This story was reported by Liz Dwyer at Good Education.
A young woman, age 13, was harassed so much her parents pulled her out of school. It wasn’t sutdent on student bullying, but teachers who could not handle criticism.
http://www.good.is/post/a-13-year-old-s-slavery-analogy-raises-some-uncomfortable-truths-in-school/
The girl in question wrote an essay for a contest and compared her school system to slavery. I have to agree with her. Our public school system was not set up to create critical thinking and dissent. It was set up to create worker bees and patriots. What I learned in school was how to memorize facts. I excelled at school, even though it was challenging to finish all my work and I was bored.
It’s a shame that instead of taking her criticism and fixing the school they simply harassed her so much she left. This reminds me of the saying that “pride causes many falls”.
I have long been a proponent of Montessori, Charter and Home study education. I was able to spend a year in home study and if my mother could afford it I would have stayed that route until graduation. I may have even wanted to attend college right away instead of waiting so long. I was challenged to do more than memorize. I had a wonderful teacher to contact for help and I could work at mt own schedule. Obviously these methods do not work for everyone,but there has to be a better answer. We have millions of students and thousands teachers. We need a system that works for students not for the teachers, principles and superintendents.
It is time for a revolution in education. I believe we need a new curriculum based on critical thinking skills, basic accounting, tax and common sense life skills. We need less History and more Science, less Physical education and more Practical Math skills.
What do you think we need more of in schools?
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Individual Empowerment 
Thanks for commenting. We definitely need to teach how to budget. I have learned a lot the hard way about it myself. I would have loved to learn about how savings and investments worked in school. These days I put 10% as much as possible. I have had several emergencies where I was so grateful I had been putting money away.
We need a global education makeover.
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Indeed. Must be the same the world over!
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Common sense life skills is an absolute definite, yes.
I would love students to write something very personal in their life, to put them all in a hat (typed so no-one knows your writing) and each student pull out a piece & read it. That person reading it, would begin to feel the words of the other. Then discuss it/offer a solution or ways of reaching out, if it’s a problem for the person.
I think sport is great. Budgetting would be fantastic. My father lived not week to week but day to day, and horse bet to horse bet on the races. Budgeting, yes.
Great post – very worthwhile.
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