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In reply to the discussion: Activists poured concrete all over some "anti-homeless spikes" this morning [View all]davidthegnome
(2,983 posts)It was sort of comparing Horace Mann and John Taylor Gatto. At the time I was in school - and very happy to be in school, but it was college, not the mandatory part of my education. Back then I believed (or thought I believed) in the process of mandatory education. Now I'm not so sure. The words of Horace Mann were inspirational, seemed so noble and wise - and Gatto seemed to me to be so cynical, so jaded.
Now it's a year later - and I have since lost my apartment, my independence, and a whole lot of confidence and self respect. The overwhelming student loan debt doesn't help much either.
I was a child who stood out. Mostly because of my silence. I didn't run around and play with other children, I didn't wear the same clothes they did, or play in the same sports, I wasn't interested in the same things. I was sort of a dreamer who would stand aside during recess with a book, or maybe just watching the clouds and picturing a dragon in them (preferably a dragon that would eat the students and teachers that bullied me).
There were many occasions when I pretended to be sick, or simply ran away from home because I hated school so much. For me, it was something of a prison. Not as cruel as the real thing, but nonetheless, a place I hated full of people who probably wanted to beat me up - who did beat me up, on occasion.
Education is a wonderful thing, a noble thing, it is beautiful and enlightening when done right, for the right purposes. Some times though, I think our mandatory system of it is just another tool to tell us how to act, how to think, and how to eventually become good little worker bees. Conformity.
The method seems to be working if that's the intent. We're pretty dumbed down.
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