Education: Kids in the system
I have for a long time been aware of our schooling systems being a form of manipulation and control that grips our children as early as it can under the pretext of education and preparation for adulthood. The gifts we think we bestow upon our children is a mass lie and something most of us are not even aware of and those that are, feel unable to do anything about it. This article stands as no more than my own thoughts and views; I am not a scholar but I was once a child and have raised a child which means I have been through the education system twice, three times if I count that I actually put myself back into it as an adult.
The summer before school begins for the first time is one of excitement: uniforms and their attachments, new friends, packed lunch or the uncharted world of canteens and conversations of painting and playing with sand, of learning to read, sport, days out; endless lists of twaddle consume us all. Adults dream of their kids doing well, of one day coming out of school and having the chance to build up a life that is strong and secure. They long too for their own time, to be free of the only form of stimulation coming from cutting out a creature on the back of a Rice-Crispies’ packet in the morning. Once our children are neatly packed off and handed over, we can go back to work and the family will have more money to live a better life, or for the rich house-wives and house-husbands, they can finally concentrate on more important things, just get on with everything unhindered by the demands of 24 hour a day parenting .
Sounds idyllic doesn’t it!
But for children, the first day of school means the world they have known is about to change radically and they are to go through a door way of abandonment and the shock that brings with it. Suddenly there is only one room within a building and it is full of strange adults. The moment a parent takes their hand away from their child’s, a state hand takes over its place and role. It is undeniable that there is no choice, it is the Law unless you prescribe to home schooling. It is the first and most subtle lesson of being educated. There is no choice, we will all do as we are told and your feelings of fear or trepidation, insecurity are frankly not relevant, children and parents alike.
For the next 11 years, five days a week, from 9am till about 4pm, all our lives are governed and controlled by the education system; it is not just children that are controlled by this undercover agent called ‘education’.
Children learn from day one how to form an orderly line, to stand up and sit down upon command, to only use the toilet when you are given permission and that you have a number along side your name. They learn when to eat, what to eat, how to eat, when to speak, how to even ask a question from some charter no one has ever seen, never mind agreed to. If a child is uncomfortable undressing in front of other kids, it is irrelevant, they must, it is a doctrine because exercise entails a second compulsory uniform that is often not conducive with comfort or appropriate temprature protection, as in, you either freeze or sweat to death.
Further more, if a child deviates form any rule, has a thought of their own, disagrees, has an opinion, punishment not only on the child takes place but also on their parents; suspensions, after school meetings, detention, they affect everybodys’ routines and lives and these routines we have adhered to are based around the education system in the first place. Parents can only work around hours where they can pick up or drop off their children, unless they can afford to pay someone else to do it. After school meetings, plays, groups, homework, the pressure for constant upgrading and making ure your child ‘fits in’. It is all pressure.
For children being reprimanded, this punishment is often dished out due to them having simply spoken, giggling, eating outside of certain times, untidy hand-writing, the list is actually endless. Our children discover that they are not good at everything they are supposed to be good at and are sectioned off into groups that represents abilities that they are judged by as failing in or excelling in and these groups are often filled with others that the child may not even be able to relate to.
Education will teach our children about a Paddy field they may never get to see, about farming but never how a chicken really lives, about GM but not about how it is too late to change or take back, about global pollution and yet the subtle point is that a successful person will go on to work for the very companies that cause so much international devastation; always the money, the house, the bank account and the car is what matters really, not what that company does that you accrue all these gifts via.
By the time a child leaves school, they will know how not to have babies but they wont even know where a G spot is or the complexities of orgasm or the complexities of relationships. They will be able to do some math and write and read. They will know the Earth is old and there are many different people living upon it. In the UK, they wont know that the Druids were the finest of mathematicians and astronomers because they wont have heard of what they were really about, but they will have heard of the Greeks and the Romans, the Tudors and the Edwardians and the Victorians and the Vikings.
They will know all about when penicillin was discovered but wont know about the simple uses of Lavender, one of the all round healing herbs, or the vit’ C content in Parsley. The will even learn about Atoms and Molecules but wont understand the latent energy within you and how you can work with all that Universal movement and power. But one of the greatest lessons they will learn is that their views and desires, troubles, sadness and pains will all be ignored from now on and they are too hot, don’t even think about taking off that jumper or blazer, and if it takes too long to que and get your coat out of the cloakroom in the winter, guess what, you either must lug it around all day in your bag, or freeze outside.
But yet, school is supposed to be good for you, the best days of your life even.
So now, here you are an adult and with the possibility of sending your kids to school. Your own time will be controlled by your child’s education too. At the end of your working day, your child will have homework and if it is not done, you will be in trouble and the letters will start coming home, if you can’t afford new trainers when your child looses their old ones, you’ll be in trouble for that too. If the only holiday you can take from work is during term time, you can’t take your child away and out of lessons; you may not believe in God and have no religion at all, but your child will have to pray each morning and sing hymns.
School is the foundations of the police state we live in, the basic training for assembly line mentality. Your children are about to embark upon a career in racism, separatism, of how to be prejudiced and generally have their spirit knocked out of them and the will to believe in freedom of thought.
So think on for a few moments and take some time to explore these sites.
Try, John Taylor Gatto, first, a remarkable man and former teacher who’s work can be explored on:
http://web.archive.org/web/20040219192010/http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/
The second two will help you understand and find options for your children, other than state education:
http://web.archive.org/web/20040219192010/http://www.gomilpitas.com/homeschooling/
http://www.limeysearch.co.uk/Education/Homeschooling/
http://web.archive.org/web/20040219192010/http://www.natural-parenting.com/edu.html
To finish here, I have to say, if you are aware of the reality of the hypocrisy and dictatorship of the eduction system, the one very few of us have a choice about………. the least you can do is inform your children of this reality, tell them, coach them, educate them yourselves to the awful truth that school is a prison sentance and they will get out eventually. Support them to take what they need and not be indoctrinated by the rest of it. And as a Parent, you too, do not be indoctrinated by the system or the millions of parents in the school yard who turn into gossiping, weak, competition junkies.
Our children are human beings first and foremost, they have a right to that respect. They have a right to develop at their own pace and to be nurtured and not pushed through the mincer that the education system and the media force them through.