sequel
Chapter 2: Historical Solituditarianism
Students are forced to live in an educational system where their ideas, beliefs, and learning abilities are disregarded. Institutional learning, though believed in the past to be the way to a democracy, only creates a society of robots and passive fools. Alienation, as it is the work place, is one the biggest forces in our system. Students travel to school, pay for it even, everyday without even truly wanting to be there. Some deadbeats don’t even want to learn. Because mankind is naturally curious, however, I believe that many students do want to learn; they are just disgusted with everything they have seen in life.
The main reason for this alienation in education is the fact that students are forced to learn certain things at certain times with certain people in a certain way. This idea is not an accident; it is a means to keep the lower class (those without well-to-do family backgrounds) in the occupation of servile worker. Children are forced to attend schools at strict times with an even stricter time table about when class starts, when one must be in class, when something is due, when we are supposed to have learned a certain subject. The injustice doesn’t stop there. Not only is everything controlled, but our reaction to control is measured by dreaded standardized tests. Tests are by no means a good way of measuring an individual, as some have had bad days, are not good test-takers in general, or the background of the test-maker does not coincide with their own. Everything in education is biased towards the conforming and model student.
I must admit that I am one of these students. If I were not, I would not be where I am today. I did everything I had to do on time, and if I didn’t, I found other ways to make up for it so that my precious grade didn’t fall below the respectable standard. Despite my courageous efforts, I am still attending a state school simply because I don’t have the money to attend a well-respected private school. Are state schools any less inclined than private schools? In my opinion, private schools are not filled with brilliant people, for there certainly couldn’t be that much of them. Private schools are filled with people with less than adequate grades, rich snobs, and close-minded yuppies. State schools, on the other hand, are filled with hard-working, capable students who just didn’t have the luck of over-indulgent parents.
The idea of grading itself is blood-sucking. Judging someone by grades does not mean they have learned anything. Students who are simply good at regurgitating what they are told have learned nothing. They just forget everything the day after the test, and yet, these are the people that get A’s. Instead of promoting well-though and well-spoken individuals, we are just worshipping those who have absolutely nothing in their heads but greed and corruption.
Therefore, the ideal school would have neither grading nor testing of any kind. Instead, they would be judged on their ability to discuss the subject with accuracy and the ability to form new ideas of their own. Everything in the school would be based on philosophical discussion rather than back-stabbing competition as in the modern society.
In addition to discussion, each student would start learning his or her own interests at a much younger age than today. In current times, one does not begin focusing on his or her own passions until college, and even then, general education requirements are mandatory. To correct this, the perfect society would have children as young as four years old learning and experiencing different concepts through parents, reading, and nature. Once a certain skill is attained or appreciated, the child would then be schooled in this area of discipline.
In this way, instead of creating a hodgepodge of “average experts” in a field, we would have “holistic experts.” There is simply not enough time to become a “holistic expert” by having to study a little bit of everything and only studying one’s interest for four, six, or even eight years. Each subject has a much deeper meaning and understanding than our current educational system lets on. We may be able to study enough to teach another the basics, but as we weed out “holistic experts,” we are slowly losing the real depth of every subject. If one was studied entirely by certain people, these certain people would recover different aspects of the discipline that we have lost over time.
It is necessary, I know, to educate children in every subject. They only, however, need to know the limited information to function in society. As an expert in one area, he or she will be far more valuable to society than knowing a mixture of different things. In this way, we never truly learn anything.
Like Plato’s Craft Analogy, it is necessary for experts to rule the state, and experts should also rule their own field. Currently, we have no experts running the curriculum of their discipline. Speaking of curriculum, this idea that mankind has created is stifling. Instead of discovering new things about a subject, for this is still much to learn in everything, we just rehash over and over again what we have already learned. It is necessary to allow children and adults alike, to study their interpretation of the subject they enjoy. From different perspectives, we will discover the idea of mathematics, science, oratory, rhetoric, history, or philosophy as a whole.
