School

As I grow older and reflect back on my formal education I notice significant holes. School is supposed to be an organ of a community designed to educate children, future adults who will hopefully grow up be autonomous and participate in their own community, how to live in the world and live successfully. Basically how to be a productive citizen. Taking this in, this philosophy schools abide by, it is obvious that certain things should be taught. Certain things that will help these future adults in their future adult lives.

The three basics to living are commonly quoted as food, water, shelter. Without one of these three basics it becomes increasingly difficult to live and eventually impossible. That's why they're the basics. And this is where the hypocrisy of the school system comes into play. I cannot name one class I have ever taken that taught me how to obtain food, how to obtain water, or how to make shelter. Not one.

(Public) schools are run by the same people that run the government, the same people that run the prisons, the same people that run the economy. Schools are nothing more than factories churning out cogs for the economy. Those that protest, do not fall in line with the "norm", who would rather not be put on the assembly line only to come out a fresh new addition to the machine, usually end up as a number in a prison. Making money and helping the economy is what is constantly drilled into our heads by our teachers principles and media. There is no other way to be a productive citizen. Ironic; to be a productive citizen you must consume.

This concept of a productive citizen, ingrained in the American psyche, is inherently unstable. Students are taught that the end all be all is the United States Dollar. Without Washington staring you in the face, you cannot eat, you cannot drink, you cannot have shelter. There are men women and children all over this country who starve because they 1. don't have enough money to buy food, and 2. because they don't know how to make their own food. And what do we, society, tell them to do? Get a job. Make money. Then you'll have your food. Think about that and see how ridiculous that sounds. We have put numerous steps and middlemen between the person and the most basic needs the person has.

What good is biology when it is never applied? What good is the Pythagorean theorem when a man doesn't know how to use it to build his house? The USD will not last forever. If we are truly a nation of independents we need to start teaching our children to be truly independent, not to have to lean on currency.