medical treatment is mistaken for health care, social work for the improvement of community life, police protection for safety, military poise for national security, the rat race for productive work. Health, learning, dignity, independence and creative endeavour are defined as little more than the performance of the institutions which claim to serve those ends, and their improvement is made to depend on allocating more resources to the management of hospitals, schools and other agencies in question....the institutionalisation of values leads inevitably to physical pollution, social polarisation and psychological impotence: three dimensions in a process of global degradation and modernised misery. I will explain how his process of degradation is accelerated when non-material needs are transformed into demands for commodities; when health. education, personal mobility, welfare or psychological healing are defined as the result of services or 'treatments'..."

What can we do?
As I know very well, it is psychologically difficult to act outside of herd mentality. If we are to collectively educate our children, we have to start from an entirely different base. but in order achieve that, people first have to recognise a fault with the present system - most people can't get beyond their nine-to-five malaise, let alone question its validity.