Thursday, October 23, 2014

Creating Begrudgement of Learning

What a neat trick.

How could we be more clever than to take eager learners and brainwash them into believing that learning is a thing to avoid?

Is it a government conspiracy to create more docile masses?

Pre-K kids are full of wonder and curiosity.  They love to talk excitedly about the new thing they learned today. They can't wait to tell Mommy and Daddy all about the rabbit they met, or the plants they grew in a vegetable garden.  If left alone to decide for themselves, they would eagerly explore a hundred new things each day.  What they lack is a way of managing their search and building long-term search practices.

So, in the 1890's, we became a society that wrestles them under control to force them to learn what someone once thought was needed.  To be relevant today, school needs to find out what the ideal "new employee" needs to have - what skills, knowledge, and drive will serve them and their company the best.

Instead, we continue to create a begrudging, reluctant, disengaged, doubting, and deeply frustrated group of graduates who struggle to know what they are interested in.  When they were three they knew what they were interested in.  What they know now, at a mostly sub-conscious level, is that they no longer like learning, believe they should wait to be told what to learn, and have no real skills for exploring.  Sure, they will learn to get a job and keep a job, but they do so begrudgingly.  If left to their own volition, most products of our school system choose to not be seekers, explorers, or learners.

What a neat trick.

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