Self Improvement

Things To Think About

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Education or Indoctrination,
Which do we have?Has the education system in the US failed in its mission?

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Education or Indoctrination    By R.E. Darby


The fact that these two concepts are and have been traditionally contraversial, is itself and indicationof the confusion our species is in regarding the value of the individual as apposed to that of the organizedsocial group. This is usually couched in the terms of the 'interests of society over those of the individual'.


Bureaucracy or People


The struggle between the needs of society and those of the individual is as old as Humans have been social. Like most struggles, there are tradeoffs, but what happens when the tradeoffs favor the interests of one more than the other? And what if society's interests become primarily the interests of its bureaucracy or infrastructure?

Just plug the title of this article into any search engine and see what you get. This is a highly controversial subject but most views miss the point altogether. Almost all the results that we got back from the search engines were based on a specific agenda. For example; one was all about how a particular political organization was trying to impose their own indoctrination on the public school system while failing to acknowledge that State local and Federal governments as well as various teachers unions and associations, have for decades imposed their doctrine on the public school system on a regular basis.


Education


What these people seem to be missing, is the basic purpose of an educational system in the first place. And in so doing, they fail to identify some fundamental flaws in the current system. For example; like most social infrastructure systems, the education system has failed to adapt and or adjust to the natural changes of time, and therefore is unable to respond to current needs in an appropriate manner.


A small example of this is the continued requirement for algebra to the extent that without it, a student cannot go passed a certain educational point. In the real world, how many citizens ever need to know algebra? Yet this archaic requirement is still being enforced, while at the same time, actual critical educational goals such as critical thinking skills, emotional intelligence or indeed, Human intelligence is never even discussed. To a free independently thinking person this is incredible. Why wouldn't an educational system demand that one of its first educational goals be the mastering of quality thinking skills before the student is exposed to the onslaught of information. Think about it. We send our young to an institution that is run by bureaucrats who are following the instructions of politicians, without first arming them with the ability to process information accurately and thereby protect themselves from false assumptions that may be servinga manipulative agenda?

Education and Politics?


And this of course is probably the point. Bureaucrats / politicians are not likely to eagerly embrace real education because that might produce actually aware and intelligent citizens, and that is, and has always been, perceived as a threat to those obsessed with power and control. On the other hand, social indoctrination is likely to produce good well behaved and obedient robots. This is also the root of the overall problem / dilemma. Our educational system has been in place for decades and has indoctrinated generation after generation. Who then will have the thinking skills necessary to generate the appropriate questions that might have the potential for creating the doubt necessary to seek alternative solutions or even innovative thought on these critical subjects?


It's almost like civilization has a built in catch 22. Society reaches a point in its development where its own survival is its primary objective and so must suppress the population in order to achieve that objective. Beyond a certain point of social suppression by means of indoctrination, the population is less and less able to break free of their enslavement / domination. It is difficult if not impossible to address a problem that we are not able to be aware of.

The solution? Awareness! But we don't see much of that going on these days. There is one small ray of hope however. There is a growing self improvement and personal development movement that has at least the potential for waking us up from our cultural trance. This industry is still pretty much in its infancy, but they are pursuing ideas that have solid potential and are worth checking out.


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