A very sensible view of the problem of subsidising education

Probably all through my life, I have inwardly been very wary of the need for subsidised public education. Most of what I know today I have learned from reading myself and from becoming curious about it - not through being taught in under the genuine pressure of classrooms.

Then there is the point that so much of what I have learned becomes an unhealthy obsession, especially when it becomes known so well to me that it loses all sense of excitement. In general, when i learn I always prefer the unfamiliar and the surprising to the mundane, which creates a major problem for me: that I am not able to use the vast amount I have learned in any kind of productive manner since I have never spent any time learning how I can work. Even though I am planning on a major creative fantasy project in my very own language, I know that I will have to change my habits a great deal to get a single thing done!

Today in Time, I found an extremely good article criticising the whole issue of subsidised education. Even for someone who feels the government must do a great deal on environmental issues (if more than anything because of Australia's unique fragility) spending on education is something I feel much less certain about. My mother and brother tell me a national curriculum is highly desirable and should have been in place a long time ago, but I have my doubts (though these are greatly less marked for Australia than for almost any other country due to - as I with kind intentions point out to them - Australia's very strong "natural unity" from the lack of powerful geographic barriers)