Everyone works better when allowed to work individually. In today’s society, there is a farce that working in groups or working cooperatively yields the best results. This is a lie. The greatest thinkers of our species discovered what they knew or learned on their own. There are several examples of this. One of the best is Leonardo Da Vinci, who taught himself everything he knew from his father’s farm. Abraham Lincoln received only a year of accumulated formal education, and yet he is considered one of the greatest presidents of the United States.
Much like Romanticism believed, institutional education only hinders students to achieve beyond average means. Gearing education towards the average student has made us a very average species. In order for children to grow and prosper, they must be pushed beyond their superficial means. Students today have grown lazy, disinterested, heartless, and spoiled. Why is this? Well, it has absolutely nothing to do with the student himself, but the way he is taught. Because he is taught like a stupid robot that is only meant to regurgitate information and work like the rest of society, he has lost all hope in himself and therefore, feels cheated in some way. Our system is so engrained in traditions that students no longer even know why they feel angry and disheartened they way that they do. The reason they feel this way is because they are treated like fools who know nothing. In reality, that person may know a lot that he or she hasn’t discovered yet, but they never will, because their self-confidence is shut down at a young age.
Take the philosophers of ancient Greece and Rome. There was no formal education to teach them what they came to know, at least not the education that we envision now. This is why they wrote exceptionally and thought immensely. It is not merely because they were geniuses, though they certainly were; it is because they were free to develop their own ideas. Mankind today is greatly underestimated. The reason that children seem so dumb now is not because they are, but because they are programmed to be. If they were allowed to explore their own world through books, writing, thought, and meditation, we would reveal a world entirely intellectual and equal. Intelligence is where true freedom lies, not in the Declaration of Independence.
I myself do not know what my favorite or strongest subject is. This is because I have never been given the opportunity to find it. At a young age, I was stripped of my creativity and my independence, and I was forced to learn things I hated, work with people I didn’t work well with, and learn these subjects in only a certain way. Well, what if that wasn’t the way I necessarily wanted to learn it? What if I wanted to learn it by writing stories and examining the characters and sentences of the master writers, like I would prefer doing? Perhaps then I would truly know what I enjoyed.
There are those who say that some children are just lazy and that they do not want to learn. This is undoubtedly true. Education is not for everybody. After having learned to read and write functionally, some students just show no aptitude for the finer arts of discussion and thought. This is not a problem; however, it is a fact. By giving children the time to learn their interests at a young age, one will be able to observe whether the child likes learning or not. It may be possible that they like manual labor, merchandizing, or even hair-dressing. This is not to be looked down upon. They are just as vital to society as our trained philosophers. They are the backbone of a strong society that runs on the labor of its citizens. If this is what they enjoy, allow them to follow their passion! They do not have to go to college, as today, where there is a “college for everybody.” Some people have other gifts we have not utilized yet.
The perfect school would consist of students naturally inclined living there and studying their own area of academic interest. By taking children out of the working world, they learn their own subject to the point of mastery. They will be able to interview, read, write, think, and study nature to experience the truth of their fervor. Is it right to hold people back and keep them from developing beyond average? Is there a reason to do this?
The sad answer is that those in power do have a reason to let this happen. They want citizens to be average so that they have more slaves to the capitalistic system. Institutional education and the way it was structured was by no means an accident. Public education in America, as developed by Horace Mann (who had good intentions) was created at a time when mercantilism and capitalism reigned supreme. The people in charge did not want students growing smarter than them or restless in their stifling environment. They wanted workers that would supply goods and profits. Because of this, potential geniuses were kept working a factory while cut-throat business men grew fat off of their uncompensated labor.
Perhaps I sound radical and Marxist in this description, but I am not trying to say that capitalism is to blame. The system certainly has its advantages such as supply and demand, etc. I must admit economics is not my subject. What I do know is that from capitalism education kept students “in their place” as unskilled and unintelligent laborers. Laborers are certainly important to society, for one would not exist without them, but not all people are meant to live that way. Labor just isn’t their skill. Some people would do much better with a book or a pen, and some people wouldn’t need a calculator if they were allowed to study on their own.
