Youth Culture and Compulsory Schooling
March 17, 2014
The most viewed videos on youtube in 2013 (150 million + views get you there) are mostly music groups for adolescents:
PSY
Justin Bieber
Jennifer Lopez
Eminem
LMFAO
Shakira
Miley Cyrus
Lady Gaga
Michel Telo
Carly Rae Jepsen
Don Omar
Why?
In 1961, James Coleman identified the cause of youth culture as compulsory schooling. Wikipedia says “One historical theory credits the emergence of youth culture to the beginning of compulsory schooling. James Coleman argues that age segregation is the root of a separate youth culture. Before compulsory schooling, many children and adolescents interacted primarily with adults. In contrast, modern children associate extensively with others their own age. These interactions allow adolescents to develop shared experiences and meanings, which are the root of youth culture.”
Compulsory schooling merely by the mechanics of it (enforced separation, outsiders teaching, value inculcation by outsiders, grades, schools like prisons, compulsion, loss of parental control of curriculum) is obviously anti-family and pro-state.
Ron Paul versus the Neocons