When you are forced to do something against your will, there are usually two reactions. The first is to submit and begrudgingly do the thing you are being compelled to do. The second is to rebel and refuse to do whatever is being demanded, regardless of if it is in one's own self-interest.
Forcing a person to act nice usually results in anger or a false sense of politeness. Making an individual attend an event or activity despite their objections often creates disinterest or a lack of genuine engagement.
Simply put, an involuntary action doesn't inspire a person to fully participate in what is being asked of them. Many individuals are able to persevere and make the best of an undesirable situation, but others are caught up in rebelling against an act they see as violating their own personal volition.
How many of your peers were absolutely thrilled to go back to school after summer vacation ended? Maybe there were one or two, but I'll bet the vast majority dreaded the first day back in class.
A large reason for this is that schooling is a forced activity. It is stated that schooling is for the benefit of the youth, thus why individuals are legally compelled to attend this institution.
But what happens when you force a child to sit in a chair for 8 hours a day against their will? Are they likely to engage fully in the tasks at hand, thankful that they are being made to use most of their time in pursuit of pre-defined goals and outcomes?
Or is their reaction to rebel, either openly or quietly, to this overt violation of their free will? Are children grateful for not being given a choice in the matter or are they more likely to be angry and irritated with the fact that no one ever asked their opinion?
Children are naturally curious. Any parent will tell you that a child usually bombards them with endless questions on endless subjects, often to the annoyance of the adult being asked.
Youth brings inquisitiveness and a sense of wonder regarding the world. Life is fresh when we are young, and the world seems filled with endless possibilities.
School takes this innate curiosity for learning and flips it on its head, forcing us to learn irrelevant, disconnected facts that bear no relation to our individual reality. Over time, we begin to associate the natural learning process that exists within all of us with the unnatural process that is propagated through the modern school system.
To our detriment, schooling turns many curious individuals into passive observers disinterested with their own education. Instead of fostering a thirst for knowledge, school makes us believe that knowledge is boring and not worth our time.
There are certainly exceptions to this rule. Many individuals are able to rise above this unnatural learning environment and maintain their desire to understand and digest a variety of subjects. Whether due to personal fortitude or a positive home environment, plenty of people still make the grade and rise to the challenge.
But sadly, a vast majority of individuals never recover from this environment. The learning process becomes forever tainted by their schooling experience, and they inevitably fall prey to mindless entertainment, drugs and alcohol, crime, and a host of other destructive activities.
For a great deal of my life, I was one of these people. School soured and corrupted my curiosity, leading me to use my free time to zone out, consume excessive amounts of television and video games, all the while having no idea of who I was or where I was heading.
Podcasts such as The Peace Revolution and Gnostic Media introduced me to John Taylor Gatto and Charlotte Iserbyt, two incredible resources in regards to the multitude of issues that compulsory schooling creates. Unsurprisingly, school is not an institution that is intended to foster critical thinking or personal exploration of one's reality.
H.L. Mencken said of school:
the aim of public education is not to fill the young of the species with knowledge and awaken their intelligence. . . . Nothing could be further from the truth. The aim.. . is simply to reduce as many individuals as possible to the same safe level, to breed and train a standardized citizenry, to put down dissent and originality. That is its aim in the United States . . . and that is its aim everywhere else. >
School is forced upon us because almost no one would choose this method of learning. Given an actual choice, I believe schooling would go the way of other irrelevant relics of the past, as children would prefer to take learning into their own hands.
Perhaps by offering individuals the opportunity to choose their own curriculum, to study what they are most interested in, their overall ability to learn and digest information would be greatly enhanced. Maybe the accumulation of knowledge would no longer be seen as some boring and tedious experience and instead would be viewed as a purposeful and exciting adventure.
At least give us the choice so we can find out for ourselves.
All uncredited pictures from pixabay.com or my personal account