There are those who would believe that this idea of the perfect educational society would be dreadful. By sending children to schools, they would have no time with their parents or siblings, they would not learn to love, and they would not learn happiness. People are only envisioning superficial happiness. Genuine happiness comes from fulfilling one’s mind and potential, by exploring everything about the world and what makes our situation so grand. Not only would they be genuinely happy, but they certainly would have the time to see parents or whomever they wished. They wouldn’t be quarantined. They would, however, learn to live alone, in a concept I have dubbed as Solituditarianism. They wouldn’t live this way because it is depressing or vulgar. On the contrary, they would interact, for I have already stated that discussion is the main way of evaluating one’s knowledge of a certain subject, but instead of growing dependent on another’s ideas, they would develop their own.
Our current idea of love in society makes one reliant on their so-called “loved ones.” This is not true love. True love is achieved when one’s partner gives them the opportunity to explore and discover what they want to know, even if that meant being away for years. All animals are social, and humans are no exception, but we have a much skewed version of love. Love comes from you, not from other people. One can never find happiness in another. He or she can only find happiness when they truly understand their own limits and greatness.
Everybody likes some solitude. This is because this is the time that many are able to think. Human beings like to think. They like to observe and ponder and question. Being with others and creating superficial happiness is the opposite way of doing that. They grow even more shallow, numbed, and depressed. Throughout history, the greatest people have taught themselves, explored by themselves, and loved by themselves. Why can we not do the same today? Are we somehow different from the past? The answer is that we are not different at all.
Living on one’s own path is not a scary thing, but enlightening. To let children learn on their own, play on their own, and explore on their own is teaching them to be fully capable intellectuals and human beings. Let people find out what their passions are and let them pursue them. Let people develop their own idea of education. This institutional education we revel in is far from efficient, and instead of making people sheep, we should make them independent leaders. The society of Solituditarianism would allow just that.
Students are forced to live in an educational system where their ideas, beliefs, and learning abilities are disregarded. Institutional learning, though believed in the past to be the way to a democracy, only creates a society of robots and passive fools. Alienation, as it is the work place, is one the biggest forces in our system. Students travel to school, pay for it even, everyday without even truly wanting to be there. Some deadbeats don’t even want to learn. Because mankind is naturally curious, however, I believe that many students do want to learn; they are just disgusted with everything they have seen in life.
The main reason for this alienation in education is the fact that students are forced to learn certain things at certain times with certain people in a certain way. This idea is not an accident; it is a means to keep the lower class (those without well-to-do family backgrounds) in the occupation of servile worker. Children are forced to attend schools at strict times with an even stricter time table about when class starts, when one must be in class, when something is due, when we are supposed to have learned a certain subject. The injustice doesn’t stop there. Not only is everything controlled, but our reaction to control is measured by dreaded standardized tests. Tests are by no means a good way of measuring an individual, as some have had bad days, are not good test-takers in general, or the background of the test-maker does not coincide with their own. Everything in education is biased towards the conforming and model student.
I must admit that I am one of these students. If I were not, I would not be where I am today. I did everything I had to do on time, and if I didn’t, I found other ways to make up for it so that my precious grade didn’t fall below the respectable standard. Despite my courageous efforts, I am still attending a state school simply because I don’t have the money to attend a well-respected private school. Are state schools any less inclined than private schools? In my opinion, private schools are not filled with brilliant people, for there certainly couldn’t be that much of them. Private schools are filled with people with less than adequate grades, rich snobs, and close-minded yuppies. State schools, on the other hand, are filled with hard-working, capable students who just didn’t have the luck of over-indulgent parents.
The idea of grading itself is blood-sucking. Judging someone by grades does not mean they have learned anything. Students who are simply good at regurgitating what they are told have learned nothing. They just forget everything the day after the test, and yet, these are the people that get A’s. Instead of promoting well-though and well-spoken individuals, we are just worshipping those who have absolutely nothing in their heads but greed and corruption.
