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The title says it all so I'll spare you the melodramatic set up and jump right into the why. Then I'll give a brief expose on what I believe the real aim of education aught to be.
I am tired of hearing politicians and pundits and people of all shapes and form stress that a lack of education is the source of Afghanistan's misery. But here I will list some reasons for why education does a disservice to humanity off the top of my head and dispel all the myths associated with schooling and its supposed merits.
1) The education system has been around since the time of Sumarians when the first traces of the written form of language began. Archeologists have found traces of the sites that were structured in the format of a modern day class room. All benches facing forward where an instructor would teach the children on the basics of arithmetic. Being an agricultural society one had to know simple math in order to keep track of their inventory and barter goods for sale. As language developed so did the levels of education to compliment the level of sophistication of a society. And this was the way education was used as a way of perpetuating the needs of a society.
Flash forward to the present day class room and you have children learning abstract theories and irrelevant psycho babel in class room that hardly fits into their reality of the students. What is the purpose of learning history if it is deduced subjectively from one source and mugged endlessly for no other reason than to instil a false sense of identity? Should I have cared about the world war 1 history when not even those who were participating in it could make sense of the violence they had staked their lives on? Was the story of Romeo and Juliet in English class suppose to encourage forbidden love in the minds of prepubescent youth? Did they suppose that chanting nursery rhymes and orchestrating cute dances for toddlers would increase their memorization capacity? Though, it is known that feelings of patriotism and nationalism are instilled with such activities as the recitation of the national anthem, participation in national holiday themes, e.t.c..
The average boy or girl in a developed country rarely walks out of secondary educational institution feeling smart enough to deal with the realities of daily life. They can hardly balance a cheque book or ration their credit cards...let alone find themselves and have a sense of who they are. Which isn't surprising at all to learn that at least 40% of students in ontario canada drop out of high school. I don't blame them. The education system of developed world has nothing to offer of concrete value. Only a pathetic 15% make it to universities, after which no job is guaranteed for them...and their only subsequent option is more "Education"..mastery ..ph.d ...tenure. And believe me when I tell you a majority of these professors reach retirement without a penny in the bank.
Point being, that the education system is not designed to give the student any real life skills that would be of value to him.
2) So what is the education system designed to do anyway?
Another history lesson. Up until 300 years ago prison systems were slowly starting to look more and more like mental institutions. As a matter of fact, for a long while they were both one and the same. Interestingly enough even to this day, if you walk into the over crowded prisons and jails of America, a good 80% of them would easily be clinically diagnosed with a mental disease. Before they decided to 'institutionalizing' these soulless devils, they would simply torture them in the most brutal of ways imaginable. But then systems came about for controlling them. Regiments would be designed to dictate the course of the daily lives of these inmates. What time they would wake up, what time to exercise and eat, and all other supervised activities strictly controlled for by a watchful warden.
The schooling system is no different than prison system. You have rules to which you must obey. If you break the law, you get punished. And if you are expelled, you will be outcast from the system for life. Breeding subservience and conformity is the absolute goal of the education system. The most educated person is likewise the most brainwashed of all. He has the least sense of self and never the rebel or the one to go against the grade. Always obedient and mindful of what is the "establishment". You learn to be punctual and always on time. So that when you have a job, you will be in your cubicle ready to sell your soul (your time) for a wage. So much of schooling is repetitive and formulated tasks with out much room for improvisation or creativity. Both questions and answers are determined by the teacher and the student must regurgitate the lesson as proof that learning has occurred.
Misfits are those who do not conform to the set rules of behaviours expected of them. Those who are subservient to the establishment excel. And some sycophancy will take one a long way as a favourite pet for the authorities.
So the ultimate task of the education system is to churn robots without any sense of autonomy or self in order to engage in mindless activities for long periods of time, without having too much expectations for more. In other words, students are passive receptors to which teachers "deposit" "facts", "truths" and knowledge. The more the student works at accepting the deposits, the less likely they are to develop a consciousness of their own.
3) In order to seed the feeling of gratitude in the subject, one has to conduce the mind of the child into believing that they would be idiots if not for the formal education that they have received. Right about the 19th century, many eugenicist and craniologists and sociologists and biologists and psychologists and educators collaborated to develop a system of marking intelligence in children so as to separate the best from the rest. For instance, in 2002, Bush signed the The education bill, wherein the emphasis of education was training for higher testing score. In fact, that is what most classes are designed to do now adays - prepare for testing scores. And wouldn't you know it? Last year a fifth grade teacher in L.A committed suicide because his class scored low on a "standardized" test.
It is beyound ridiculous to see how much worth a person would put to these abstract numbers that have nothing to do with the character of a person. Yet everyday we hear of a boy or a girl in India or some other asian country committing suicide because they failed or almost failed a class.
