Educating the Masses...

People are afraid of technology taking over labor - no one will have a job.

I disagree - people will just need to get different jobs. Jobs that require more thinking and intuition as opposed to strictly manual, repetitive tasks. Or find a way to make their manual work unique, customized and different than anything a machine can produce.

I think many people fear this because they don’t think they can learn something new.

I also disagree with the premise that learning new skills is difficult - humans have an amazing capacity to learn. But we’ve been conditioned since childhood to believe we can never achieve success unless we follow a state-sanctioned curriculum, specialize in one skill and get some sort of degree/certification/license. This, of course, takes a long time to achieve (though not that long to learn). With so much invested into a particular field of study, it also ties individuals into a specific industry, providing corporations and industry analysts with a fairly predictable labor force.

The truth of the matter is that humans have an innate ability to pick up knowledge as it’s needed. You can’t just plug into the Matrix and get that knowledge instantaneously, but you can learn things much more quickly than the mass school system would have you believe. If you start preparing now, you could find yourself a new career within a year…or a month…or a week.

Don’t rush out and get another degree. The critical first step is to learn how to learn. Practice learning. Start reading more. Start doing more. Follow your interests. Free yourself from the mechanized labor mentality. Don’t let society force you into arbitrary classifications based on your age, IQ or standardized test scores.

Once you know HOW to learn, the WHAT will come easily. And you’ll likely find that you can manage without a piece of paper telling the world how many hours you spent inside a classroom with theorists.

If a 14 year old can become a CEO, you can find a new job.

Or better yet, create your own.

If you’d like to use the edulation.org theme for your own Wordpress blog, you can download the theme template here:

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Kids don’t need to chase after carrots in order to learn - they like to learn; they’re good at learning; they don’t need to be forced to learn.

Sadly, our schools inhibit the learning process. Because of the inherent problems with mass schooling, many parents watch their kids languish and despair within the (unnecessarily) rigid confines of our deplorable school system.

Fortunately, there are better ways to educate our children.
Here are some alternative education resources. This list is not all-inclusive, but is intended to help you begin the journey to discover which educational approach will work best for your children and your family.

Home School

• The Moore Formula
• Eclectic Homeschool
• Families.com Homeschool Blog
• A to Z Home’s Cool
• Home School Zone

Unschooling

• Unschooling.com
• Unschooling.org
• Lifelearning.org
• Wikipedia

Free School (or “Free Skool”)

• Wikipedia
• Wikipedia on the Sudbury model
• Sudbury Valley School
• Albany Free School
• The Brooklyn Free School

Montessori

• Montessori.edu
• Montessori.org
• American Montessori Society
• The Michael Olaf Montessori Company

One of the main themes on this blog is the relationship of authority and liberty. Authority sources often impose regulations upon us only for their own benefit.

When such associations are recognized, the most important phrase you can remember is, “follow the money.” This will help you discover true intentions in most cases.

• Why does our government mandate compulsory mass schooling and standardized testing? Follow the money (support a large bureaucracy of non-teaching middle-management; support an enormous publishing industry).
• Why does the Federal Reserve - a private bank, and in no way “Federal” - have the authority to print U.S. currency? Follow the money (all our tax dollars can go to paying off interest on loans from private banks; the few elites of world-wide central banks can influence global economies at will).
• Why do some homeschooling proponents advocate from-the-box homeschool curricula? Follow the money (they can make a quick buck off of sincere people who want to give their children a better education, even though those people could provide a better education for much cheaper).

My intention is not to infer that making money is evil. On the contrary, I want to make money. I want to teach my children how to make money. We all need to make money.

You just need to understand the motivations of authority figures before you buy into their story - and realize that not all stories are worth buying into.

You subject yourself to constant surveillance all in the name of employment.

Not so long ago, no American would have ever agreed to a working environment where the boss could record his movements, monitor his communications and remove every vestige of privacy. Now, it’s a precondition to employment.

You’re told that if you don’t agree with this, then you must have something to hide. You must have ill intentions.

I disagree.

But disagreement won’t help you keep a corporate job. You MUST agree to their policies in order to get hired. It’s all in the “employee handbook” that you signed in order to get the job.

Why do American companies distrust their employees so much?

More importantly, why do you accept this as normal and suffer it?

The answer to the first question is that corporations don’t view you as an intelligent individual of great worth. You are a human resource, a production unit, and you need to be managed and optimized in order to milk the maximum amount of work out of you at the minimum cost (this is called efficiency). You can’t be trusted because without management you are only a child to them and incapable of making consistently correct decisions independently.

It will be difficult to change this lack of trust immediately, so it may be of more value to focus on the second question - your acceptance of this employment arrangement.

