A person cannot truly be free if that person is not educated about the very freedoms they are guaranteed to acquire. Yes, our country is free, even though people between the ages of six through sixteen are required by law to attend public school. These schools are free to them. They need this education so that they can become informed about their freedoms. If adolescents between these ages were not required to go to school, and they never got the chance to become educated about their freedoms, then those people would become enslaved by their ignorance. They would not be free to make sophisticated choices, and without education they would always be oppressed by their own lack of knowledge.

I agree with some of what you say. The problem I have though is your argument works most for Civics and History classes. In those classes you learn about the Bill of Rights and Constitutions, but have you thought about English, for example. In the lower levels, yes it is important for every student to have those classes since the bases of the language are learned, but what about high school? Mostly after Freshmen year, English classes are mostly literature based. Is it right to make a student attend an English class which discusses Shakespeare when they will never use that again?

I agree that students need to go to school because there is the cultural education involved that is not gained from else where, but I still wonder is it right to make a child go to school to learn things that they will never use again.

Yeah I know it is tricky. I guess the only thin I would say about English class is that the more kids read, the smarter they get. I would argue the same thing you did about Science though!!! I always wanted to know why I had to take so much Science and Math.lol I thought it was a really tricky question to answer, and I am not sure there is a right answer!

You both make good points. With freedom comes responsibility. So while America is definitely a free country, that clearly does not mean we can walk around doing whatever we please. For example, no one can drive before age 16, and we certainly have to be sure to follow all traffic laws once we are of age. Without certain regulations to our freedom there would be chaos. Schools can help teach students about their freedoms/regulations and why they exist. While America values freedom, we also value education and believe it to be an integral part of the future good of our country (despite the low salaries).

I believe that everyone is as free as they believe themselves to be. So educating the population to believe that they are free is very important for us to live in a free society. If we were to look at our society in any other way that would be when we start to see ourselves as something other than free. That's when we would begin to cease to live in a free society because it would change the beliefs of our social consciousness over time as a whole.

I agree that we are a free country despite the fact that children must go to school between the ages of 6 and 16. In order for us to enjoy the freedoms that come with being an American we have to understand what it would be like to not be free, whether it is the ability to worship any God we want or the freedom to put the power of this nation in the hands of the people and not in one person. The only way we can really understand what it means to be free is to educate others of what freedom really means and the price that we paid for that freedom in our history. My question, that kind of relates to Chris' reply is whether it is right to spend tax dollars trying (or forcing) children to learn things that they won't really use or care to hear when there are other struggling schools that want to be better and can't because funding is so low.

I agree, education is freedom. Even though we force children to attend school we do this to better our next generation. We cannot rely on some parents to educate their own child, sometimes this is because either the parents are not there or they do not have the interest or reasons in between. This being the case the government offers FREE school for 13 years. Who in there right mind would not want to do this for your child, other countries would love to offer this to their children but they can't. We should jump at every chance we get to learn anything. I know our education system may not be the best, or even good for that matter, we must take every opportunity and make it the best. We owe this to everyone who has come before to make free education possible!

The idea of requiring students to attend school is very conducive to maintain a free society. The first matter is for schools to introduce subjects to students that will make them more cultured/informed to help an individual choose their path in life. I, for instance, would have never realized that I want to teach music if I had never been in a music class. The same can be said for someone who may never have realized their passion is to pursue theater if they had never been introduced to Shakespeare.

Some may still argue that studying history, literature, science, math, etc. is useless after a certain point in the education process because early on, around middle school, we normally figure out what areas we are interested in and those that we are not. The counter argument would be that even though an individual may not be interested in studying history or literature, they can still learn from the mistakes made in the past along with the good decisions so that they will be given a head start and contribute to the success and growth of our free country. You can look at other countries that are not free and see that where the majority of people are not receiving education, it is those people that are becoming the servants of those who have received education.