4) The education system is just business.
Public education is a joke and a half to say the least. I was on the bus the other day when two high school students walked in with the most disastrous and horrible textbooks I have ever seen in their hands, barely labelled "Chemistry". Still, when I was in high school we couldn't even take our books to home for some classes. Some classes didn't even have text books.
Then in university you have to pay hundreds of dollars for a new book, because this year they have a new edition you can't buy some body else's new book. When in reality, the difference is only in the wording of some paragraphs here and there but nothing major.
Isn't it great that the price tag on education has kept on rising by 5% annually while the price of everything from real estate to oil has dropped? How are you suppose to pay for an education that runs anywhere from $10K a year to $20K when you don't even have a job to begin with? Did you know that in the US College debt is in excess of $830 billion dollars? More than the credit debt. Why would you want to be an indentured servant?
5) An education does not define who you are. These silly Acronyms that will accompany your name won't mean a thing out side your own box of "expertise". The saying goes that specialization is for insects. In order to create a sense of validation for the expertise you will comprise of, you will be taught a different language that only you and others in your field will understand. Suffice it to say that such silly subjects as "social sciences" have invented a plethora of words in order to obscure understanding. The expert argues that none of this is so. he claims that his expanded language has paralleled an expanded understanding in his area. But this understanding is limited precisely to fellow experts in that area. Ten geographers who think the world is flat will tend to reinforce each other's errors. If they have a private dialect in which to do this, it becomes impossible for outsiders to disagree with them.
Universities should be renamed to multiversities because their training is at the heart of what divides society rather than seeking to uinte it.
The expert considers it his right to treat his own area of expertise as exclusive territory. That, he believes, is what makes him an individual. Much of modern individualism has been confined to superficial and personal matters. So if GoE asks why do people not care to discuss the political situation in afghanistan and instead are more interested in what they ate, it is because of this sort of attitude. The conviction has grown that the only way to develop individual qualities was to reject society.
I remember how in arts class my teacher would stress the importance of expressing my individuality. This was a very confusing task that she had set me up on. Another girl in the class seemed more perplexed and kept questioning the teacher on what she expected. Finally, out of frustration I believe, her self portrait appeared to be a some squiggly lines in brown mark, with some sticks representing her limbs. The teacher was so impressed with this abomination that I couldn't tell if this was talent that was being praised or defiance.
- "Civilization implies specialization, specialization is forgetfulness of total values and the establishment of false ones, that is philistinism. A savage can never fall into this condition, his values are all real, he supplies his own wants and finds them proceeding from himself, not from an estimate of those of others. We must in practice be specialists, the division of labour ordains us to know something of one subject and little of others; it forces Philistinism down our throats whether we like it or not". Judge Hand
Marshal Mcluhan put it :"The expert, as such, is full of insecurity. That is why he specializes in order to obtain some degree of confidence".
The middle-class male and now the middle class female are products of an education and social system which tells them that a successful life requires the penetration of an expert's box and the occupation of as much space as possible within and for as long a period of time as possible. Sensibly enough, few would risk losing that. This fear of acting in an irresponsible manner has struck a death blow to public debate among educated citizens.
It used to be that the path of knowledge would require a life time of devotion for the seeker. He would forgo on the luxuries of life and humbly live on bread and water in some abby or masjid or temple diligently listening to those who possessed some knowledge. By the late hours of the candle light peering into old texts for insights for no other reason but to nourish his own understanding. "Know thy self". The derivate of the word Ilm in the Quran appears 704 times. The first verse to be revealed was "Iqra". Recite. The Qalam and the Kitab, pen and book, mentioned over a hundred times. Islam is the path to knowledge. Allah is the first teacher of Adam who taught him all the names. In Islam Ilm is not merely knowledge. But it is synonymous with Ma'rifah (gnosis). Aqil is the prerequist of Ilm. Islam invites us to exercise our intellect (aqil) to use our Ilm in order to ascertain Haqquq. Man arafa nafsu fa qad Arrafa Rabhu ( one who realizes himself realizes his Lord). In Islam there is no distinction between wisdom and knowledge, they are the same. Ilm is sometimes referred to in the Qur'an as light (nur). And Allah is sometimes referred to as the ultimate nur. And doubt and ignorance is described as darkness.
Ilm is not confined to acquisition but it must also be acted upon. And if your education is of no benefit to humanity than what need is there for it? If you seek knowledge merely for the sake of prestige and wealth, then you won't understand.
In the future I might decide to discuss an alternative form of educational system that may be implemented in third world countries like Afghanistan. Instead of the secular style of schools that are propping up there, no different than what they had churned out in the 60s to 70s ...the abominations of which now haunt the satellite afghan channels of today and the technocratic sycophants that run the current administration, which openly robbing the people without shame.
