From an early age we all are asked questions like “What do you want to be when you grow up?”. It usually refers to what profession you want to follow, and of course small children say “Astronaut, Fighter Pilot…..Superhero”, youngsters with bright little minds and with no thought (or care) of how anything really happens, the realities, the challenges or the likelihood of achieving their answer.
When parents are asked what they want for their children in life, an equally poorly constructed and often banal, even thoughtless answer often comes from their lips, with equal disregard to any reality within their answer…“I just want my kids to be happy” is one of such poorly thought out responses, and whilst we understand the sentiment, the reality is that happiness is a fleeting emotion, a feeling which will never and can never be a state of being.
HAPPY
adjective. – feeling or showing pleasure or contentment “Melissa came in looking happy and excited”
So my hypothesis is that the thought or perhaps lack of thought, behind these questions is misguided but perhaps they should be deeply thought about, in the past there was a very different intention when looking at the way children were taught, one which appears superior in many respects.
Alexander The Great
In the deep past, in the classical times of Greek and Roman Philosophers, the lucky few to even receive an education (At least in the sense of todays standards) largely already knew what they were going to be, they were destined to be the leaders of their time, the sons of statesmen, courtiers, warrior chiefs and kings. The question was not what they would be, it was WHO were they going to be and how they were to face the world.
I’ll use the example of the Macedonian King, Alexander the great. The young Alexander modelled his life in the image of his boyhood hero, the legendary greek warrior Achilles, encouraged by his mother Olympias, Alexander was reported to have believed himself to be the direct descendent the Greek God Zeus.
His more worldly father Philip II, appointed the now legendary philosopher Aristotle to be his tutor and you can bet the education he received was not focussed on the ability to recant scripts or pass tests, no….. His education would be one of how to think, how to navigate and solve life’s’ problems, how to look at issues from multiple angles, to make good choices and to have courage in his convictions. His achievements in life are spoken of thousands of years after his death. Who now can say this will be their legacy?
An education based on opening a mind to use its own innate abilities, to look at matters from different angles, to hear the words of wise men from the past and to incorporate them into the thinking of the time, now there’s a concept.
So why do we no longer feel this route is appropriate for the children of this age?
The Truth Can Set You Free
It could be argued that across large expanses of history, the reality of the social system in place was that it was a closed shop, social mobility for most did not exist. If you were born poor it was likely you would die that way, social mobility was unobtainable for all but a very very few.
Therefore the way in which children were brought up was to face the reality of the world they entered. Parents geared a child’s upbringing and skill sets to cope with the reality of their societal structure. I would ask a simple question, are we still doing that just in a less honest manner?
Modern Western society appears to consistently endorse a blend of public comedy with private tragedy
Modern Western society appears to endorse a blend of public comedy with private tragedy. Our society appears to often blindly and consistently uphold political rhetoric which is as empty as the hearts of those utilising it, political figures (on every level from tiny parish councils to the corridors of the White House and Whitehall) who often have a more nefarious agenda.
Those with power and such agenda’s largely need not worry about exposure though. The highest proportion of our populace choose to ignore the obvious corruption all around them as long as they can look to the horizon for a comfortable existence and view their lives through their handheld window into fantasy.
Indeed we live in a society that prefers fantasy over reality, one that supports nefarious narratives with pseudo science and demands the acceptance of the most unlikely explanations by governments and corporations over the obvious truths in front of their very eyes. Yes, its a mess, but how did it come about?
Well, we taught them to do this from early on.
We don’t need no education, we don’t need no thought control
Roger Waters
Simple, from an early age we taught people to be this way. Collectively we are led to believe untruths and fantasy by our leaders, teachers, media and by the very fabric of society itself that on one hand you can be whatever or whoever you wish, and when the sad crashing reality strikes later in life, that what you have been taught is largely not true, whilst you are trying to work out what went so wrong, you can always take the edge off this painful new paradigm with prescribed medications from government supported big pharma or perhaps just sit this race out and eventually, everything will turn out right in the end…..Which of course may well not be the case.
