re:
If you look at what the root of education in our country is, it does not evolve from "peaceful" beginnings.
The original form of education was very open and free-flowing. People learned to think, they weren't taught what to think, as American schools impart today. It has evolved though, because schooling is state funded, and the fund comes from the tax payers. As an economic resource, students are the capital with which corporations build their futures. They rely heavily on the organized structure set forth in school.
I know ALOT of guys come on an don't believe this, or say you're a dolt if you don't see it happening, but there's a large % that needs to wake up to what happens in American education. There are, in fact, varying degrees, so it's not an absolute, but if you breakdown the premise of education, you begin to see the "code" of the system right before your very eyes.
*Education of some kind begins slowly, at age 5 or 6, with very remedially work. Coloring, building, basic interaction, despite the fact you can speak without reading and pronounce basic words well, you're taught very basic fundamentals and read only childish books.
{Children USED to read Plato, works of Shakespear and Socrates, even if they didn't comprehend it, they did learn larger words and how to pronounce based on learning how to sound letters out, much like we do when learning a foreign language.}
*Submission to a system becomes the goal. You submit to your teachers, principles, a regular schedule, daily activities, homework, and early on, you realize you're doing work or activities that may or may not benefit you, despite what your parents work. Your parents have no say, only by way of the PTA, multiple parent-teacher conferences, and voting. All very slow processes in effecting a change.
*Children at the ages of 5 or 6 are separated from their parents at a time in their lives when they are just forming their identity and becoming consciously aware of who they are and of life's less innocent parts. They spend as little as 3 hours and as much as 8 learning about life outside the home. A constant battle will begin upon matriculation, as the child battles for educational and social success and familial success. They battle a hierarchy within the class room, amongst their peers, even at a very young age.
*Children, as they grow, are arbitrarily judged by hired help, who assign grabs for learning certain topics in a definite period of time. If you do not succeed within that 4-5month time frame, you fail. And depending on your parents, also suffer their wrath as well. If you succeed, you move on, and learn the lesson of MEMORIZING, since that is what most textbooks are constructed to impart, and that is what most tests are based on. The schooling provided is completely opposite that of life success. While you may INTERACT socially, social gain and personal improvement is not the aim of American public education.
*Funding at schools strays from whats in the best of the students. As a sort of socialist aspect, funding is dumped into sports, that few students play. Whereas funding for the arts, technology, woodworking, electrical are withheld for the few who do socially approved activities, like football, cheerleading, and baseball. While I played most sports, I do not approve of the MASSES of students paying for the few that do actually play. The only benefit derived from such sports is for the stars on those teams. Over and above that, school camraderie is nil, especially in H.S. I've known far too many students and been the product of far too many cutbacks that swiped programs away for students gifted in certain areas, but not others. This communicates to the student that he/she is socially deficient and incapable. A child unable to follow their passion maybe foresaken for life.
*People talk of change in the system, but it will never occur because the education system was INTENTIONALLY built this way. It misses the BASIC courses of success in life, such as money and banking concepts, interpersonal relationships and communications, psychology, trades, crafts, and health. I mention these topics because, were you to live completely alone...what areas would be of need to your survival?
How to interact and talk with people.
How to understand things better and deal with situations.
How to handle resources.
How to handle your health, should you be injured, and also how to properly feed yourself.
How to be handy alone and fix things.
How to be creative.
Call me arrogant or egotistical, but at the very least, to be a competent person, you must be able to do these things. Even if you worked as a grocery bagger @ Wal-mart, you must be able to talk effectively to get hired. You must be able to handle situations, and not require psychiatric evaluations everyday. You must be able to use your resources properly so as not to be a burden on someone else or society. You must be able to handle basic things, such as fixing appliances @ home, toilets, lights, etc, because it's far more costly on meager resources to do this alone. Also, to be healthy. If you're injured, and have no health ins. because you cannot afford it, you're best to learn how to cure colds, warts, viruses, infections, etc. Also, eating properly. Don't just assume food in supermarkets is healthy, so longevity comes from this.
*Continuing on, children, kids, and teens will spend increasingly more time on skills not directly beneficial to results in their life, UNLESS they become a tool of a system. Such concepts as math, science, and 'reading' english, while basic, do not serve as functional survival skills. They are correlated to what yields a good job.
Calculus, while an advanced math, doesn't teach an 18 year old about credit and banking.
Reading Agatha Christie, while mind-expanding, doesn't teach teens how to think, or open their view on words, or meaning of words and situations.
Sciences, while fundamental and interesting, are rarely retained after school. They open the door to those who are interested in them personally, as all education should, but such time is squandered on frivolous pursuits. I loved chemistry, but knew I'd never use it post-h.s., except when I took it once again in college. The same applies to alot of students. Great course, useless to existence, or even success as it stands.
*The pursuit of education and learning is PURELY a personal feeling. Were school not so one dimensional in their course-offering and structure, grades AND attendence would be higher. However, because it's such a finite system, those not INTO it, are given to avoiding it entirely. Worse, kids face the wrath of parents who feel their children are failures because they don't like or find interest in such topics. Subsequently, students will be labeled as "slow" or possessing "ADD or ADHD."
I know throngs of people with low grades, YET, they succeed in sales, in public-speaking, in computers, as entrepreneurs and businessman, as creators, because they were not stifled by one mode of thinking. Some women can't cut math, but they can cut speaking publicly or sales situations because they're very talented on an interpersonal level and sense human emotion well.
*As we finish college, it's not much different. Gen-ed courses still focus on the mindless drivel we were once subjected to. "Freshman Experience" courses presuppose we are dolts and must be re-introduced to learning and "college". 4 years and $100,000, or $50,000 later does not yield the same return, and that's what counts. Yes, the experience is wonderful, but similar future experiences await you as well. And most students on that sort of dime, don't have the intellectual maturity or respect to fully appreciate such an investment, hence their lack of attendance to classes, binge drinking, promiscuous sex, and overall lack of interest. Some do just enough, but truly a few only do more than they are called for.
As I alluded to before, people make choices in life, and it is not upon me to change them, awaken them, or educate them, only to inform. Their own profit is the measure by which they gauge their lives. LOTS of information lies outside their grasp by just a minute amount, but few choose to take the leap out of fear. I posit this because it's true. But find out on your own. You know it by experience, by research the facts, too. See that schooling was created by and for big business, to control society, and to install a sense of order or pedigree amongst the rank and file. See how education itself goes against human potential and the natural order of things, by actually SLOWING down the process to results. Is it any wonder why kids are LESS mature in their 20's as compared to how they were 20 or 30 years ago?
Push aside the fact that people lived shorter time spans, and married younger, were the same true, we'd be more advanced now. Instead of college degrees by 21 or 22, we'd do them by 18. We'd marry by 20, and have loads of kids and loads of wealth, but while technology has vastly improved the length of our lives, has it truly improved the HUMAN EXPERIENCE and QUALITY of it?? With more time do we experience more personal growth, more personal gain, more riches?? Or are we just staying ahead??
I ask these tough questions to get further than we have before. Not because I'm cynical or skeptical, but because I don't accept the world before us as is, at least for my own sake. I don't just accept "the terms" and live them out, I maximize them. Guys will live to 70 or 80, but will have they have done more?? Accomplished more than pervious generations?? Lived a fuller, richer life??
A-Unit
