Against the Grain

Nothing is void of change but change itself. The question is what is the best direction in which we should evolve our methods of thought, education, and government. And how fast can we get there. Having such a short life span the average human being is plagued with myopia. We take for granted that everything that has been constant since the beginning of our lives will remain constant. We take for granted that everything that has been constant since the beginning of our parents lives, and our grandparent's lives will remain constant. A look at History will tell you otherwise. Many people have been overcome with the American arrogant thought line that leads to the belief that we are now, have been, and will always be the best, most powerful nation in the world. That our culture is the most intelligent and those who fall outside of the invisible walls of our isolationist world is wrong, barbaric, or to an extreme extent, evil or not human. That our methods are all perfect, especially those that have never been changed in our life time such as the practice of sorting students by age and the grade system as a whole. Or the general deemphasis on the importance of a well rounded education from the government that funds (or neglects to fund) it. Music, Art, Physical Education, Health, Philosophy, Technology, and others. To think about this from the correct angle we must place ourselves at the root of the existance of the public school system. The point: to teach people how to be intelligent participants in the democratic process. So many things bar the way for this idea to get to kids as a reason why they are in school. Instead of telling our children that they are in school so that they can grow up to defend and vote for the ideals they believe in so that the country's actions truly represent the intentions of its people. It can often be heard instead the belittlement of their intelligence.
"You're in first grade and if you do good you get to go to second grade." The curiosity of children often continues down this pattern through the grade system until you get to the job. You do all of this so you can get a "good job" which often translates to materialism. A good job means you'll have more money, and thats good because you can have more stuff. But where does it all end? Where does the chain of the grade system end? Do you keep on getting more stuff, and then encourage your kids to in turn acquire more stuff than you could and elevate your family line to the richest and highest of all positions? What happens when you get there? When the line ends and you've reached "it". It is often assumed but rarely said aloud. Happiness. The ultimate goal of this cycle is an implied happiness though the acquisition of things. But when applying what we know about the tendencies of human nature it is obvious that this system can never work. Once we have something, we want something more. It can be seen in the Yachts, Mansions, and other "things" of the billionaires of the world. Billionaires. The product of human nature and a thought process that stresses the illogical conclusion that stuff = happiness. We teach our children this from grade 1 all the way to death. You do this to get to the next step, the next grade, the next level. Then its the next job, the next promotion, the next, the next, the next. Follow this foolproof plan to "success" and it will lead to a magical land of implied happiness through the acquisition of stuff. Success: another loaded word. Ask a product of the grade system what success is and you're likely to get similar responses from 9/10 of them. Money. Success = Money = Stuff(Happiness). But the happiness is most often parenthetical. It isn't seen as the ultimate goal, most of the time product(s) of the grade system cant see the ultimate goal, or even think about it. They're lost in their myopia. They can only see what they've been taught to see since the beginning of their eduacation. The next step. Nothing matters but the next step. Once you get there, someone will tell you what the step after is, won't they? Its no wonder the dropout is so high. Tell a kid all his life exaclty what he's supposed to do every step of the way and then, in the last year of his public education tell him he's supposed to pick a career. As if he were picking out a t-shirt at his favorite clothing outlet. But not only do these problems lie in the product(s) of the grade system, but in the process itself issues manifest. issues that have yet to be brought to any sort of acceptable resolution.
Due to the lack of funding to education departments around the nation. Teachers and administrators are forced to categorize and generalize human beings into levels of intelligence. The three most popular factors/methods of deciding this are age, reading level and standardized testing. Age. We are currently in a system in which you are expected to be at the level of intellectual preparation and learning capacity of people of the same age as you are. When taking into account that every single human being that has ever lived is different from every other, it is easy to see the problem that is bred in turn from this method. Some people are faster than others. Some people are smarter than others. Often these two things are confused. Take for instance the student that finishes his test in 10 minutes and gets 95% of the answers correct. Compare him with the student that took the entire time allowed for the test and finished only 95% of the questions, but got every one correct. These two learning abilities are different and need to be distinguished. In society there are advantages to both of these abilities, you must possess a minimum level of each in order to perform the career you choose adequately. In order to solve the problem of difference in ability between students, those in power have come up with what is known as the tracking system. Lets put the smart kids together so that they won't get held back by the dumb kids. And Lets put the dumb kids together so that... what? Won't have the benefit of learning from the smart kids? So that the dumb kids won't feel bad about themselves because the smart kids won't be in the same class room? So that the repressed and downtrodden won't have the chance to get past the barriers of class, even though their children? So that the dumb kids can be given the attention they need to learn?
