Kids are hardwired to love learning, they will never stop asking questions and exploring the world.
Schools quash that curious spirit. They put kids in a boring, prison-like, highly regimented environment that seeks to teach discipline and obedience to the status quo. Don't think, accept your role in the capitalist machine. If you are bullied, no one will help you, but if you fail to complete work you will be punished. Most of all, get used to not owning most of your time.
Take note of this and try to rekindle your child-like curiousity and love of learning. Ask yourself, do you still have questions about the universe you forgot to ask as a child? Read about the planets, the stars, microbes, machines. But most importantly, do it at your own pace and do it because you still have questions. Not to pass some test, but for you.
I don't think that there's any real doubt humans express competitive behaviors. Particularly young people rivaling one another for attention and acclaim. "Oh well, I find that idea offensive" is a lazy cop-out.
Neoliberalism exploits competitive impulses and perpetuates the theory of meritocracy, wherein exploitation is justified through meritocracy. Past that, the term "brainwashing" gets tossed around far too casually. It feeds the theory of a competent conspiracy and plays into the "evil public school teacher" reactionary stereotype.
The US doesn't have a single common structure. It has thousands of independent school districts funded and administered primarily through local governments, with a little extra from the Feds to cover shit like means-tested lunches and disability care. It is also riddled with segregation and segmentation, precisely because the "my kids are special! they need a different kind of experience!" illusion-of-choice shit has been pumped into the minds of adults who are easily gulled into buying whatever snake-oil cure the private sector is pushing.
Students consistently need three things to get a good education:
Any public-facing system trying to sell you something other than these three things is scamming you.
The line between childhood and adulthood is far fuzzier than folks like to believe.
Critical thinking is difficult. It requires undergoing some amount of stress and discomfort. It requires a tolerance for failure and a certain amount of humility. If you aren't experiencing any kind of stress in your academic pursuit, you're either a prodigy (you're not) or you're not bothering to test your limits.
The brain is a muscle, and just like every other muscle it needs exercise. Anyone who has tried to learn a language or solve a math puzzle or organize a large social event can tell you this. Difficult problems exist. Avoiding problems because you cannot solve them right away will not lead you to become more critical or more curious. They result in the exact opposite.
What a weird strawman, when did I ever state that the correct response to a difficult assignment as a student is to avoid it? This is even wrong because taking a rest to allow the subconscious to work on a problem will actually help in finding novel solutions.
Its ironic too how I will prove your assertion wrong tomorrow by going to sleep first before responding to the rest of your americanisms.
Fuck off.
I have no idea why you responded like this. Truly, Im not gaslighting you, I am utterly baffled as to why you put these words in my mouth. I reiterate, when did I ever state that the correct response to a difficult assignment as a student is to avoid it?
:LIB: :cope:
Of course everyone expresses competitive behaviours. This is largely because the entire neoliberal superstructure is largely based on some fundamentalist christian competitive meritocracy. But does this mean competitive behaviour should be encouraged and strengthened on a fundamental level via an authoritarian schooling system?
No. Brainwashing is an accurate way of describing the Prussian education system with american neoliberal characteristics. "Neoliberalism exploits competitive impulses and perpetuates the theory of meritocracy, wherein exploitation is justified through meritocracy." You said it yourself, this is brainwashing of the citizenry to an ideological standard. This doesn't mean public school teachers are evil, its just that the system is fundamentally corrupt as a whole.
Ok I wasn't clear enough. I meant the very fundamental structure of schooling as it exists today, where all students must adhere to a common timetable, listen to a singular authority figure, get their learning performance assessed based on test scores, and be taught every subject from a monolithic syllabus, among other characteristics.
Yes of course what you said is true. But to what extent is the current schooling system, with its meritocratic foundation, its test-score based assessment, its use of homework and regimented timetables, conducive to creating an environment where humility and the acceptance of failure during learning is cultivated within the individual? Why are single, arbitrary numbers based on an individual's ability to perform a rote task on 1 day a good indicator of whether they "pass" or "fail"? Does this create a mindset of embracing failure? Is failure even being defined properly here?
I agree that learning should be stressful to an extent, the application of mental effort in acquiring knowledge is in fact exhilarating. However, why should this be done under the shadow of external stress from a competitive, rigid, meritocratic marking standard where a singular individual determines the worth of every student's final work?
Of course, but saying the current general structure of the Prussian education system is good for this is like saying joining meal team 6 and doing their 13 weeks of misery is the best way to get fit.
What is your definition of a "good education"?
All in all I think the problem here is that I am operating on pseudophilosophical concepts of critiquing the structure of schooling based on how education should be, while you are operating on practical considerations based on how the current system works today.