Plugins for the Education System

Almost every problem you read about, you hear that the education system needs to be changed for a better world. It is a different matter that I think it should be scrapped, but even if we don’t scrap it, I think it is a big farce to imagine we can “seed” a new world by brainwashing kids. We already have a lot of such programming about the environment happening and look how useful it is. Kids are growing up to fit their world. They now grow out of concern for the environment as a rite of passage to adulthood. But of course, we aren’t observing, so we think it is working. We also think it will work with other things.

For everything from corruption to better treatment of women, a big and important thing is that the children should be taught to do the right thing. There are several things wrong with this mentality.

  1. Values are inculcated, not taught. This means that you have to fix teachers, parents and assorted adults first so they can live those values for kids to absorb.
  2. Listening to this “design better kids” project, one would imagine that grown ups learn from the example of children rather than vice versa. Kids learn from watching adults. If the adults treat women bad and are corrupt, where is the child going to learn the “right” thing from? From his/her kids?
  3. Ok, if by some miracle, the children suddenly became perfect. What will they do? Change adults, in a world where they don’t have basic rights ensured and are completely at the mercy of adults?
  4. If children became perfect, why should they suffer our generation at all? Or if they weren’t perfect… should our generation be something to be endured by those we should be nourishing?
  5. That would also mean we must wait for a better world till this new and improved citizen replaces the existing citizens when they grow up.
  6. In other words, we are saying, we are hopeless. Beyond repair.
  7. Erm… not to ask you to care about the poor kids or anything, but how many solutions to seed? Our world is quite messed on many things. Or should there be a second “wave” of programming for their kids?

Hmm…

So why is such a lousy idea so popular?

  1. Because, by recommending that change be the responsibility of the education system, you shrug off your responsibility without appearing to be lazy. You just aren’t a teacher, you know? You don’t create syllabus and you passed out of school long ago, so you really can’t do anything beyond saying that schools should do it. You are just “positioned wrong”. Sucks, but now you’re off to molest that girl while you still can.
  2. You can continue to pretend that you are a functional citizen of a functional world and anything better will be the next version. You are at the zenith of evolution.
  3. You don’t have to confront any adults and risk offense. Bullying kids is normal. Even if it means expecting children to do something you can’t and calling it some kind of solution.
  4. You don’t have to admit, face or fix that your condition is unacceptable – personally. It is “the world” (other than you) who are suffering. No shit, Sherlock!

I suggest that unless you can speak for yourself, do not assign the responsibility of change to anyone (except the government, authority figures of various systems – who are administrators and thus responsible)

At least pretend to aim for the goal of leaving a better world for the kids instead of leaving a mess and a laundry list of all that they would have to change. If you want kids to grow up with better values, then make the world surrounding them have better values, so that they grow into them.

Lastly, any work that is too tough for you being assigned to kids is worse than child labor – even if physical work is not involved. Think of it before plonking down even more things to learn on the poor kids. Own your mess.

Think of this the next time you are about to say “XYZ should be taught in schools”

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