Wow, 440 pages, that is longer. I will try to respond back here, but it wont be tonight or likely tomorrow. I see you have contact info, so I will be in touch there.

"But it would be remiss of me not to note that my own experiences may have predisposed me to do so, and to exert less effort than I otherwise might in seeking contradictory evidence"

Refreshing to hear this :) Seems all to often people confuse their opinions with facts. Looking forward to the discussion :) Some thoughts so far(page 10):

"an assistant principal screamed at her in
front of an assembly, "BIANCA, YOU ANIMAL, SHUT UP!"" ... "Do I make too much of this simple act of putting a little girl in her place?" ... "I picture this animal Bianca grown large and mean"

I think he does make too much of this. To put it simply, kids do not act in their best interest. IIRC, they do not start really taking long term consequences into account until 25 or so.

I remember hearing teachers tell kids they needed to try harder, and hearing the kids say, "but Einstein didn't pay attention in school". Unfortunate as it may be, and having known these kids since kindergarten, they are unlikely to be Einsteins. There is a difference between being bored because of a lack of challenge, and because they just want to play outside.

Now depending on what your view of a more perfect society is, this might be irrelevant. But it would seem to me that without an education, our society would be much more like animals. Between growing up in a rural area, and nature documentaries, I have witnessed many animals disciplining their kids. Why? Because they care more about play than finding food. So I am not seeing the alternative here.

"understand the personality of your particular child or anything significant about your family, culture, religion, plans, hopes, dreams"

A good teacher should try to learn about your kid. Easier said than done, especially in larger schools. As for culture, while I agree that multiculturalism is good, I see it like a Venn diagram. The differences are important, as there might be better ways of doing something, inspiration from one domain applied to another can yield breakthroughs. But there needs to be something in common, so that we can understand one another. Otherwise it breaks down into tribalism, which I believe to be much less perfect. That's what the school system provides, a shared culture/experience.

"The cost in New York State for building a well-schooled child in the year 2000 is $200,000 per
body when lost interest is calculated. That capital sum invested in the child's name over the past
twelve years would have delivered a million dollars to each kid as a nest egg to compensate for
having no school"

I believe it is well documented that a large portion of lottery winners end up broke. Not understanding things like compound interest, inflation, or even basic math would make it hard to use that $1mm effectively. While I would not blame the 2008 financial crisis on lack of education entirely, I do think more education could have averted that, or at least mitigated it. I'm not sure what his point is here.

Okay, since this already got long, I plan to email you further.