Human mind has an unbelievable capacity to learn. Human baby starts learning right after the birth. Since, humans have a lifestyle, very distinct from other living species, every new off-spring needs to go through a lifelong, very complicated learning process. The actual process and its ingredients vary a lot depending upon the place of birth, genetics, mental and physical capabilities, expectations and family. In order to survive and thrive in highly social and integrated human societies, a number of skills are considered necessary to be acquired and polished. Most highly ranked skills are creativity, sociability, character, empathy, work ethics and responsibility.
Naturally, it was, and to a great extant, it is the family which provides the basic environment for learning, in most cases. Before anyone else, it was religions which realized that in order to guarantee a continued following they must start teaching kids religion outside the home. Since, in most cases, royalties and theocracies belonged to same status quo, most of the religious educational institutions, mainly located within or in vicinity of the place of worship, historically got very good sponsorship from ruling classes. In return, religions guaranteed very submissive folks to royal families. This was the primitive form of state indoctrination through education.
As the governments grew in size, resources and authority, and separation of state and church gradually became order of the day, governments realized that they need a separate, better organized and better tax payers funded systems of indoctrination. This gave birth to public education system. Problem was to convince parents to send their kids to government schools. So, the laws were made which obligated parents to make sure that their kids get at least a certain level of education. Gradually, the job markets, and economic and financial well-being of a citizen was increasingly tied to academic qualifications.
In most countries, although a private educational system or home schooling was allowed, but, it was made sure that the private and home schooling comply with some basic indoctrination principles. Hence, you see the results like almost all Americans hated Soviet Union and most Soviets hated America. Most Pakistanis are raised to hate India and most Indians hate Pakistan. Most Arabs hate Israel and most Israelis hate Arabs. Mostly, these are the fruits of indoctrination in public schools. It is very much like the students of one religious school always hated the other religions, and they still do. The public school systems are built on same principles of indoctrination, so, the results are same, too.
Building barriers and walls are not the only problems created by public school systems. They are also a huge hindrance in the development of most precious faculty of human mind, the creativity. This indoctrination exerts huge limits on the free and unrestricted growth of human creativity. Since minds, young and old alike, are not allowed to think beyond certain limits, enforced by educational principles of indoctrination, most people are never able to think outside the box. What is labeled as “normal” is pretty much the only way to go, and attain acceptance from society.
This indoctrination encompasses almost every aspect of a person’s life. It tells you what to think and how to think, what to say and how to say, how to behave, what to eat, what to wear, and even how to live. Young and old minds which do not fully confirm to this indoctrination are promptly labeled as “weird”, “stupid”, “crazy”, “sick”, “off-center” and “not fit”. They may be officially declared as suffering from a disorder, by medical establishment. “Autism” is a very good example of it. They may even be criminalized, if they show “too much deviation” from norm, for example, drug users.
This indoctrination of human minds, also called brain washing, does not stop at any point. It just keep getting worse and worse, to the point that now it is taking a violent turn. Let me give you an example. One of the most basic things that our school system teaches, and which is responsible for the largest chunk of student suspensions and other punishments, is to never challenge an authority. I understand that establishment and maintenance of authority is necessary, to some extent, in order to keep discipline and make things going in proper and desirable direction.
But, the notion that an authority must never be challenged, even if it is wrong, has a much longer and wide range of implications in people’s lives. The result is that instead of highly creative and independent minds, we create blind followers. As a nation, it has become our character to not question anyone or anything perceived as authority. This is what makes us to believe whatever corporate media tells us. It makes us to vote for the same corrupt political parties and politicians, over and over, again. It makes us believe that the most authoritative institution in our society, government, is always right.
Ladies and gentlemen, looks like that our politicians think that current serious restrictions placed on the development of our young minds are not enough. So, they want to restrict them even more through the use of more violent authority. It is a rising trend in many school districts in United States to place police in schools. I totally believe that this will be last nail in the coffin of our already dying educational system. Unfortunately, instead of focusing on real problems and solutions, politicians are stressing on the use of even more authority, hence, restricting the development of young minds, even more. This is going to increase the cost, too, while most school districts are struggling with their budgets and funding.
So, what is the problem here? And what needs to be done? The fact is that regardless of whatever child psychology pundits think, every single human mind has an unlimited developmental potential. So, it needs unlimited space to grow. Over time, under the indoctrination principles, the overall educational system has become highly structured and restrictive. At the top of it, some idiots are proposing even more restrictions. These newer and additional boundaries and restrictions on our young minds are just going to make things, even worse.
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