<p>“A literate, well-educated individual, like any undertaking that requires a lot of step-by-step building, needs a strong foundation to support the stuff that comes later. If education in grades K through 3 is so inconsequential why even have it?”</p>
<p>good question. I don’t think one does. Most of it is school mythology. I have worked with hundreds and hundreds of parents and children who don’t think so. I’ve got two kids, one who completed graduated school (with her B.A. and M.S.) in four years, the other in her 5th year of her Ph.D. program, who had absolutely none of that. They have six languages between them.</p>
<p>And there are very, very successful schools that have been going for more than 40 years, that have sent students on to the nation’s best colleges and universities, “structured” that way - and yes, the children decide the curriculum, and, in fact, even hire the teachers (without the parents involved in that whatsoever.) Check out Sudbury Valley Schools.</p>