Mark Finnern is the leader of the Bay Area Future Salon and runs the SAP Developer Network.

He talked about the enigma of modern compulsory schooling.

1. Great person
2. Great citizen
3. Somethings special

There is a fourth today to bring them up to be good consumers.

What do we learn in modern compulsory education

1. Stay in class.
2. Turn your light switch on and off.
3. Surrender your will to predestined chain of command.
4. Only the teacher will determine what is studied.
5. Your self respect comes from an observers worth of you.
6. Kid you are being watched.

Paul Graham says that in today's world that school is kids day job. NYLF - Good to know Blog.
Looking back at the US history and factors that made it successful. One of was the end of compulsory education at the age of 13 after which they were given responsibility and came into own as citizen.

Looking ahead the Fabrication Labs with Neil Gershehnfeld you can produce anything you can think of.