http://ford-prefect42.livejournal.com/ ([identity profile] ford-prefect42.livejournal.com) wrote in [personal profile] liveonearth 2011-06-27 04:07 am (UTC)

Re: what is the purpose of education?

For myself, I am a big believer in "negative" rights, meaning that your "right" to life means that it's not okay to murder you, your "right" to liberty meaning that no one can imprison you without due process. Where I have a *huge* problem is in saying that anyone has a "right" to anything that must be created by another person. "Positive" rights seem to lead rather directly to slavery. To say that a person has a "right" to food is to say that the farmers are enslaved. To say that a person has a "right" to medical care is to enslave the doctors. A "right" to education enslaves the teachers. Now, it *can* be done differently, by enslaving uninvolved parties to pay the doctors to provide the meidcal care, or whatever, but it still comes back to the same thing, whenever something is provided as a "right", it is taken by force from another.

Now, a just society will probably try pretty hard to provide, as a kindhearted service, medical care, education, and food, but for every person that avails themselves of those services, the overall society is due thanks, not condemnation for the instances of failing to deliver them.

The school that instructs parents to *not* teach their children is a failure. Completely and utterly.

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