You have some great charts on life satisfaction reports by age. One way to investigate tractability might be to look for significant groups of people, and see if any do not show this trough during adolence:
Kids in alternative schools (e.g. Charter Schools, or Montessori Schools)?
Homeschooled kids?
Amish kids, who get introduced to purposeful work much earlier?
I also appreciate the post. Related to this comment, my initial reaction to this is that a good solution to this is (1) deregulating schools and (2) school vouchers. By deregulating, I mean eliminate the local government monopoly on schools—allow charities and profit-making schools. I would guess there are also many bad regulations that make it hard to set up schools. By offering vouchers, you would give children the opportunity to opt out of schools that they hate and are being bullied at.
When you think about it, it is very weird that kids often have only ~two schools to choose from in their local area. Kids are trapped in schools that they hate. By liberalising supply and offering choice, you could at least give children the chance to opt out. It’s a bit like if your only employer had to be the Catholic Church or the local authority—I don’t think people would be very happy. At present, the best way that parents can choose better schools is by moving house, which is extremely perverse.
One rationale offered for school vouchers is improved educational outcomes, but that seems a bit doubtful from what I have read. But the case from a student welfare point of view seems quite strong.
During the research, I was also thinking about the Amish and in particular about this old SSC article on “ARE THE AMISH UNHAPPY? SUPER HAPPY? JUST MEH?”. The conclusion there is “We just don’t know”, so I did not go further into this.
In general, I anticipate that the self-selection effects on alternative schools and homeschooling will be pretty large, but would still be super interesting to see.
Thanks for writing this, very interesting topic.
You have some great charts on life satisfaction reports by age. One way to investigate tractability might be to look for significant groups of people, and see if any do not show this trough during adolence:
Kids in alternative schools (e.g. Charter Schools, or Montessori Schools)?
Homeschooled kids?
Amish kids, who get introduced to purposeful work much earlier?
I also appreciate the post. Related to this comment, my initial reaction to this is that a good solution to this is (1) deregulating schools and (2) school vouchers. By deregulating, I mean eliminate the local government monopoly on schools—allow charities and profit-making schools. I would guess there are also many bad regulations that make it hard to set up schools. By offering vouchers, you would give children the opportunity to opt out of schools that they hate and are being bullied at.
When you think about it, it is very weird that kids often have only ~two schools to choose from in their local area. Kids are trapped in schools that they hate. By liberalising supply and offering choice, you could at least give children the chance to opt out. It’s a bit like if your only employer had to be the Catholic Church or the local authority—I don’t think people would be very happy. At present, the best way that parents can choose better schools is by moving house, which is extremely perverse.
One rationale offered for school vouchers is improved educational outcomes, but that seems a bit doubtful from what I have read. But the case from a student welfare point of view seems quite strong.
Thanks for the comment, glad you liked it (:
During the research, I was also thinking about the Amish and in particular about this old SSC article on “ARE THE AMISH UNHAPPY? SUPER HAPPY? JUST MEH?”. The conclusion there is “We just don’t know”, so I did not go further into this.
In general, I anticipate that the self-selection effects on alternative schools and homeschooling will be pretty large, but would still be super interesting to see.