Losing simply sucks….Period
All around us we have winners and losers. It’s a truth that whether you like it or not, it’s simply there. Walk down a city street. See the man drive by in his Aston Martin on his way to the gym, or the smart lady drinking cocktails with her friends in the afternoon whilst a woman the same age cleans the bathroom and then must ask the homeless guy sat begging outside to move on.
We can define winning and losing in different ways, but if you ask ten kids to say which of these people are winners or losers I think the consensus would be obvious. Perhaps the homeless guy is super happy with his life and the lady cleaning the bathroom prefers it to drinking cocktails. Perhaps some obese people like being obese, perhaps some people on a cocktail of anti depressants like the taste…..Maybe.
Our children are taught from an early age that everyone is a winner, its okay to be wildly out of shape and you can still be happy no matter how poorly you perform in life, that its okay to just settle for who you are today, to not strive to be better tomorrow…..We’ve heard this for many, many years. This is simply the mentality of a slave.
A world champion (in just about anything) was never happy with being second, never-mind last. But if that world champion did everything he could to win and came second (Or even last one day) he would at least have been able to say he strove to be the best he could, he faced challenges, he made sacrifices, he worked towards his goal and made the effort to be better today than he was the day before. He might go on to change his direction and apply what he learned in his sport to be hugely successful elsewhere, in fact doing the polar opposite to what he was taught in school.
Orwellian Times
Media today constantly lies to the people, in turn the people nowadays lie to themselves and society endorses those lies. Why does it do that? Who does this serve? George Orwell had a few things to say on such….
’You are free to be a drunkard, an idler, a coward, a backbiter, a fornicator; but you are not free to think for yourself.’
George Orwell
The leaders of our society do not want us or our children to think, it wants us to be obedient, sell us a dream and deliver us a lie. It doesn’t want a society full of people who question what higher powers wish to do for their own ends, it doesn’t want people holding higher ups accountable, our society is structured to keep things how they are.
Is this why we have a society which cannot agree on the most basic of things? Is this why we have a society that outwardly will support things that with even the most shallow investigation are clearly incorrect. The seeds of the worst periods of history were sown this way.
We Must Keep Everyone Safe….
The notion of keeping everyone safe is as ludicrous as it is clearly disingenuous, given the same standard you would apply to buying a used car, most would clearly question a statement made by a used sales man when the obvious truth stares at them from the rusting bonnet, creaking brakes and knocking coming from the engine. Starting wars and invading nations collectively keeps no one safe, nor does playing music in tents to avoid a virus. They are obviously not doing what they are being said to do.
This destructive rhetoric has entered into our collective consciousness from governments so clearly spinning a lie. Whilst we are encouraged to accept the idea safe equates to being happy, is it not the case that calculated risk is often the essence of success? When governments talk of safe, when institutions follow and copy them what they mean is control not safety.
You would only have to look at the major achievements of mankind to know almost none of them were free from danger, none of them were safe. Our heroes were never safe, they faced danger for the good of their people, the progress of their society or the simple challenge of it.
Climbing Everest, fighting the Nazi’s, landing on the Moon or winning a Grand Prix, none are safe, but they are the achievements we largely applaude as a society.
This destructive rhetoric has entered into our collective consciousness from governments so clearly spinning a lie.
In my opinion the very notion that safety is a core principle in life is misguided. Taking calculated risk is the key to success in almost every venture therefore why is this not the way we should educate?
Right question but we ask for the wrong answer…
When we ask a kid “What you want to be when you grow up?” we imply “What do you want to do for a profession?” We all know, we all understand that the reality is that very few children will ever actually do what they reply with. The problem is this does not end there.
Many people will never do what they thought they might do when they leave school, they will not even start down the path of what they went to college to study for and they will never really have a chance to utilise whatever they learned. Why is this the case? And what a massive waste of resources, of time and of human energy.
So why is this so often the case?
If we accept the above is true and we look for the reasons as to why, we could cook up a bunch of potential answers such as they were never shown the working of their chosen industry, no one explained to high school kids that universities are a business and that business is designed to make profit pedalling courses that student debt largely pays for, that they inflated their course fees to pay for smart buildings and directors salaries and that a university degree is not really a passport for a successful life, its just a just a tool which may be useful but only in conjunction with a bunch of other skills.
