Greece, November 2017. Today I came across this: A primary-school
principal has issued a statement. In so many words the school will be
implementing a groundbreaking and exciting approach to how they treat
kids. For one weekend a month they will be allowed to go home without
any homework and spend quality time with their families. Now, you
might think “wow, this is good. This is a good start”. Let me
tell you why it's not. First, I'd like acknowledge that to the people
who came up with this “groundbreaking” idea, it probably really did seem
that way, additionally this most likely is all they were afforded, instead
of saying "screw homework altogether" which the education system's
powers that be would be sure to swiftly shut down. However, it also doesn't hurt said powers, as it is cleverly and specifically designed to cater to the small-minded
people (of which there are so many here) -who think they are in fact
open-minded-, and their warped little realities. It's like a magic
trick, “look over here” while the real trick is happening over
there like, “look again, guess what? We tanked the economy”.(
just a for-instance, not based on actual events, characters that may bare resemblance to existing people are purely
fictional ) In actuality it's just another way to better prepare
their future-worker bees. Essentially the age at which you become a
worker has been significantly lowered. We are planting the idea, the
seed from which our slave-like mentality will later flourish. You are
getting time off from work little child, get used to feeling
thankful. Gee, a whole, one(singular) weekend to be a kid? Boy, oh
boy, that's mighty nice of you! Because as an adult, you will work
the longest hours, at an often-thankless job and you will get a day
off or two and you will be grateful. As if time off is a rewarding
luxury and not a basic human right.
The way the education system works
here, is that from a young age you are given a ton of homework. You
must learn everything by-heart and generally aren't taught to
exercise too much critical thought. I'm romanticizing. You are in
large discouraged from thinking for yourself. You must study other
people's critical approaches even when discussing the arts, a
famously subjective matter. You are told to memorize entire tomes and
learn complex, university-level sciences. Then you will be sent to actual University where you will study something you like, but mostly something your parents or your teachers or society has encouraged you to study, because God forbid you don't go to University! What will become of you? Almost all of my friends who are musicians, talented ones, have gone on to study shipping. How odd. Although I cannot in good conscience judge them knowing what it's like to live here. I can only hope that they hold onto their creative outlets, their music. I remember telling a woman in Greece that I had dropped out of college in pursuit of a writing career. I've never seen a person's face contort that way before, I thought she was having a stroke. I also told a University professor abroad the same thing and he encouraged me and gave me the best advice I've ever gotten.
I can't tell you how little
I remember from when I was in school, and I was a fairly good
student. Over time I learned to filter, keeping the important stuff,
reading, writing, basic calculus, some chemistry and biology. I learned how to teach myself about the things I found interesting, how to study the world outside of the classroom and how not to worry about proving that I indeed knew what I was talking about. But
what if I didn't have to? I wholeheartedly am against homework,
especially in its current format. I believe homework should work in
the way of one or two assignments a week. Not based on memorizing the
opinions of some old-fart, but in going out and experiencing the
world. For instance “this week, go to a museum, look at the art,
write about a piece that really struck you. Go to a park, learn about
plant-life, conservation and how to save the environment. Go to the
beach, learn about the ocean and its creatures. Read
a book! Write about what YOU thought of it and how it made
YOU feel. Stay home and this time on e.g Chemistry Week, conduct an
experiment. Start learning a foreign language”. Kids are like sponges, and yes they
learn quickly, but overloading them with useless information, all at
the same time won't help educate them any faster. Education doesn't
take place exclusively in school, it is a life-long learning process,
through experience and discovery of the real world, the world out
there. Putting bars on classroom windows and teaching high-school
kids college-level algebra does not an educated person make. What it does make is sheep. So if that was your goal, you got it! Here's a plump, thoughtless little lamb!
Of course in any event
after we are done removing any inclination for common sense and
critical thinking we send boys to the army, just for good measure.
Here they are to be taught discipline and how to defend their
country. My best friend is in the army. In the event of a war, I
guarantee you homeboy gon' be half way to Switzerland before it even
starts. And yet, we are going to take 9 months away from your life,
stick you in a filthy dorm with a bunch of snoring morons, where
you'll have to wake up at a certain time, sleep and eat at a certain
time, follow a specific set of rules under threat of punishment like
not being allowed to wear long-sleeves before a specific date even if
it's cold, because that's the rule(it's true) and you're going to get
sick, you won't be able to go home and you'll only be allowed to see
your family on one certain day. So, prison. This is the definition of
a prison camp. But it's totally normal right? It's not traumatizing
at all! It'll make you into a functioning, disciplined member of
society, definitely. Oh and we'll also teach you how to shoot guns
which, quote, “are designed specifically to take a man's arm clean
off with one shot, designed to kill with one shot”. Yeah, cause
boys definitely need more violence.There are some of you who will produce the invalid argument of "we've all been there". Yes, and that still doesn't make it right. You are part of the problem. You have been conditioned to believe in the normality of your situation, trained to justify and uphold the reality of your predicament instead of being horrified, much like many women here aren't horrified by their 1950s-stay-in-the-kitchen status.
You may think this has nothing to do with education or
that none of the things I've written about are connected, but I'm
sorry to tell you that you are wrong. It is all in the interest of
making everyone into worker bees, all to keep them from looking up.
The system throws its breadcrumbs so that you may follow, they
present you with an illusion, a sliver of something good in a
terrible situation, an exciting denouement in an otherwise uninspired
plot that only makes you think you've received an education, the
tools for an authentic life, the instruments to play your own
original tune. The same way people here have wet-dreams about a
romantic past as if they aren't living in that very place of
inspiration, art and enormous achievement, in a place that birthed
democracy and great philosophers, a place in which today a single
fire burns down the entire country, a single flood kills 16 people.
You wanna tell me how people here are so educated and yet so
incredibly stupid? All of these things are products of a dangerously
dysfunctional, ludicrous system, a well-engineered machine that
strips people of their ability to think critically, learn from their
environment, evolve and adapt and perhaps most devastatingly, dream.
(P.S If you, friend who is reading this, have come out unscathed, a real-life thinking person, it has little to do with your school education, your homework or your grades which at some point felt like a life or death sort of thing. It has to do with you as a person and your ability to learn and think, and the people who supported you into becoming that person, so give yourself a pat on the back, you deserve it. If you managed to get yourself into the University of your choice and studied something you really loved congrats! If you did not get into the University that your parents wanted or didn't follow the career path that was assigned to you, stop worrying, you'll be fine! If you have held onto your dreams and the power they hold, it's never too late. If you are stuck at some job you hate, but are still educating yourself continuously through the world, a day might come that you will stand up and get the hell out. If you have left Greece and live abroad, you've done the right thing. Traveling and experiencing a different culture is an education in itself!)
(P.S If you, friend who is reading this, have come out unscathed, a real-life thinking person, it has little to do with your school education, your homework or your grades which at some point felt like a life or death sort of thing. It has to do with you as a person and your ability to learn and think, and the people who supported you into becoming that person, so give yourself a pat on the back, you deserve it. If you managed to get yourself into the University of your choice and studied something you really loved congrats! If you did not get into the University that your parents wanted or didn't follow the career path that was assigned to you, stop worrying, you'll be fine! If you have held onto your dreams and the power they hold, it's never too late. If you are stuck at some job you hate, but are still educating yourself continuously through the world, a day might come that you will stand up and get the hell out. If you have left Greece and live abroad, you've done the right thing. Traveling and experiencing a different culture is an education in itself!)