School is social engineering

morita

Veteran
Joined
Aug 19, 2018
Messages
815
I don't remember the name of this philosopher that said school is designed just like the prison system but I agree with that. School doesn't teach the youth to be functional human beings. It teaches the youth to obey, to believe everything their teachers say (or anyone in a position of power). Don't question things, don't speak up, if you talk back to your teachers you're misbehaving and deserve punishment. Conformity of thought, of behaviour.
Sit in a class all day long. I mean in certain countries like Spain and Germany they only have school half a day and the afternoon is dedicated to sports and other activities. Unsurprisingly they're doing better than other countries where they have school all day long.

I remember a few years ago, my philosophy teacher said "if you feel like your life starts when you get out of work, it means you're alienated." That's always how I felt at school tbh.

What are your thoughts on the matter?
 
Last edited:

Mr.Anderson

Veteran
Joined
Dec 21, 2018
Messages
992
What I learnt from school was how to learn and how to exercise my brain. I mean, I've almost never used pythagoras' theorem but it did help me to get a better memory and get my mind working. Oh, all those mnemonics about physics formulae.

Now about the social aspect being in school taught me how to properly defend myself without using my fists. We wouldn't do fistfights back them but if someone called you names you called them names back. And the best aspect about it was that we would get really creative and use stuff we were studying! There was a brazilian author back in 1600's called Gregório de Matos that was known as Boca do Inferno, Hell's Mouth. There was a guy there that was really competitive about grades, often bragging when he got like 0,2 points of advantage on our friends. This guy had a terrible, horrible, awful bad breath.... BANG, we would call him Hell's Mouth when he got too much full of himself.

Now on authority figures... we respected our teachers, lots of them became inspirations to most of us back them. Those who weren't well received were respected as teacher but would often become subject of the same treatment as the hellsmouth, but in covert.

But well... I finished my studies around 2007~2008, lots of things changed, I don't know how are school today with all this politically correct stuff.
 

Wigi

Veteran
Joined
Aug 24, 2017
Messages
891
Something I will never understand with schools it's this idea that cooperation is called cheating.
I mean, we need to work together in society/family but in schools when you help someone it's called cheating. Never made sense to me.

Plus I don't know why you're rewarded with points for your ability to retain dogma such as "the all seeing eye is a symbol of freedom" (my little sister explaining what they learned in 'History' class)

It was arguably the most boring part of my life until I reached high school.
 

Glad 2 know

Veteran
Joined
Nov 30, 2017
Messages
730
I have to say that the original concept of school was most likely good, designed to truly educate and gear kids. As everything else that we've seen go from good to bad, school is no exception. The degradation and watering down of the educational essence is too hard to ignore.
I really do believe education is necessary, school is a great concept if it is balanced. I do think longer school days and a longer school year only makes kids feel overwhelmed and stressed out. The new standards that focus too much on test preparation is also making feel kids feel under pressure and stressed out.
They want to make kids "smarter" by putting all these pressures on them. While it may work for some kids, it doesn't work for all.
They need to teach kids useful things like nutrition, prepping food or snacks depending on their age, how to be nice and not bully, things in nature according to their age, having picnics to decompress, learning about other cultures, learning about other countries and geological features, etc. Fun and educational stuff.

Respect is a BIG one. Kids should Always respect their elders and not talk back to authority figures, that education begins at home. If parents are not teaching the kids respect then kids have to be taught elsewhere. If the teacher is in the wrong, then the child needs to inform the parents or someone from the school that will listen and knows what the child is talking about. Teachers can be in the wrong too but not many see that. There's Never an excuse for a teacher to disrespect the students.
 

Lisa

Superstar
Joined
Mar 13, 2017
Messages
20,288
I don't remember the name of this philosopher that said school is designed just like the prison system but I agree with that. School doesn't teach the youth to be functional human beings. It teaches the youth to obey, to believe everything their teachers say (or anyone in a position of power). Don't question things, don't speak up, if you talk back to your teachers you're misbehaving and deserve punishment. Conformity of thought, of behaviour.
Sit in a class all day long. I mean in certain countries like Spain and Germany they only have school half a day and the afternoon is dedicated to sports and other activities. Unsurprisingly they're doing better than other countries where they have school all day long.