Therefore, the ideal school would have neither grading nor testing of any kind. Instead, they would be judged on their ability to discuss the subject with accuracy and the ability to form new ideas of their own. Everything in the school would be based on philosophical discussion rather than back-stabbing competition as in the modern society.
In addition to discussion, each student would start learning his or her own interests at a much younger age than today. In current times, one does not begin focusing on his or her own passions until college, and even then, general education requirements are mandatory. To correct this, the perfect society would have children as young as four years old learning and experiencing different concepts through parents, reading, and nature. Once a certain skill is attained or appreciated, the child would then be schooled in this area of discipline.
In this way, instead of creating a hodgepodge of “average experts” in a field, we would have “holistic experts.” There is simply not enough time to become a “holistic expert” by having to study a little bit of everything and only studying one’s interest for four, six, or even eight years. Each subject has a much deeper meaning and understanding than our current educational system lets on. We may be able to study enough to teach another the basics, but as we weed out “holistic experts,” we are slowly losing the real depth of every subject. If one was studied entirely by certain people, these certain people would recover different aspects of the discipline that we have lost over time.
It is necessary, I know, to educate children in every subject. They only, however, need to know the limited information to function in society. As an expert in one area, he or she will be far more valuable to society than knowing a mixture of different things. In this way, we never truly learn anything.
Like Plato’s Craft Analogy, it is necessary for experts to rule the state, and experts should also rule their own field. Currently, we have no experts running the curriculum of their discipline. Speaking of curriculum, this idea that mankind has created is stifling. Instead of discovering new things about a subject, for this is still much to learn in everything, we just rehash over and over again what we have already learned. It is necessary to allow children and adults alike, to study their interpretation of the subject they enjoy. From different perspectives, we will discover the idea of mathematics, science, oratory, rhetoric, history, or philosophy as a whole.
Everyone works better when allowed to work individually. In today’s society, there is a farce that working in groups or working cooperatively yields the best results. This is a lie. The greatest thinkers of our species discovered what they knew or learned on their own. There are several examples of this. One of the best is Leonardo Da Vinci, who taught himself everything he knew from his father’s farm. Abraham Lincoln received only a year of accumulated formal education, and yet he is considered one of the greatest presidents of the United States.
Much like Romanticism believed, institutional education only hinders students to achieve beyond average means. Gearing education towards the average student has made us a very average species. In order for children to grow and prosper, they must be pushed beyond their superficial means. Students today have grown lazy, disinterested, heartless, and spoiled. Why is this? Well, it has absolutely nothing to do with the student himself, but the way he is taught. Because he is taught like a stupid robot that is only meant to regurgitate information and work like the rest of society, he has lost all hope in himself and therefore, feels cheated in some way. Our system is so engrained in traditions that students no longer even know why they feel angry and disheartened they way that they do. The reason they feel this way is because they are treated like fools who know nothing. In reality, that person may know a lot that he or she hasn’t discovered yet, but they never will, because their self-confidence is shut down at a young age.
Take the philosophers of ancient Greece and Rome. There was no formal education to teach them what they came to know, at least not the education that we envision now. This is why they wrote exceptionally and thought immensely. It is not merely because they were geniuses, though they certainly were; it is because they were free to develop their own ideas. Mankind today is greatly underestimated. The reason that children seem so dumb now is not because they are, but because they are programmed to be. If they were allowed to explore their own world through books, writing, thought, and meditation, we would reveal a world entirely intellectual and equal. Intelligence is where true freedom lies, not in the Declaration of Independence.
I myself do not know what my favorite or strongest subject is. This is because I have never been given the opportunity to find it. At a young age, I was stripped of my creativity and my independence, and I was forced to learn things I hated, work with people I didn’t work well with, and learn these subjects in only a certain way. Well, what if that wasn’t the way I necessarily wanted to learn it? What if I wanted to learn it by writing stories and examining the characters and sentences of the master writers, like I would prefer doing? Perhaps then I would truly know what I enjoyed.
