Escape From the Institutional Straightjacket, Part 2

"Is School a Conspiracy???"

As my story unfolds – and as more facts come to light – you're going to start to wonder if I think American education is a conspiracy. Let's answer that question right here and now.

Is American Education a conspiracy to dumb people down and produce obedient drones for an industrial economy?

Yes, it is.

But… it's not a conscious conspiracy. In other words, there are a few people (like Andrew Carnegie) who wanted it that way. But for the most part, the people who gave birth to this disastrous monster had perfectly good intentions.

It's not a conscious conspiracy; it's an unconscious conspiracy.

Think of it this way: You're at the grocery store. You've got a shopping cart loaded with sugar-free food that's full of fat, fat-free food that's full of sugar, and the magazine checkout lane has pictures of skinny models with plastic breasts and headlines about how to lose 15 pounds a week on a Krispy Kreme donut diet.

Is that a conspiracy?

No. Not organized from the top down, anyway.

But only a fool would think that the true intent of your local grocery store is to altruistically fill your body with healthy, wholesome nutrients that help you live to be 105 years old so that you can have a rich, full life and many years with your children and grandchildren.

The food industry's unconscious intent is to feed your greed, with instant gratification, while bypassing any common sense that would ad friction to the passage of money from your pocket to theirs.

If they can make money making you fat, and make money on your desire to get skinny again, then they profit when you're coming and when you're going. Such a deal.

Hey, they're just doing their job. After all, it's not the restaurant's job to keep you fit and trim. It's their job to sell you the burger and fries.

Well the school system is just doing their job, too.

What's their job?

The teachers' job is to keep them kids sitting at their desks, not quite killing each other for 13 years, such that mom and dad will be content to be somewhere else while everyone collects their paychecks. Your teachers' job was to permanently condition you that before you get up from your desk, or choose a major, or get a promotion, or read a book, or eat lunch, or urinate, you must secure permission from a higher authority.

The administrators' job is to keep taxpayers in a constant state of agitated complacency, such that any time their unhappiness boils over into rage, they agree to vote in favor of education (i.e. give the school more money) so that the problem can be solved once and for all, and so that all kids can receive the education they so richly deserve. Can you say Amen brothers and sisters?

Only a fool would think that the true, altruistic intent of your local school system is to teach your child to be an autonomous, critically thinking, discerning voter, citizen, scientist or entrepreneur who lives an intellectually rich life and likewise teaches his children and grandchildren how to be independent and to keep his government officials in check.

So… if you got out of school having developed a handful of prized relationships with really great teachers, if you discovered a great deal about yourself, if you became an involved and proactive citizen, if you expanded your mind and your horizons, that was a happy accident. Precious little of that was actually designed into the process – you unwittingly made that happen on your own.

How Dumbed-Down Education Stifles Entrepreneurs

  Go on to the next installment.