Daily Meh is an edited stream of consciousness, by Simen.

The Six-Lesson Schoolteacher, by John Taylor Gatto

School is like starting life with a 12-year jail sentence in which bad habits are the only curriculum truly learned. I teach school and win awards doing it. I should know.

Wow.

I’m not going to argue, because I love learning, but schools over the years have made a concerted effort to kill that love affair. Reforming or replacing schools is a daunting prospect, though. Some consider it absurd to even suggest large-scale reforms or even replacements for schools. But what we need is education — traditional schools are only one possible route there. The argument reminds me about the current wah-wah about the publishing industry: surely literature and journalism will die, since the publishing industry is dying. But school is just one way to get learning, and the publishing industry is just one way to get literature, and neither of them are a priori irreplaceable.

(More about education; via.)