A teacher reflects on the mainstream education system:

I pay a lot of attention to when I hear kids complain or enthuse about something they are doing in school. I listen to their accounts of what makes a teacher “nice” or “mean,” fair or unfair; what makes something interesting or engaging for them, or bores them to tears. I get a lot of practical, hands-on tips from these conversations, but what I want to focus on here is the more general impression I get of their impression of school. Not all kids are articulate or reflective enough to intentionally paint a picture of this, but every one of them knows very well that they aren’t in school because they choose to be. They regard it the way most adults regard work: a necessary evil, the lesser-of-two perhaps, and often the devil they know. They each sense on some level that they are being made to do things, which they would never, ever decide to do themselves. What is heartbreaking to me is the way they internalize the notion that this is somehow a good thing.

Read the whole thing. Seriously, excerpts don’t do it justice.

(It’s worth pointing out that the alternative schools mentioned in the article are expensive private schools. Kids who aren’t from wealthy families generally don’t get those kinds of opportunities.)