>>41863747Because children learn things much faster than adults since their brains are still developing, and there are certain skills that pretty much have to be taught during the critical learning periods of youth else the child will carry learning deficits in those areas for the rest of their lives. Children are also more curious and more exploratory so they're much more likely to go out of their comfort zone and try new skills, they have more time to dedicate to learning because they don't have real world obligations holding them down, and they aren't as stubborn in regards to changing their viewpoints when new knowledge is obtained. It's the best time to give them exposure to a variety of different fields that they then can explore in more detail when they get older.
The second part of it is the hidden curriculum, i.e. the indirect skills learned alongside the subjects that can't be taught at home unless you were lucky enough to have educated parents and relatives, and sometimes not even then because knowledge becomes more and more specialized the higher up in education you go. Language and literature teach you how to break down and think critically about a work in a systematic manner, which ultimately helps you to think more independently. Math teaches you the importance of practice for developing skills, hones your sense of abstract thinking, and gives you the mindset of approaching a problem in different ways. Science teaches you the process of coming up with new ideas, putting them through rigorous empirical testing, and then changing those ideas in response to the situation. History teaches you similar soft skills as language with the element of understanding why certain societal systems are the way they are and how they came to be, which would allow you to navigate them better. And being around other children and teachers teaches you how to socialize and make connections with others, how to deal with people you don't like, how to deal with authority figures, basically all the essential social skills needed for adult life. And if you're here, odds are you know full well what happens to children who never learn those skills.
If children don't receive proper education in their youth, it's extremely difficult for them to catch up in adulthood, and learning deficiencies compound as time goes on as the brain gradually becomes less neuroplastic. I teach general and organic chemistry to college students alongside my normal work, and there's a massive difference between those who received a comprehensive education in high and middle school and those who didn't. Those who were taught well can understand and move on to the more advanced concepts sooner and oftentimes become more capable and successful doctors, scientists, and researchers at a younger age, while those who weren't spend the same amount of time struggling with basic concepts like reciprocals, solving for x, and understanding the big words in the science textbook. And 95% of the time, the latter group never catches up.
There are certainly flaws in the education system, yes, but to oust it entirely basically advocates for squandering the most fruitful time in a human's life to learn, and compounding developmental and learning issues that could already be there as a result of things like being born in a terrible household, into a time in a human's life (mid to late adulthood) where it's extremely difficult if not impossible to fully recover from them.