Paper endorsements via an institution is not really the same as being smart, and that the tool they have been striving to gain may well not be as useful as they have been led to believe. The experience of educators nowadays after all is largely now purely within the education system, not in the system of winners and losers we actually have in society.
Many will then enter low paid, low expectation employment that their careers advisors suggested to them to get some experience……Experience of what exactly?
The abject lack of ambition in the education system and adherence to ideas that a tick box exam system is a passport to success is clearly untrue and yet wholly promoted by those who should know better
If you want to win the game of life, you need to understand the players and the pieces, and the real essence of the game thats being played.
Tom Bilyeu.
Most people send their children to schools where the system promotes ideals which are idealistic not realistic, where equality of outcome is considered a thing even when it has never been so in the spread of human history, where kids are given the idea they have rights as opposed to choices, where policy encourages entitlement over personal achievement and effort, where NGO and government propaganda is promoted via well meaning but often poorly informed, inexperienced members of our society.
During the reign of what was effectively The Roman Catholic church replacing the Roman Empire, priests read the bible in Latin to an ill educated congregation promising redemption for the subservient and eternal damnation for the rebellious. Famously William Tyndale was burned at the stake for translating the Bible into English in 1536, showing the understanding controlling powers has of allowing the populace to educate itself in a way that damages their ability to maintain control.
The intention in modern institutions appears straight out the mouths of their political masters, meaningless policies written in rhetoric not directives which confuse those entrusted with the future of our society.
So what should we be asking and teaching our children?
Who Do You Want to Be? How are you Going to Be it?
Who do you want to be? Is the question, How are you going to be it? Should in my mind be the challenge.
One simple truth is that if you have the right mindset it is possible to achieve many great things in a lifetime, another simple truth is you may go through many different professions, work in many places and be different things to different people over a lifetime. You may be a student, a teacher, a child, a parent, an employee and maybe an employer but there will be some constants and there are a bag of life skills that will be useful no matter what you become in later life.
In short, if you can make the who you are strong, and the how you are robust, then the what you become will have a greater chance of being successful no matter which field you enter. The choices you make are likely to be better, the outcomes likely to be favourable, and failure will be a stepping stone to success not a future millstone around your neck.
Concentrating on building a students core strengths and helping them understand who they are and how they can build upon their innate strengths whilst overcoming their weaknesses should be the first goal of every educator.
Building strength, mentally, physically and developing an emotionally robust character will serve the individual in every walk of life no matter what they do.
Learning how to interact with other people and to realise confidence is knowing something not just believing it, questioning everything fairly and accepting nothing at face value, are all skills that will make any individual more rounded and balanced.
Learning the wisdom of ages past, the words of great men and understanding, reasoning and searching for truth should be core principles of education, not retorting rhetoric and blindly accepting authority. History is littered with examples of how this leads to ruin.
Learning basic psychology, understanding the power of mindset and how to navigate the vast landscape of human interaction is a skill ignored by educators but essential in life.
A Black Belt is a White belt who didn’t quit
I’ve spent much of my life doing two things, learning and teaching what I’ve learned. I’m expert in several fields, many people my own age I know are not expert in any field. The most important skill I ever learned though was to understand how I learned and to be able to apply those principles in other areas. Once you can do that you can progress in almost any field you choose at a quicker rate than most.
When I have spent time teaching in two wildly different fields, I first spend time to understand the mind and motivation of the student, find out how they learn and tailor their lessons to how they will best respond. The results are always positive.
To be truly good at anything take a bunch of different attributes, too many to list here but the point of education should be preparation for the multiple aspects of life.
My journey was unconventional and has afforded me opportunity to learn from many excellent teachers, most of them not in the education sector, but wise men (and women) none the less. We learn to read but so often make poor choices of what to read, we have ears but listen to nonsense and eyes which we cover with banality.
I feel a broader understanding of what creates successful (And ultimately happier) people would be an excellent starting point for a remedy to the current societal mess we live in. We must stop placing faith in plastic leaders and look within for the answers, contribute more, ask for less and build the future we want for our children ourselves, not hand that responsibility to people ill equipped to deliver on a promise made by other.
The Anarchist Entrepreneur 