As a teacher, I have one goal my students. I want them to be outsiders, rebels,
and thinkers. I want them to be able to say that their best asset is the one
thing that their employer will never own. The way that their minds work. The
ways that they are different and think differently. They way that they know
to ask the right questions and draw conclusions from a morass of data.
In my dream school, I would not have a pledge of allegiance. I would have
the students pledge to criticize and consider their government. We wonder
why young people do not vote. It is because we teach them in our schools that
they
should want to be like the majority, so they might as well let the majority
speak for them. We teach them bullshit simplicity about government and the
balance of power. We teach them that all presidents are great and to be admired,
we teach them that the government is beneficent and good. Kids do not leave
school understanding their government. They leave understanding the basics
of how it should work not how it does work.
Le Sigh. What we should be teaching them is about corruption and truth..
how to ask the right questions, follow the complexities. Check the facts. Instead,
it takes about 30 years of disillusionment and contradiction of the simplicities
we have been taught to get us to the point of voting. Is it really that surprising?
We've designed an educational system that helps disenfranchise those most open
to change.
