&quot;Possibly unpopular opinion: school is not negotiable for children and so there&#x27;s no guiding. It&#x27;s pure coercion.&quot;<p>There are lot&#x27;s of things which are non-negotiable for children. Things like brushing teeth, going to bed and washing hands after toilet. All of which have some intrinsic value beyond tradition.<p>Coercion is <i>the action or practice of persuading someone to do something by using force or threats.</i>. There are other means of guiding children to do something. These include gentle reminders, routines and and just agreement.<p>And, yes, coercion as well, when all other things fail. Hopefully not that much.<p>If a child goes routinely to school I would not call this an action under coercion, unless the child has learned e.g. that he needs to go to school so he does not turn into a destitute when he grows up.<p>&quot;School was a great alternative at a time when it was the only place to get information. This is no longer true.&quot;<p>I don&#x27;t think there ever was time when &quot;school was the only place to get information&quot;. I would claim this is location based (if true even then). I.e. rural villages with low rate of literacy vs. a literate society with access to books.<p>Or, in pre-literate societies, just having access to a sufficient number of people would probably provide a venue for some information access.<p>Besides, providing information is not the only function a school has. My kid internalizes all math he is taught immediately and combines all new facts he learns into a logically cohesive model of the world which he has structured in his head.<p>However, he does need to learn how to live in a society and how to work with other people and school provides a good place for that.