CDR: Re: no fedbucks means freedom

[Ray Dillinger]

On Sun, 1 Oct 2000, Sampo A Syreeni wrote:

>Somebody might then argue that education received in a private institution
>cannot be guaranteed to include social/moral/whatever lessons which are to
>be expected in a society and so private education should not be recognized
>as valid. Of course, this is nonsensical from an American point of 
>view. From a Finnish one, not as clearly - Finnish universities and far over
>90% of schools are governmental institutions, so making the above move would
>force people to attend a public school in order to be eligible for further
>education. In fact, private schools based on the Steiner and Montessori
>pedagogies fought quite a fight to be recognized, here.

Typically in the US, a college has entrance exams.  If you can pay 
the tuition and pass the entrance exam, they don't care where or 
even whether you got your primary and secondary education. There's 
even a recognized class of "jailhouse lawyers" -- people who got 
arrested, studied the law on their own while in jail in order to 
handle their own appeals pro se, and who, when finally released from 
jail, found that they knew enough law to pass the entrance exams for 
law school and went on to become attorneys.  "Social" or "Moral" 
lessons are considered to be reflected in performance only, and 
training is quite irrelevant to them.  If a jailhouse lawyer takes 
a bribe or wilfully conceals evidence from disclosure or whatever, 
and the bar association discovers the fact, then she'll be disbarred 
the same as anybody else, but until something like that happens, 
she's assumed equal.  

The interesting bit is that the relative quality of public and 
private schools varies a whole lot. In sunny California, which 
has been neglecting its public school system, all the quality 
colleges are private and the entrance exams for them are all 
really tough -- students who've gone to a mere public school are 
unlikely to be able to get in. The curriculums are fairly mild, 
but since the graduates are all people who were bright enough 
to get in in the first place, they retain it well and function 
well in the world.  If you don't do well enough in high school 
to qualify for the private colleges, you have to go the inferior 
public-college route.

By contrast, in states like Kansas, which have a strong tradition 
of public schooling, the huge public universities have "warm body" 
admissions.  This means anyone who can pass a GED exam or who has 
graduated from any public or private high school is automatically 
accepted -- but the curriculum is some of the toughest in the 
world and if you're unprepared you flunk out (Along with three 
quarters or more of your class). In the midwest, the graduates 
are the ones who were bright enough to *NOT FLUNK OUT*, and they 
retain their education well and function well in the world. If 
you can't cut it in the intensely competitive universities, then 
you have to pull out and go to an inferior private college instead. 

				Ray