Salam.
(p.s- will edit and proof read later ...maybe)
I am tired of hearing politicians and pundits and people of all shapes and form stress that a lack of education is the source of Afghanistan's misery. But here I will list some reasons for why education does a disservice to humanity off the top of my head and dispel all the myths associated with schooling and its supposed merits.
1) The education system has been around since the time of Sumarians when the first traces of the written form of language began. Archeologists have found traces of the sites that were structured in the format of a modern day class room. All benches facing forward where an instructor would teach the children on the basics of arithmetic. Being an agricultural society one had to know simple math in order to keep track of their inventory and barter goods for sale. As language developed so did the levels of education to compliment the level of sophistication of a society. And this was the way education was used as a way of perpetuating the needs of a society.
Flash forward to the present day class room and you have children learning abstract theories and irrelevant psycho babel in class room that hardly fits into their reality of the students. What is the purpose of learning history if it is deduced subjectively from one source and mugged endlessly for no other reason than to instil a false sense of identity? Should I have cared about the world war 1 history when not even those who were participating in it could make sense of the violence they had staked their lives on? Was the story of Romeo and Juliet in English class suppose to encourage forbidden love in the minds of prepubescent youth? Did they suppose that chanting nursery rhymes and orchestrating cute dances for toddlers would increase their memorization capacity? Though, it is known that feelings of patriotism and nationalism are instilled with such activities as the recitation of the national anthem, participation in national holiday themes, e.t.c..
The average boy or girl in a developed country rarely walks out of secondary educational institution feeling smart enough to deal with the realities of daily life. They can hardly balance a cheque book or ration their credit cards...let alone find themselves and have a sense of who they are. Which isn't surprising at all to learn that at least 40% of students in ontario canada drop out of high school. I don't blame them. The education system of developed world has nothing to offer of concrete value. Only a pathetic 15% make it to universities, after which no job is guaranteed for them...and their only subsequent option is more "Education"..mastery ..ph.d ...tenure. And believe me when I tell you a majority of these professors reach retirement without a penny in the bank.
Point being, that the education system is not designed to give the student any real life skills that would be of value to him.
2) So what is the education system designed to do anyway?
Another history lesson. Up until 300 years ago prison systems were slowly starting to look more and more like mental institutions. As a matter of fact, for a long while they were both one and the same. Interestingly enough even to this day, if you walk into the over crowded prisons and jails of America, a good 80% of them would easily be clinically diagnosed with a mental disease. Before they decided to 'institutionalizing' these soulless devils, they would simply torture them in the most brutal of ways imaginable. But then systems came about for controlling them. Regiments would be designed to dictate the course of the daily lives of these inmates. What time they would wake up, what time to exercise and eat, and all other supervised activities strictly controlled for by a watchful warden.
The schooling system is no different than prison system. You have rules to which you must obey. If you break the law, you get punished. And if you are expelled, you will be outcast from the system for life. Breeding subservience and conformity is the absolute goal of the education system. The most educated person is likewise the most brainwashed of all. He has the least sense of self and never the rebel or the one to go against the grade. Always obedient and mindful of what is the "establishment". You learn to be punctual and always on time. So that when you have a job, you will be in your cubicle ready to sell your soul (your time) for a wage. So much of schooling is repetitive and formulated tasks with out much room for improvisation or creativity. Both questions and answers are determined by the teacher and the student must regurgitate the lesson as proof that learning has occurred.
Misfits are those who do not conform to the set rules of behaviours expected of them. Those who are subservient to the establishment excel. And some sycophancy will take one a long way as a favourite pet for the authorities.
So the ultimate task of the education system is to churn robots without any sense of autonomy or self in order to engage in mindless activities for long periods of time, without having too much expectations for more. In other words, students are passive receptors to which teachers "deposit" "facts", "truths" and knowledge. The more the student works at accepting the deposits, the less likely they are to develop a consciousness of their own.
3) In order to seed the feeling of gratitude in the subject, one has to conduce the mind of the child into believing that they would be idiots if not for the formal education that they have received. Right about the 19th century, many eugenicist and craniologists and sociologists and biologists and psychologists and educators collaborated to develop a system of marking intelligence in children so as to separate the best from the rest. For instance, in 2002, Bush signed the The education bill, wherein the emphasis of education was training for higher testing score. In fact, that is what most classes are designed to do now adays - prepare for testing scores. And wouldn't you know it? Last year a fifth grade teacher in L.A committed suicide because his class scored low on a "standardized" test.
It is beyound ridiculous to see how much worth a person would put to these abstract numbers that have nothing to do with the character of a person. Yet everyday we hear of a boy or a girl in India or some other asian country committing suicide because they failed or almost failed a class.
4) The education system is just business.
