Yeah I see what you're saying, I'm not trying to defend mainstream education. Definitely I agree with you that alternative education when done right places kids in the real world and has them think critically about real world issues more than our mainstream education ever could. I suppose the point I was trying to make is that in public school I was exposed to rigid authority structures, I felt alienation intensely and I recognized how little autonomy I actually had over my life. Obviously yeah thats a horrible system, and it doesn't actually "teach" anyone anything, it just forces children to suffer and destroys many of them (I only feel I learned anything from the experience because I was able to recognize those things, which most students don't). But I think any alternative education needs to recognize itself as existing within this system and confront those things like competition, hierarchy, alienation and a lack of autonomy which I was exposed to in public school yet never "taught" about. I suppose the idea of teaching children critical thinking and problem posing is good for having children grapple with these things, and an important part of alternative education for me would be giving children a space to learn about and critically examine things like hierarchy, violence, competition, alienation without forcing them to suffer in mainstream education. I guess it is a misconception, but I do worry that alternative education can often fall into the trap of escapism, when it should really be engaging fully with capitalist realities.