“Accurate to some degree, but I think he overstates his case for effect. The environment he describes may be typical of the larger public schools (my limited experience suggests this may be true) but not of all schools, everywhere.”
But I don't think that he says that all this absolutely universally true.
In describing schools, he ultimately makes this statement:
“If you stop there, what you're describing is literally a prison, albeit a part-time one. The problem is, many schools practically do stop there.”
Although he generalizes, his generalizations admit of exceptions.
The difficulty is that most children are actually educated in large public schools. In my own state of Maryland, around 70% - 80% of the population resides in the six or seven largest jurisdictions. Each of these jurisdictions has a large school system with tens of thousands of students. Several of these systems have more than 100,000 students. And the high schools typically number 1,500 - 3,000 students.
Most children are educated in large public schools. Thus, the author's comments apply to a high percentage of students in the United States.
sitetest
But parents have to want to do something besides warehouse their children.
I think some parents are sticking their fingers in their ears and chanting, "La la la I can't hear you" because they don't want to make the hard choices that ensue when you get out of the 'free' public schools (but have to continue paying for them). But that's what parents are supposed to do.