Public education is a joke and a half to say the least. I was on the bus the other day when two high school students walked in with the most disastrous and horrible textbooks I have ever seen in their hands, barely labelled "Chemistry". Still, when I was in high school we couldn't even take our books to home for some classes. Some classes didn't even have text books.
Then in university you have to pay hundreds of dollars for a new book, because this year they have a new edition you can't buy some body else's new book. When in reality, the difference is only in the wording of some paragraphs here and there but nothing major.
Isn't it great that the price tag on education has kept on rising by 5% annually while the price of everything from real estate to oil has dropped? How are you suppose to pay for an education that runs anywhere from $10K a year to $20K when you don't even have a job to begin with? Did you know that in the US College debt is in excess of $830 billion dollars? More than the credit debt. Why would you want to be an indentured servant?
5) An education does not define who you are. These silly Acronyms that will accompany your name won't mean a thing out side your own box of "expertise". The saying goes that specialization is for insects. In order to create a sense of validation for the expertise you will comprise of, you will be taught a different language that only you and others in your field will understand. Suffice it to say that such silly subjects as "social sciences" have invented a plethora of words in order to obscure understanding. The expert argues that none of this is so. he claims that his expanded language has paralleled an expanded understanding in his area. But this understanding is limited precisely to fellow experts in that area. Ten geographers who think the world is flat will tend to reinforce each other's errors. If they have a private dialect in which to do this, it becomes impossible for outsiders to disagree with them.
Universities should be renamed to multiversities because their training is at the heart of what divides society rather than seeking to uinte it.
The expert considers it his right to treat his own area of expertise as exclusive territory. That, he believes, is what makes him an individual. Much of modern individualism has been confined to superficial and personal matters. So if GoE asks why do people not care to discuss the political situation in afghanistan and instead are more interested in what they ate, it is because of this sort of attitude. The conviction has grown that the only way to develop individual qualities was to reject society.
I remember how in arts class my teacher would stress the importance of expressing my individuality. This was a very confusing task that she had set me up on. Another girl in the class seemed more perplexed and kept questioning the teacher on what she expected. Finally, out of frustration I believe, her self portrait appeared to be a some squiggly lines in brown mark, with some sticks representing her limbs. The teacher was so impressed with this abomination that I couldn't tell if this was talent that was being praised or defiance.
- "Civilization implies specialization, specialization is forgetfulness of total values and the establishment of false ones, that is philistinism. A savage can never fall into this condition, his values are all real, he supplies his own wants and finds them proceeding from himself, not from an estimate of those of others. We must in practice be specialists, the division of labour ordains us to know something of one subject and little of others; it forces Philistinism down our throats whether we like it or not". Judge Hand
Marshal Mcluhan put it :"The expert, as such, is full of insecurity. That is why he specializes in order to obtain some degree of confidence".
The middle-class male and now the middle class female are products of an education and social system which tells them that a successful life requires the penetration of an expert's box and the occupation of as much space as possible within and for as long a period of time as possible. Sensibly enough, few would risk losing that. This fear of acting in an irresponsible manner has struck a death blow to public debate among educated citizens.
It used to be that the path of knowledge would require a life time of devotion for the seeker. He would forgo on the luxuries of life and humbly live on bread and water in some abby or masjid or temple diligently listening to those who possessed some knowledge. By the late hours of the candle light peering into old texts for insights for no other reason but to nourish his own understanding. "Know thy self". The derivate of the word Ilm in the Quran appears 704 times. The first verse to be revealed was "Iqra". Recite. The Qalam and the Kitab, pen and book, mentioned over a hundred times. Islam is the path to knowledge. Allah is the first teacher of Adam who taught him all the names. In Islam Ilm is not merely knowledge. But it is synonymous with Ma'rifah (gnosis). Aqil is the prerequist of Ilm. Islam invites us to exercise our intellect (aqil) to use our Ilm in order to ascertain Haqquq. Man arafa nafsu fa qad Arrafa Rabhu ( one who realizes himself realizes his Lord). In Islam there is no distinction between wisdom and knowledge, they are the same. Ilm is sometimes referred to in the Qur'an as light (nur). And Allah is sometimes referred to as the ultimate nur. And doubt and ignorance is described as darkness.
Ilm is not confined to acquisition but it must also be acted upon. And if your education is of no benefit to humanity than what need is there for it? If you seek knowledge merely for the sake of prestige and wealth, then you won't understand.
In the future I might decide to discuss an alternative form of educational system that may be implemented in third world countries like Afghanistan. Instead of the secular style of schools that are propping up there, no different than what they had churned out in the 60s to 70s ...the abominations of which now haunt the satellite afghan channels of today and the technocratic sycophants that run the current administration, which openly robbing the people without shame.
Salam.
(p.s- will edit and proof read later ...maybe)
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