School teaches children how to wait in line, how to listen to authority, how to follow the rules and outdated subjects. Thus a parent should teach their child how to story tell/narrate, manage personal finances, develop mental models, critically think, sell stuff, and that there are no rules.

It’s easier to grow strong children than it is to fix broken men.

In childhood, we build maps not just of empirical reality but of social reality as well. People of different personality types constantly goad or encourage us to become more like them, or they prod others to satisfy their emotional requirements. The shy kids want us to restrain ourselves, while the outgoing kids mock our restraint. The fearful kids mock our courage, while the overconfident kids help and endanger us by egging us on. The moral kids condemn our rule-breaking – the nihilistic kids mock rules. The nerds mock the jocks – the jocks roll their eyes at the nerds. The pretty kids don’t eat, the fat kids learn the arcane rules of even more arcane games – and the homely kids learn how to make jokes. The kids who don’t take drugs scorn those who do; the kids who don’t have sex scorn those who do, and vice versa, of course.

Perceptive children quickly understand that society is an ecosystem of warring personalities and mental structures – not just horizontally but vertically. The teachers, the curriculum, and the entire educational structure attempt to impose a certain mindset upon the children. Many succumb without question, while others push back as much as they dare, often hopelessly and helplessly – or withdraw completely, ghosting through the painted brick hallways.

The children are constantly commanded to be moral, but morality is never defined in a way that captures immorality on the part of their elders. Ethics become like an inverted fishing net that only catches the minnows while letting the sharks swim free. We can further imagine a legal system that punishes a sailor taking a photograph in a submarine while excusing a powerful woman who bypasses required security by setting up a home-brewed server in a barn.

When children blurt out an uncomfortable truth, they are told that “keeping quiet” is moral. When adults want information from kids, “speaking up” becomes moral.

Children are told not to use force to get their way but are typically spanked at home and punished in school. Children are told to respect the property of others by teachers who use the state’s power to compel parents to pay their salaries through property taxes. Children are told to save their money, to avoid frivolous debt, and to be responsible – only to be justly shocked when they learn about the trillions of dollars in national debts that governments take out in their names. Children are told they have free will and are responsible for their choices, but they are generally compelled to go to school and obey the commandments of their teachers.