You might think that you accept this corporate police-state policy because you have no other choice; you need a decent-paying job to pay the bills and raise kids; you were trained for this type of work; the economy is tight and finding good jobs is hard to do. If you think this way then you’re right about one thing - you were, in fact, trained for this type of work.

Not only that, but you were trained to think that this is your only option. From the day you stepped into a kindergarten class, you have been prepared to believe that you need to follow their proscribed path to employability, or else you’ll never be able to compete as an adult.

I’ll let you in on a little secret: they’re wrong. You are intelligent and capable, despite what they believe. You don’t need to be a cog in their machine in order to succeed.

Now you know. What will you do about it?

In our school systems today, we force our children to follow a curriculum that does not educate them. It just forces them to obey. It trains them to depend on an authority figure to tell them what to do and when to do it. It discourages them from thinking independently. When assignments are completed, most students have to wait for the teacher to tell them what to do next. If they try to do something on their own accord, they are reprimanded for disobedience.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a strong proponent for raising obedient children. But the issue isn’t with the children - it’s with the authority source. I want (and expect) my children to obey me…with the knowledge that I love them, respect them and want to guide them in the right direction. The powers influencing the American school system don’t have as honorable intentions as I do.

There are many ways to learn. School is among the worst possible vehicles to facilitate that process.

As a youth, I often considered myself a slacker. I got good grades without much effort, though I’m not sure I really learned anything (other than how to get good grades without much effort). I regularly put off assignments until the last minute, studying for finals and writing term papers the night before they were due. In fact, my friends gave me the moniker of “The Great Procrastinator” (oddly enough, this was given as a compliment and not a condemnation).

As I’ve grown older and found great joy in educating myself [on topics I like] and working [on projects I choose], I look back at my youth and realize that I never really was as much a slacker as I had assumed. Yes, I procrastinated [things I didn't want to do at the time or felt were unimportant]. But I didn’t sit around and do nothing. I just filled my time with other activities I enjoyed sports, reading, backpacking, hanging out with friends and other self-directed learning experiences.

Our school system is obsessed with giving students “busy work” that doesn’t actually teach them anything. It just gives them something to do. And it’s intentional.

Good students become good employees. They don’t question authority too much and they keep themselves “occupied” with their “occupation.” The managing elite create and eliminate “useless” jobs on a whim in order to affect their stock valuations.

There is a secret about work that certain parties don’t want to let out. Work is fulfilling. Work builds character and, when self-motivated, work can even be enjoyable!

Ask your self-employed friends how they feel about work and likely the response will be positive. It’s often extremely difficult to maintain their businesses, but they wouldn’t give it up, especially if the alternative was to end up in a sea of cubicles. There is something liberating about working on projects that you determine to be important.

Independent children are a threat to corporate establishments. They can’t allow children to work too enthusiastically, for fear they would discover the fulfilling nature of work. This may lead them to create their own work, which would threaten the establishment’s economic dominance.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t want an occupation. I do, however, want to work.

Unlike our government, Jesus Christ did not establish a compulsory school system. He invited, “Follow me.” Some chose to attend, some didn’t, but it wasn’t mandatory. He issued a calling and left you to respond according to your will.

The way was hard. Hunger, fatigue and suffering in the desert were imminent, as were scorn and persecution. Absolute commitment and passion were required to succeed.

As Christ’s disciple, you had to think independently. There wasn’t much offered in the way of formalized lecture. Jesus taught by example and parable, pointing out principles and expecting you to find meaning based on shared experiences.

Christ’s method required a master. He was fully versed in his discipline before taking on disciples.

How does this compare with our current school system?

Your company probably has an HR department. My guess is that “HR” is an intentional euphemism. It helps keep the masses (the human resources) from pondering on the fact that they’re a commoditized product, much like fax machines and red Swingline staplers.

Quit being a tool.

Are your children participants in the standard American school system (notice I didn’t call it an “education” system)? If so, they’re human resources too. Tools-in-training. Their future owners help support and finance the school system and influence the curriculum.

Save your children. Throw away the text books. Get them out of school and into education.

If you work for a corporation, you probably have some sort of Pavlovian compensation package. You’re tricked into performing at a certain level based on external cues (bonuses, trips to Hawaii and/or other incentives).

This incentive theory exists to assist managers in accomplishing their agenda via the managed. I’m not saying that there is anything intrinsically wrong with earning additional cash as a result of achieving goals. I’m just saying that this mentality and management style is a product of behavioral conditioning.

Now the question is, “do you like being a guinea pig, or would you rather provide yourself with your own agenda and your own incentives?”