I remember a few years ago, my philosophy teacher said "if you feel like your life starts when you get out of work, it means you're alienated." That's always how I felt at school tbh.

What are your thoughts on the matter?
I guess the trade off to school all day is that you have the whole summer off.

Don’t you think things start out sooner than school? Women don’t raise their children anymore, day care does..so you are getting trained up by someone else almost from birth.
Think about this..if you’re not in school learning something, what would the kids be doing anyway? It’s been said that idle hands are the devil’s workshop. It seems to be up to the parents to try to counter some the things taught in schools, but again that isn’t easy when you’re grade depends on towing the line...there doesn’t seem to be an easy answer to the conundrum.
 

Glad 2 know

Veteran
Joined
Nov 30, 2017
Messages
730
Something I will never understand with schools it's this idea that cooperation is called cheating.
I mean, we need to work together in society/family but in schools when you help someone it's called cheating. Never made sense to me.

Plus I don't know why you're rewarded with points for your ability to retain dogma such as "the all seeing eye is a symbol of freedom" (my little sister explaining what they learned in 'History' class)

It was arguably the most boring part of my life until I reached high school.
Every single person has to work their brain and learn/memorize. Now that I'm older I realize that some kid's brains are so malnourished that learning/memorizing is hard to do so they resort to cheating. Some may be just lazy and cheat just get by and pass on to the next grade.
Not cheating makes you an honest person, if you're using others to pass then what accomplishment is there? Not your own.
While kids should help each other out to help with social and personal skills, cheating should never be looked to as an option.
If the children have other options to fulfill the educational requirements then it should be done so they can be taught useful things.
I was the happiest in High School too :)
 

Wigi

Veteran
Joined
Aug 24, 2017
Messages
891
Every single person has to work their brain and learn/memorize. Now that I'm older I realize that some kid's brains are so malnourished that learning/memorizing is hard to do so they resort to cheating. Some may be just lazy and cheat just get by and pass on to the next grade.
Not cheating makes you an honest person, if you're using others to pass then what accomplishment is there? Not your own.
While kids should help each other out to help with social and personal skills, cheating should never be looked to as an option.
If the children have other options to fulfill the educational requirements then it should be done so they can be taught useful things.
I was the happiest in High School too :)
I agree that some kids are extremely lazy and rely on others so they could pass on to the next grade ect... Kids should work in all honesty.

Maybe it's just my experience but I had awful teachers who forbade us to help each others while nothing serious was at stake at all.

They teach what to learn not how to learn.
Also in school we learn meritocracy while the real world doesn't work like that at all.

Plus some teachers are jerks, i don't know why they are allowed to teach children.

Yes I can't find something positive with public schools. Thank God i never went through abuse and bullying like some or I would be dead.
 

Lisa

Superstar
Joined
Mar 13, 2017
Messages
20,288
I agree that some kids are extremely lazy and rely on others so they could pass on to the next grade ect... Kids should work in all honesty.

Maybe it's just my experience but I had awful teachers who forbade us to help each others while nothing serious was at stake at all.

They teach what to learn not how to learn.
Also in school we learn meritocracy while the real world doesn't work like that at all.

Plus some teachers are jerks, i don't know why they are allowed to teach children.

Yes I can't find something positive with public schools. Thank God i never went through abuse and bullying like some or I would be dead.
Don’t ya think that what you’ve experienced is just life. There are people who are lazy and won’t help each other. They want you to hear what you say but don’t care much about what you think. There seems to be a lot of meritocracy in the world or the other extreme, where the unmerited are moved ahead about those that should be. Some people are jerks and shouldn’t have the positions they have in life either.
School is a microcosm of what it is to live in the world, the only difference is that children can’t rise up against the adults until they graduate, then they can become the people they want to be.

Ya, my son was bullied for a long time in school, he is still dealing with some of the issues, I wouldn’t wish any child to be bullied..ever!
 