Some of these goals have been accomplished by tracking. The smart kids aren't held back by the dumb kids. But were they really being held back all that much in the first place? The dumb kids don't have the benefit of learning from the smart kids. The repressed and downtrodden are kept "in their place". But two of these "ideas" missed the mark. The dumb kids aren't given the special attention they need to learn because all the best teachers are given the smart kids as a sort of reward. Also, the smart kids usually have smaller class sizes, and therefore the dumb kids get stuck with the bigger classes. Why? And taking the smart kids out of the classroom doesn't improve the self esteem of the dumb kids because they are in a room with all dumb kids, it makes it even worse. Its mind boggling when you think about how little this method was looked into. "lets put each kid into a group based on how smart he/she is, that way each group can learn at their own speed." so, how do you propose we do this Mr. Man?
Reading Level. "Lets rank kids based on their reading level (or English grade) because that is the most important thing in education." said Mr. Man. The narrow minded, overgeneralizing ways of the government show themselves again. You can either choose to believe that they actually think that the intellectual value of each student can be discerned just by looking at their skills in english. Or you can take my approach and say that they knew it wouldn't give every kid a decent shot at life, but would instead propel those taught with the traditional values of the importance of reading and writing in ENGLISH. And leave all immigrants at a huge disadvantage and a lack of opportunity to show their worth and value as citizens of the United States. I'm all for assimilation. Its very important and I think that there are a lot of ways that corporations are making it harder for Hispanic immigrants to assimilate, but that is for another nearly midnight rant. But the issue here lies in the motives of the decision makers. What about people who aren't academically gifted but find that their talents lie in music, art, or more hands on learning found in technology courses? What about the kid who has a chance to be great in math, but got stuck in the dumb group for all of his classes because he didn't have an aptitude for English related skills? How can a standardized test accurately determine a students command of the English language, or any other subject that matter. Some students don't respond well to tests, does that mean that in every career path they choose they will find themselves failing because they aren't good at standardized testing? How do they choose this "standard"? Is it based on an average of the previously obtained levels of academic performance from the past? Or is it a bunch of people sitting in a room deciding what standard is achievable by the students of the current generation based on similar data? If these standards are always in flux than what is the point in setting them. If a track coach set the bar to a height he knew the high jumper could reach and after seeing the athlete complete his task to the requirements he set, praised the monkey for doing his job and didn't then raise the bar - what would be the point. To give the athlete a false sense of accomplishment and self esteem? What is so different about what we are doing to our kids with this flawed system of standards and grading? The answer to all of the questions I have posed center around one main idea. Those with power, fear only to lose it, and will in turn use their power to its fullest extent in order to keep it in their possession. It is all a planned device. Meant to get the rich richer and the poor poorer. They model their schools after the social systems that keep them in power. This way when the students get to "the real world" they will automatically presume an attitude of "business as usual" The tracking system is the class system. We are taught that we are put in a track or a class because of our abilities or circumstances, as if it is this unchangeable ultimate judgment of our worth that we have to accept and carry with us for the rest of our lives. As if we cannot learn to be better learners. As if we cannot work to become better than what we are labeled as by some standardized test, some grade, some preordained 143 step program that we have to follow because it will lead us to where we should be, or rather, where they want us to be. Subvert the dominant paradigm. Stand against the grain. Or be counted among the departed, fooled into living and dying a life that someone gave them, to further their own selfish ends.