We Don't Need No Education
		By Jesse Smith
		http://slicer69.tripod.com


	I have long been a proponent of better public education. We all have the
opportunity to go to school, here in Canada, and I've long felt the most should
be made from it. More books! Better teacher:student ratios! More computers!
I come honestly by my convictions. Having been both a student for fifteen years
of my life and having come from a long line of fine teachers (my mother is a
teacher, her mother was a teacher, her mother was a teacher...) I'd understandably
wish the most for student (and teacher) kind.

	But now (that's more of a "new idea" but, rather than a conjuncting but) I find
myself asking certain questions about the school system. While I was in high school,
and up to this day, I questioned the use of per cent/number grades. We base our
opinion of a student's intelligence on an arbitrary test which may reflect
a child's ability to memorize data from a text book. What kind of silly idea is that?
However, I've gone from questioning the validity of these tests to questioning why
the system is arranged so. This line of questioning has led me to question why the
public school system exists at all.

	The public school system is a relatively new idea to Western civilization. From
what I can piece together from the murky, muddy waters of public school history,
these institutions began popping up during the early to mid 1800's. Little by little
these little beacons of educational light spread across western Europe and North America.
Why? Why, for the betterment of The People! So our children could lead better, easier
lives. So they could go out and get jobs we couldn't and have a life style we never had.
Frankly I think all of those reasons, with the exception of the last one, are
full of horse pucky. Speaking of horses, that last line, "So they could go out and get jobs
we couldn't and have a life style we never had." contains both the carrot and the load.

	Public schools exist, have existed, for the purpose of training youngsters for
the Work Place. Once upon a time children could grow up, learn a trade, work the farm,
follow the art of fishing... However, with the introduction of the Industrial Revolution
something changed. A child learning to sheer sheep knows little about how to operate
a steam engine. As an added aggravation, if the child can't read, giving him or her the
operator's manual is out of the question. The solution is painfully obvious:
Teach the child to recognize basic parts and to read a little. Well, since more
employees are needed, teach groups of them all at once! Oh, better yet, get the
government to pay for the education. ....

	What we've ended up with is a modernization, or a continuation if you will, of
the same basic idea. Our children go off to school and learn the basic building blocks
of reason, reading, writing and following directions. Once these students graduate, they,
newly learned in the ways required to produce results in the economy, enter the Work Force.
Over a decade of following the rules of the system, trying to keep the almighty authority
figures happy with high numbers, has been drilled into their minds so deeply they are
ripe for the picking. The best part, for business that is? We, The People, pay for it.
We pay to have our children sent into these dark, mass-producing institutions of learning
so they may be useful to the masters of the Work Place.

	Now, at this point I'm sure many readers are beginning to question my ability
to reason. Are starting to wonder just how anti-system, paranoid and bitter I am. "Wait
a moment," you might be saying, "You're just talking about public school. What of private
schools and centres of higher learning, such as universities and colleges?"
Yes, what of those? Thank you, you've helped me lead into the carrot half of
"So they could go out and get jobs we couldn't and have a life style we never had."
Here we go.

	To really succeed in this culture, to really bring home the big money, to
really impress others with just how much crap one can buy, one really should have
a better education. Where does one get such a better, brighter, shinier education? Why
from a place which will charge you insane amounts of money! Ahem, I mean from a university
or college. The latter I like because they are up front about molding a student into
a Worker. Smaller amounts of time and money are expended in driving a Trade or a Skill Set
into their charges. In this way colleges are much more honest than their public school
counter parts. CompuCollege, for example, even calls itself "The right school for the job."
Students think this is great! I pay them money, they help me get a job. Then I get money.
Right, except for the loans you need to pay back to government and large business for
the right to work for, hey, government and businesses.

	Loans, that brings me to university. Now I have a different sort of respect for universities.
They've been around a long time and may actually have a purpose in providing a real education
which will encourage people to think and help the human race. As an added bonus, they
also get you the pieces of paper which get you the big paying jobs. Of course, to
get said piece of paper it costs money. So, yes, a doctor may earn over a hundred grand a year,
but that won't cover the loans by the time they get out.

	"Private schools! You skipped private schools!" Oops, allow me to correct that oversight.
Private schools are the same as public schools but they drive the nails into the coffins
of our spirit with a much larger (and more expensive) hammer.

	Now I've rambled for a good while and I think it's nearly time I summed up. But
first let me point this out. Society existed a long long time before public education
and common higher learning. We could do well without it again. Think about it. If suddenly
the Work Force suffers a drop in computer skills, better than average reading skills,
chemists, teachers and engineers, who is going to be the worse off for it? The People, who
may go out and work putting together houses, tend stores and prepare food? Or large
businesses which need people to man the computers, turn the wheels and design smaller,
flashier Walkmans? Which is the human race in more need of, a faster car or an experienced
farmer?

	Would we, the common man or woman, see a drop in living style, in comfort as a result
of shrugging off the offered education? Yes. We most certainly would. But on the flip
side, imagine no student loans. Imagine debt-free living where you wanted to be, doing
a job with your hands and your soul. With the exception of the wealthy, who don't really
need the extra education, students need loans. These debts pile stress upon restrictions.
A person in debt doesn't go do what they want or take the time to write a book of
beautiful poetry. No, they work and nail bite and try to work off the money they
owe.

	We are faced with a society which is told from day one to have Stuff is
desirable. To have Stuff one must have a "good job". A good job in this case meaning
one which pays well, not one which brings personal satisfaction or betters the human
race. To get this glorious job, one must get good grades, do well in school and
go to university. Okay, perhaps I'm a little bitter, but look at all the people, recently
graduated from university. What do they have to show for it? Years of debt, and an urge to cling
to material possessions which they may feel they deserve for their obedience.

	I'm not saying education is a bad thing. I am suggesting it, public education
that is, should take a different direction; a different approach. As it stands, we
have so many students leaving high school who no longer like to learn. Consider that!
They no longer have the hunger for the fruit of knowledge. Knowledge, raw data, has
been pumped into their minds, memorized. Only to be forgotten. So many youth leave public
school actively avoiding the works of Shakespeare and Newton. I'm suggesting our
public education take a different approach. Once the basics, the foundation of wisdom
is formed, why not allow children to take the direction of their choice? Rather than
informing our students they are required to take three credits of English and two of
Math and a handful of Science courses, why not let them set their own course through
the system? Once a student reaches the college/university level they take the courses
they want in the field of their choice. Why is this not the same in public schools?

	Taking this a step further, education should be a process, not a destination. Students
should be taught to think more than to memorize. To enjoy the learning process so they
will want to pursue wisdom. Brain storming, problem solving, role playing, compromising are
far better skills, to my mind, than naming all ten provinces and their capitols in alphabetical
order.

	Now now, what is going to happen to our work force if these wise and differently
trained young adults hit the work force? Who is going to fill those positions? What will
happen to our job market? Maybe businesses would become more interested in setting up
their own training programs. Perhaps they would take on the responsibility of training their
own staff, rather than depending on the public education system, which we fund, for
assembly line produced workers.