"The schools are there, Julie, to regulate the flow of young competitors into the job market."
-My Ishmael by Daniel Quinn
(Page 60)
When Ishmael said this I was particularly peeved. It makes me so angry as I was reading these chapters because what he was saying, while it seems to be true, completely eradicates the purpose of education in my mind. To me education is the further discovery of information but I feel like his saying this means that it's not. And while his opinion isn't necessarily right, I feel like it is. Our civilization really did make education more about giving us something to do than learning. Instead of filling our heads with things that we actually are genuinely interested in, they fill our heads with useless facts. I mean, why would I ever need to know the exact date the Dutch bombed Bali? I didn't until our government created a test where I may need to in order to succeed in life. I wish learning were more about finding yourself and learning about things that interest you. If it were I feel like I would be so much happier and excited to go to school. I could finally learn about the things that I cared about and do something with the knowledge.
My mind completely wandered throughout this chapter thinking about all the things I wish the education system took into account. I feel like our government gives makes schools like a uni-sex one size fits all tank top. They make everything the same for everyone, even though it will only fit a handful of people. Personally if a public school were like a tank top for me it would look more like an enormous pillow case with arm holes.
The horrible part is that while I understand that our civilization is just using school as a sort of population control in order to preserve enough jobs for everyone, I hate the way they do it. Can't they at least make it more interesting for us? Just because we don't do things in a conventional way doesn't mean we aren't learning? Who decides what information is worth learning or not? Because I don't think the people who do decide that are the right people to be deciding. I mean, how much of the information they learned in school do they actually use in their lives today?
4 comments:
Luna,
I loved it how you made schools seem like a one size fits all tank top, it really made me think that schools are really like that. What I got from that is that there is one way of learning and the government thinks that everyone will succeed in that one form, just like how one tank top will fit all!To me this is a big part in my life because I have a learning style where I need to touch and feel things, so that means I am a hands on learner. I think High Tech High is not like a one size fits all school, it molds to every body learning style and makes it so everybody succeeds.
Jadon
I agree with your stance on this quote. I especially liked when you said; "Personally if a public school were like a tank top for me it would look more like an enormous pillow case with arm holes." It makes sense in the way that it wouldn't fit you or work for you personally. I can connect and agree with what you wrote. It would be more helpful if schools' could focus on what you could Really use in the future. Great job!
Cara
Hey Luna, I love the stand you took towards this quote. It really made me rethink the school system and how it works and you are totally right. The way you connected it to a "one size fits all tank top" was brilliant and it makes sense because they would have to make it to fit the biggest person and then the rest of us would be left with the "pillow case with arm holes". The school system works the same way most of the time, it may be super hard for one kid inthe class and the super easy for the other. It just can't fit us all the same. Great Job!
Taylor
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