Absolutely MANDATORY! If I have to suffer, you’ve got to suffer, too, damnit! Besides, even if they don’t learn MUCH, at least they’ve learned the basics so that they can be SOMEWHAT productive in society.

Seriously, though, a lot of kids in the US nowadays truly don’t like school because they take everything they get for granted. They either don’t know or don’t care that other kids across the world in third world countries find it a luxury to even have running water. It’s complete BS, but that’s just human nature… we’re selfish, and we’re self-serving.

As far as the parents go, parents ALWAYS want to think that their children are little angels and can do no wrong. Of course, that’s just crap, but as parents, they feel they’re obligated to help their children succeed, and if that means that they’ve got to annoy the living daylights out of a teacher to get their children a passing grade, then so be it. Plus, the fact of the matter is that our educational expectations have taken a steep plummet, and this is why Asian countries like Taiwan, China, Japan, etc. are inching closer and closer to becoming true rivals of the US; Asian parents typically push their children much more than the average Caucasian parents (I should know since I’m Taiwan Asian, living in Cali). Ever heard of “Asian failing?” It’s just a little joke, but it’s typically true amongst the Asian population. Whereas most other races consider an “F” to be failing, we usually consider a “C” to be failing, but since the Asian population is only large around the west and east coasts of the US and comprise only a small percentage of the entire population of this country, it doesn’t seem like the US is doing so hot.

Actually, most kids CAN do well in school, but because of peer pressure and a yearning for popularity, most kids forsake good grades for their public image. Studies have shown that the desire of a teenager to excel in school is surpassed by the desire to look “cool” in front of his/her friends. When isolated, though, kids typically do well and/or better than what they usually do if they were in a class full of people. In fact, most kids aren’t really stupid or dumb; they’re just afraid to really try hard lest they be made fun of for being a “geek” or a “nerd,” which is total BS to me, but that’s just how it is.

That doesn’t just happen in the States, we have the same problem here in the UK.

School curriculae (pl of curriculum?) are being changed so radically that kids as young as 5 and 6 are being given homework. I am definately against that. Once they get to secondary school (age 11) then give them as much homework as possible, but until then, surly we should let kids be kids and do kid things.

There ought to be a turning point, a proverbial “slap in the face” when kids get to secondary school to say:

“Hey you little scrote, you’re getting close to the real world, so start switching on and you’ll leave here ready!”

Do we have that? No, we have a nanny state crossed with a litigation state. Teachers are becoming ineffective because they are terrified of being sued for incompetence, malpractice or child abuse, or all of the above.

Sorry, I know that doesn’t really answer the question, but I feel better!

Mandatory. And a return to some of the teaching styles of 20-30 years ago. We knew how to learn then!

Sorry in advance for the uber-long answer.

I’m sixteen, if school were optional I’d be pretty upset because my parents definitely wouldn’t send me to school, or I wouldn’t go because I’d be like “oh, well, I don’t have to go, it’s not a law that you have to” so then I’d skip school day after day and only go when I wanted. However, because school is mandatory, I go every day, unless I’m sick, and I know just how much I learn and whatever I miss I just make up. But, as I said, if school were optional, I wouldn’t go, and I wouldn’t even know what I wasn’t learning, and I’d probably be illiterate and stupid and we’d be back in the day where a vast majority of people work in factories or on farms. We’d be going backwards instead of forwards if school were optional.

However, I realize your arguement for making school optional because students would show respect and parents would actually realize WHO is making a mistake in their child’s education, or lack thereof. To answer a possible hypothetical question, and if it was, I’m sorry, parents blame the teachers because they don’t want to admit that A.) they did something wrong when bringing up their children, or B.) Their children are little @sses who can never do anything for themselves.

By the way, not all kids in school are like that, call me a nerd, but I actually like school. =]

School has to be mandatory. Would you really want all those unsupervised kids running around with nothing to do? Even if they choose not to learn at least they are being exposed to some knowledge and are being kept busy and out of trouble.

Homework reinforces what the teacher presents in the class. It’s practice so the child doesn’t forget it from one day to another. If you don’t use it you loose it.