Lisa

Superstar
Joined
Mar 13, 2017
Messages
20,288
Like I said there are countries where the afternoon is dedicated to sports or other activities whether it be artistic activities like drawing, dancing, theatre, the list goes on.
Many school kids here in the US also have after school and weekend activities they participate in. Which keep families really busy during the school year.
 

Swiftturtle

Established
Joined
Jul 17, 2019
Messages
338
I was homeschooled for part of my k-12, and I was lucky enough that my mom is/was a certified teacher (specifically when they were teaching ‘sight reading’ instead of phonics. As if memorizing words meant being able to read- insanity). I hated it in the moment, but I am SO grateful for it now. As for the current state of school; common core- what witchcraft curriculum is that?!? They want kids stupid. Whether ppl can handle her channel or not, the most I’ve been able to see about present day public school has come from videos I was sent of some girl ‘soph’. My understanding is that you can only find her on Bitchute now, that YouTube suspended some barely-a-teen’s channel. While I haven’t watched most of her videos (as an adult, rock on whether you do or not), the idea that she’s been banned on YouTube makes me think “uhhhhh”
 

Stephania

Star
Joined
Jun 5, 2019
Messages
1,287
I don't remember the name of this philosopher that said school is designed just like the prison system but I agree with that. School doesn't teach the youth to be functional human beings. It teaches the youth to obey, to believe everything their teachers say (or anyone in a position of power). Don't question things, don't speak up, if you talk back to your teachers you're misbehaving and deserve punishment. Conformity of thought, of behaviour.
Sit in a class all day long. I mean in certain countries like Spain and Germany they only have school half a day and the afternoon is dedicated to sports and other activities. Unsurprisingly they're doing better than other countries where they have school all day long.

I remember a few years ago, my philosophy teacher said "if you feel like your life starts when you get out of work, it means you're alienated." That's always how I felt at school tbh.

What are your thoughts on the matter?
Agree
 

morita

Veteran
Joined
Aug 19, 2018
Messages
815
Many school kids here in the US also have after school and weekend activities they participate in. Which keep families really busy during the school year.
I'm also not agst giving kids independent time tbh, I don't think they'll necessarily get into troubles.
 

Dalit

Star
Joined
Oct 23, 2018
Messages
1,911
I agree that some kids are extremely lazy and rely on others so they could pass on to the next grade ect... Kids should work in all honesty.

Maybe it's just my experience but I had awful teachers who forbade us to help each others while nothing serious was at stake at all.

They teach what to learn not how to learn.
Also in school we learn meritocracy while the real world doesn't work like that at all.

Plus some teachers are jerks, i don't know why they are allowed to teach children.

Yes I can't find something positive with public schools. Thank God i never went through abuse and bullying like some or I would be dead.
I agree with all who said it's more about memorizing information and regurgitating it for tests. It's what I did and was good at it, too. Yet I was almost always bored by that approach and wanted to be challenged more.

And I was bullied for being fat and nerdy. Once I fought back, most harassment ended. Can kick and punch when necessary. :) Can also go stoic when needed.
 

Vytas

Star
Joined
Jun 29, 2017
Messages
1,904
Do not question authority, is a single worse skill kids acquire at school. Not everything they learn is truth, is another huge problem. Yet they will never question about things they learned, they aren't teached to do that...
But also there are greats teachers who love their jobs, and are doing their very best. Not everything is bad..
 

Stephania

Star
Joined
Jun 5, 2019
Messages
1,287
"the school was garbage in the first place... And that is on the up and up..."
 

Frank Badfinger

Superstar
Joined
Aug 4, 2019
Messages
15,774
When I was in grade 11(many yrs ago) I questioned the teacher as to why we're forced to learn algebra. I argued that most of us would never use it in real life. The teacher agreed and said "the only reason we teach you this is to see how fast you comprehend new material".

Meanwhile in the real world, kids leave high school and are clueless as to how banking, budgeting, investments, mortgages, interest and the stock market work. Heck, many don't even know basic math. And it's all done by design.
 
Top