Nicely argued, though I'm not sure it's the compulsory nature of education that's the problem, but the compulsory nature of a very narrow, academically-focused, age-grouped, subject-centered, classroom-structured, time-stamped education.

Interestingly, and I think we're still in the infancy of this development, a lot of kids are actually learning a great deal outside school through the information ocean accessible through their devices. Our major social media corporations are monetizing this attention in all kinds of harmful ways, but I think many would be surprised at the legitimate educational choices many kids are making on-line, learning all manner of skill and content that doesn't really translate to the classroom at all. I've had many 'classroom illiterate' students demonstrate adequate, even strong, literacy or number sense on activities and content found on-line or in games and such. To say nothing of the kinds of skill and knowledge that we don't test in the classroom.