Parent’s who don’t think their children should do homework or should be rewarded just for attending school should stop reproducing and give their children up for adoption. We don’t need a country of dummies being taken over by immigrants who have a work ethic. About all an uneducated kid is good for is cannon fodder in a war and who wants that for their child. If these parents think their kids can get good jobs being stupid they are fooling themselves.

I think way too many parents and students put the blame on the educators. Yes, it is the full responsibility of a teacher to teach the material they are paid to teach..but it’s the student’s full responsibility to chose to learn at the best of their abilities.

The parents that said that only bad teachers give homework are rediculous. Homework sucks, but it’s one of the best methods (if you actually do it) of engraving the material into your brain and it helps as a way of studying.

I think school should still be mandatory..some may not realize it, but even the lazy kids that are required to attend school get something out of it.

its soo sad how kids in america hate school and have NO appreciation or respect for their teachers/counselors

and it is humbling to see little African children who walk 3 miles through a city full of murderers,rapists,drunks,and kidnappers. and to think that americans make a big deal over getting beat up at the bus stop @ least you HAVE a bus

but the children who just show up are not our future. they just eat up the hardworking person’s tax money on welfare with their 7 kids. these small children who walk those 6 or 7 miles who WANT to learn are our future and hope. these are our brain surgeons and engineers

and have u ever noticed that if someone asks them what they wanna do when they grow up its something like a doctor or astronaut. but a kid from america? they’ll say a actor or football player

just goes to show ya

Because alot of kids when their young and have to go to school, they don’t see it as a great oppurtinity to learn new things, and atleast try and have fun while doing it. Most kids see it as a chore, and that they have to go off to a torcher chamber for 7 hours, but they don’t realize how lucky they are that their given the right to learn, while kids in other countries, their family can’t afford for them to have an education. And when some out of country children are given the right to learn, they appreciate it, because they were never given the right before, and are happy to be learning and making new friends. My oppinion is most kids (alot of American kids) do not know how lucky they have it compared to other kids. But it’s very common when your young.

Mandatory until 18 then afterwards if they want to screw thier lives up they can. I think a lot of people don’t take school seriously because of the influences around them like thier friends. Like my mom told me yesterday, I used to have great grades til I started hanging out with my friend everyday who dropped out last year, my grades aren’t drop dead awful but in my school you fail more then 3 classes in your high school career you have to make them up or your there and extra year and I’ve failed 8 these past 3 yrs. But it’s not just the other students, it’s the fear of saying no to hanging out with friends to study more. Once you spend like a whole bunch of time with friends, you just wanna eat, take a shower then go to bed. There’s a variety of reasons and I won’t go through them all.

Sometimes it can be the teachers fault like last year I had an AWFUL teacher who taught Economics and we’d always have 10 minute lectures, 40 minutes of freetime, maybe 5 assignments every marking period, no tests and I didn’t learn a dang thing about Economics but I ended up passing with a D+. Most of the time it’s the students fault for being so lazy in the class then they get the homework and either not know what to do or don’t do it at all. Refusing to take notes, read, do work etc is a majority of the reason. But what about the parents fault in this? Most kids always stay up late so they go to school and they fall asleep during lectures, refuse to ask and check up on whether kids have homework, dont feed kids breakfast, fail to communicate with school to see how student is doing.

But I said 18 because my friend dropped out last year OVER A BOY!! The boy was going to be completely done with High School in March, was caught up with credits and everything so he had half days and she would skip and come home on the bus with him, she was a 10th grader. Well eventually both parents caught on that she wasn’t attending her classes so her dad stopped sending her and eventually she got pulled out of the school. Few months later, he dumped her because of her dropping out, being completely lazy, dressing like a slob- not caring about appearence or ANYTHING but him. He said he would get back with her if she went back to school and even though they keep having an on/off relationship, enough people convinced her to go back. Most people at 18 are WAY closer to thier diplomas so they might be like what the heck im only this far from graduating why not go all the way. When younger kids drop out they realize later they want to go back but have to settle for GED’s because of thier age.

I think its important to consider what the kids are being trained for.

If its just showing up, then yeah, pass em with Cs

If you want Astronauts or Brain Surgeons you have to raise the bar a bit.

I think the people in this country don’t realize how good they’ve got it. Maybe if they had to go live in a 3rd world country for awhile they’d figure it out!