Systems of Control - Education

"Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire” 

 ...William Butler Yeats

It’s been an interesting week of civil disobedience around the education, or SAT testing, of our children. A beautifully written article by a friend of mine in the States who used to be a teacher has inspired me to write. It was one quote in particular that made me smile, thank you Mike DePung.

"Education means to draw out — draw out of people their hearts".

I guess if my piece has come pouring out then, today I have been educated. I have been given a piece of thought provoking writing and been allowed to ponder, perceive and postulate, in my own way, on my own terms. My heart’s voice, my truth, has been drawn out and now I'm curious; could this be a good model for education?

40,000 and Growing

In a week when more than 40,000 parents took action over growing concerns about the SAT testing of 7 year olds (7 year olds FGS!), awareness has been raised for what the state is doing (or trying to do) to children’s so called ‘education’. The disobedience displayed by the parents who went one step further and kept their children out of school as a protest is a powerful display of solidarity and shows that critical thinking is taking place, as it did when the MMR vaccine started pulling headlines all those years ago.

I’ll plough straight in! Children are involved - my dander is up!

Education is a system of control as is government and religion. These systems largely operate to monitor and control human behaviour. Their purpose is to create ‘sheeple’ rather than self-individuated human beings. Sheeple are much easier to steer, round up, inoculate and impose an agenda upon. Sheeple tend to avoid free and radical ideas, critical thinking, going against the tide, experimentation or personal growth, and indeed believe these to be hazardous to health. Sheeple are so ‘asleep’ they don’t even notice how schools look and behave more and more like institutions. 

Testing and homogenising mental capability is the death of individuality.

We perceive the education system as being broken and this perception pre-supposes an expectation that those who run it are ‘trying their best’ for us. This isn't the case because the system isn't broken per se; it gives the appearance of being broken via the appearance of continual chaos and, because we view chaos as a temporary situation, we don’t often question it. Presto jingo, we stay asleep in blissful ignorance and believing that others have our backs.

I call this abdication of personal responsibility. Often, when things are not making sense, I ask myself… 

If this made perfect sense, what sense would it make?

We are not taking control of our destiny – we are waiting for it to be handed to us; there is a spiritual deficit; I feel self conscious if I play like a child or I'm child-like. I'm considered ‘odd’ if I smile at a stranger. We are not thriving in mind, body or spirit – we seem to be living in fear and moaning about it.

We study instead of play and don’t feel safe when we get it ‘wrong’; we are being measured and defined by others who know us not.

We defer to systems of control rather than co-creating our lives in expansive and experimental ways. When we exhibit unique behaviour that challenges a paradigm we are labelled somewhere along the spectrum of 'mad'.

When society meets our uniqueness (or difference) it can act with mean derision instead of curiosity. Society can stultify creativity and critical thinking.

We don’t feel connected to one another nor able to fully love ourselves

Too many people exist on a staple diet of stress, worry, anxiety and worst of all, nameless dread.

We see and feel great beauty in nature and in the world around us but we are strangely reticent to fully connect with it for fear of being labelled a ‘tree-hugger’ or something equally diminishing and outdoor pursuits become competitive to justify their value as 'good for the soul'.

Now, imagine what some or all of that might feel like to a small child. 

Remembering also that psychologically, children quickly adapt to their surroundings, especially where they feel threatened; they do this as a survival mechanism but these mechanics, when not challenged can become programmes or systems of behaviour that sub-consciously drive us. These ‘adaptive’ messages will stop us from critical thinking if we remain in an ‘adapt and survive’ mode of operation. So, repeatedly testing children has a cumulatively diminishing effect and can actually prevent inner pro-active, self generated personal growth.

If you test me, what measure are you using to determine my 'worth' and does that measure allow for individuality.

Adaptive behaviour creates all sorts of mental health problems, not least of which are depression and suicide. This leads me to the newly published suicide statistics from the ONS (Office of National Statistics) and a recent Guardian article on the ONS’s decision to (now) include the statistics of suicide victims below the age of 15. I was horrified to read that 98 children, aged 10-14 have taken their own life in the last decade.

When I look at the ONS statistics, the numbers are truly sad. As a people we are not well at all.

The mind seeks a certain stillness to function elegantly and yet, when I look at anything ‘establishment’ I see chaos and this interests me. I see broken, disconnected humans behaving in a subservient manner and this interests me.

We must stop D-reaming that ‘things can only get better’.

They won’t spontaneously get better unless you make them better by changing your little part of the world. I'm changing mine and can honestly say I love life.

With love x