# Should we go to school longer?

**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-we-go-to-school-longer/281485
**Category:** Great Debates
**Created:** [December 24, 2004, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-we-go-to-school-longer/281485 "2004-12-24T15:39:57Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Page:** 3

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### Author: ![Ms2001](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ms2001/32/18463_2.png) [@Ms2001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms2001)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2004, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-we-go-to-school-longer/281485/41 "2004-12-28T05:12:27Z")

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> [@Sam Stone](#):
>
> That guy is an economic illiterate. Kids in school ARE unemployed. If they weren’t in school, it wouldn’t be an ‘economic disaster’, because economically, nothing would change. Except, of course, we wouldn’t have to maintain all those schools.

I think he’s on to something. That wasn’t the best way for him to phrase it, though - yes, kids in school already are unemployed, but they’re supported by their parents because they’re considered to be on the path to getting a job. If they weren’t expected to be in school, I think he’s right that they’d be competing with adults for jobs instead of consuming with their parents’ money.

OTOH, would it be the economic catastrophe he suggests? I don’t think so. The parents would still have that money; they’d just do something else with it instead of buying things for their kids.

> [@](#):
>
> What would be a problem is that kids would not have good educations, and therefore wouldn’t be as productive during their working years.

Considering how little of the secondary school curriculum is actually relevant to jobs, I think it could easily be replaced for that purpose by apprenticeships or brief trade school.

> [@](#):
>
> But there is no secret cabal keeping kids in school so they can ‘consume’.

There doesn’t need to be a secret cabal. There’s an entire system of expectations and prejudices keeping things the way they are.

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