There are those who say that some children are just lazy and that they do not want to learn. This is undoubtedly true. Education is not for everybody. After having learned to read and write functionally, some students just show no aptitude for the finer arts of discussion and thought. This is not a problem; however, it is a fact. By giving children the time to learn their interests at a young age, one will be able to observe whether the child likes learning or not. It may be possible that they like manual labor, merchandizing, or even hair-dressing. This is not to be looked down upon. They are just as vital to society as our trained philosophers. They are the backbone of a strong society that runs on the labor of its citizens. If this is what they enjoy, allow them to follow their passion! They do not have to go to college, as today, where there is a “college for everybody.” Some people have other gifts we have not utilized yet.
The perfect school would consist of students naturally inclined living there and studying their own area of academic interest. By taking children out of the working world, they learn their own subject to the point of mastery. They will be able to interview, read, write, think, and study nature to experience the truth of their fervor. Is it right to hold people back and keep them from developing beyond average? Is there a reason to do this?
The sad answer is that those in power do have a reason to let this happen. They want citizens to be average so that they have more slaves to the capitalistic system. Institutional education and the way it was structured was by no means an accident. Public education in America, as developed by Horace Mann (who had good intentions) was created at a time when mercantilism and capitalism reigned supreme. The people in charge did not want students growing smarter than them or restless in their stifling environment. They wanted workers that would supply goods and profits. Because of this, potential geniuses were kept working a factory while cut-throat business men grew fat off of their uncompensated labor.
Perhaps I sound radical and Marxist in this description, but I am not trying to say that capitalism is to blame. The system certainly has its advantages such as supply and demand, etc. I must admit economics is not my subject. What I do know is that from capitalism education kept students “in their place” as unskilled and unintelligent laborers. Laborers are certainly important to society, for one would not exist without them, but not all people are meant to live that way. Labor just isn’t their skill. Some people would do much better with a book or a pen, and some people wouldn’t need a calculator if they were allowed to study on their own.
There are those who would believe that this idea of the perfect educational society would be dreadful. By sending children to schools, they would have no time with their parents or siblings, they would not learn to love, and they would not learn happiness. People are only envisioning superficial happiness. Genuine happiness comes from fulfilling one’s mind and potential, by exploring everything about the world and what makes our situation so grand. Not only would they be genuinely happy, but they certainly would have the time to see parents or whomever they wished. They wouldn’t be quarantined. They would, however, learn to live alone, in a concept I have dubbed as Solituditarianism. They wouldn’t live this way because it is depressing or vulgar. On the contrary, they would interact, for I have already stated that discussion is the main way of evaluating one’s knowledge of a certain subject, but instead of growing dependent on another’s ideas, they would develop their own.
Our current idea of love in society makes one reliant on their so-called “loved ones.” This is not true love. True love is achieved when one’s partner gives them the opportunity to explore and discover what they want to know, even if that meant being away for years. All animals are social, and humans are no exception, but we have a much skewed version of love. Love comes from you, not from other people. One can never find happiness in another. He or she can only find happiness when they truly understand their own limits and greatness.
Everybody likes some solitude. This is because this is the time that many are able to think. Human beings like to think. They like to observe and ponder and question. Being with others and creating superficial happiness is the opposite way of doing that. They grow even more shallow, numbed, and depressed. Throughout history, the greatest people have taught themselves, explored by themselves, and loved by themselves. Why can we not do the same today? Are we somehow different from the past? The answer is that we are not different at all.
Living on one’s own path is not a scary thing, but enlightening. To let children learn on their own, play on their own, and explore on their own is teaching them to be fully capable intellectuals and human beings. Let people find out what their passions are and let them pursue them. Let people develop their own idea of education. This institutional education we revel in is far from efficient, and instead of making people sheep, we should make them independent leaders. The society of Solituditarianism would allow just that.