Life
Training Up a Child
By Christoper Duff
The other day I watched the movie “Django Unchained” and what resonated with me was the look on the slaves faces, during some scenes. A look of defeat, a look that reflected a shattered will.
What stopped me in my tracks was that it is the same look I see in the mornings when I commute to work. So that got me thinking. The main objective of slavery was to have a labor force that was able to keep up with market demand for particular commodities.
So, essentially it was riven by commerce. (Research ‘Cotton Gin’ to get a better idea). Then came the Industrial Revolution in the 1800’s eventually leading to the abolishing of slavery.
Further research led me to see how the origins of “compulsory education” aka public schools and the Industrial Revolution were connected.
The original concept of the “compulsory education” was developed in Prussia, but was adopted by the United States in 1852. But what most people don’t care to look at is the early objective of “compulsory education”.
It had nothing to do with intellectual growth or personal development. It was about creating obedient citizens and good employees. The objective of these schools were to teach the child fundamental skills to be able to become better workers. And this is why schools aren’t focused on personal development today. Schools focus on ‘creating’ someone, rather than developing that person you want to become. But because we are born into this structure, we see it as normal. No one questions anything about the make up of the structure.
However, what is the point in going against it, if our society is built around this form of education? Then again, that is almost like telling the slaves, why fight for freedom if the whole world is already like this? Or telling women, why fight for the right to vote, if society already says we can’t.
Change never just happens, an agent needs to create it. Something needs to initiate it. People talk about a reform in education, but they’re so focused on these small details. The overall objective of “school” needs to be reformed. School needs to be about developing as well as educating. I see a time where school will develop people to a point where entrepreneurs will create businesses around them. Businesses will seek ‘developed’ people and not just ‘educated’ people.
Could you imagine how boring the NBA would be if the players weren’t passionate about what they did if it was just a job to all of them? You ever realize how the ‘greats’ in any sport were passionate about it, and hungry for it? And we just pass them off as being “miracle stories”?
But are they?
In your own life how far could you get in your company, if you were passionate and hungry about what you do? For me, this is like a prick in my eye, because now that I see it, I cannot see the world any other way. Yes, slavery “no longer exists” in the Western World, but what if it’s just going by another name?
What if mentally we are still in chains? No one has to force us to work, because from childhood we are taught that this is the way it is. Go to school, get a good education and that will land you a good job. But does it? And how do we know what we should take? Is a good job, defined as a job that “pays well”? Why can’t it be something we enjoy as well? Who says I have to go to work miserable? NO ONE! But because it’s so normal, it becomes accepted.
What we need is the radicals who believe in freedom. We need people who challenge everything they are fed. My objective with this post isn’t too create radicals who will quit their jobs, take their chidrem out of school and all that. It is to encourage them to create the change they want to see. You know why many successful people of our time dropped out of school? It’s because they knew exactly where they wanted to go and knew how to use school as leverage to help them get there. So if you’re thinking to drop out of school because of laziness, think again.
Work should be a ‘means’ to help us achieve more; experience or financially. But to most of us, it becomes the end. The point is to get you thinking critically about the world you were born into. Something that schools don’t encourage. Something that people don’t do. To get people to refuse to just accept what we are told. And please don’t take this post as absolute truth either, research everything for yourself. All the information is available, you just have to willing to dig deep enough to find it.