I would agree with some of the underlying assumptions. However, we are still very much driven with by a society that hasn't moved out of the industrial mindset. As much as we say that things are flattening and changing, much of what happens in the day-to-day life of many N.A. people is still following the same system as it did years ago. Until society changes its view of what schooling is all about and we can come to grips with a youth population that thinks very differently, the present system will prevail with all its flaws. As I deal with students and parents as an administrator, we are seeing a different type of parent - one that wants to protect their child from all ills and consequences to the point where they will take the blame for what the child does. At present, compulsory education now allows both parents to seek employment without incurring the cost of childcare and, with the advent of school extra-curricular programming, provides parents with after-school care so that there is little out of pocket expense. With the advent of childlabour laws, there is little that children can do but go to school unless one parent stays home which, in our society of excess, isn't necessarily the norm. Marco Polo asks "Who gets to decide?" Is he implying that children get to decide whether they go to school? As I've wondered in other discussions, have we entered an era when adults, wanting to enjoy the wonders that our society is creating, are wanting to divulge themselves of the responsibility of raising the youth therefore giving them the choice of what they do with the idea that society, with its market mentality, will provide the appropriate consequences if the decisions are not in line with what society will tolerate based on the ideals that society, with its morales and values, will dictate what is allowable and not allowable. Of course, I could be out to lunch!