A Note To Little Soldiers Everywhere -

25.8.11

A Note To Little Soldiers Everywhere -

In a 2006 survey in the United States, it was found that 40 percent of children between first and third grade read every day, but by fourth grade, that rate declined to 29 percent. Despite the anti-educational impact of standard schools, children and their parents are increasingly propagandized to believe that disliking school means disliking learning. Tha

t was not always the case in the United States. Mark Twain famously said, “I never let my schooling get in the way of my education.” Toward the end of Twain’s life in 1900, only 6 percent of Americans graduated high school. Today, approximately 85 percent of Americans graduate high school, but this is good enough for Barack Obama who told us in 2009, “And dropping out of high school is no longer an option. It’s not just quitting on yourself, it’s quitting on your country.”
The more schooling Americans get, however, the more politically ignorant they are of America’s ongoing class war, and the more incapable they are of challenging the ruling class. In the 1880s and 1890s, American farmers with little or no schooling created a Populist movement that organized America’s largest-scale working people’s cooperative, formed a People’s Party that received 8 percent of the vote in 1892 presidential election, designed a “subtreasury” plan (that had it been implemented would have allowed easier credit for farmers and broke the power of large banks) and sent 40,000 lecturers across America to articulate it, and evidenced all kinds of sophisticated political ideas, strategies and tactics absent today from America’s well-schooled population. Today, Americans who lack college degrees are increasingly shamed as “losers”; however, Gore Vidal and George Carlin, two of America’s most astute and articulate critics of the corporatocracy, never went to college, and Carlin dropped out of school in the ninth grade. 

Taken from activepost link

Education has always been one of my favorite things in life. I use to enjoy getting up in the mornings and going to school. Sitting in the front row, with my binders and book bag and pens of every color. I guess you could say I sucked up to get better grades. I would take notes, study sometimes, and always pressure myself to make better grades. After High School I went to college at USC Upstate. Not exactly an A-list school but it was backed by the University of South Carolina, and it was close to home. I graduated. Why?

It's funny that one of the things I learned in college is that eventually all of the knowledge you obtain in school is basically useless in the real world. Real knowledge (read that "real world knowledge") isn't obtained in the confines of a state run entity. It is expected that children begin school as early as a year old. "It helps them socialize," is often one of the main reasons given. We consider it, "starting them young" and we laugh politely but secretly believe that these kids are too young to be in school and should be at home, playing enjoying their childhood. Yet, we still sends our kids to school telling them it is what they need to do to become knowledgeable, normal adults. 

Isn't there something wrong with that logic? Yea... that's trained logic. We should be use to it. That's the way our society is run. Don't be surprised, until I read the article myself, I had never thought of it that way before. Is there a point to be made? Yea... in a perfect world we would be able to pick and choose all of the factors that influence our lives, but we don't. We can however, maintain our identity in ways that are under our control. Having a positive outlook despite negative results is a good place to start. Be brave little soldiers. The world is a scary place and you are going to be told to do things you don't always agree with. There is beauty outside of societies grasp, however. Always look for the silver lining and make a little mischief sometimes, it's good for the soul!