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For those who went to public schools in America, perhaps you can remember being excited your first day. Although anxious, I was invigorated by the idea of learning, of getting away my mothers knees, being turned out into what seemed like a vast new world of unlimited opportunity where I would learn how to be an adult, how to discern good information from bad, and how to use my faculties to become the best person I could be. I was excited to prove myself to the world and to myself, to know all of my colors, letters and numbers, and whatever came after that. At this age, school was what you expected it to be.
What occurs though when you get into the more “advanced” stages of learning where you have to learn critical thinking skills? When you begin to notice the disparity between some children and others? When it is easy to discern whose is of intellectual strength and who is weaker? Or else, who has mathematical ability, who has language ability, spatial, athletic? Out of necessity, as always happens when people are forced into association, you are all put in the same group: the middle. You are taught to a T how to be exactly mediocre in all aspects of the general “liberal” education that is purported in schools. If you are not good at interpreting metaphors or absorbing literature, too bad. You will learn to be, or else fail, or put in remedial classes where you will then be ostracized by your classmates. If you are excellent at this task, too bad. You will be forced to slow down your reading, to stop challenging the author, to stop abstracting from their words. Or else, you will be put into advanced classes, where you may again be cast out by your peers.
To modify a Rand sentence, public schooling sells “Mediocrity boastfully [impressed].” You may not get ahead if your classmates may not, because you are making them feel bad.[1] You will hurt their confidence. If you need more help in a subject, you may either work hard to understand something you cannot grasp, decide to fail, or ask for extra help and opena world of criticism—and school children are ready to be mean-spirited.
What does this do to the relationship that man may have with their fellows? It seems to me to breed animosity. Hatred of those dissimilar from you, not necessarily because their differences, but because their ability or lack thereof is put upon you as a standard which is not your own and which you could not or would not want to live up or sink down to. You are constantly being either pushed back or thrust forward by those who have other talents and understandings than you do.
Now, public education is a multi-fold problem. Aside from the fact that we are plundering some to give to others, which propagates malice between those who must pay taxes in order to provide for these schools, who may very well disagree completely with their educational philosophy, and who also could lose the opportunity to send their children to schools with which they do agree because of the taxes so inflicted; you also have a brand new generation, learning to regard their fellow man as people who will always be working to put the brakes on their progress or who will try to get them to move into uncharted territory which they do not understand.
In a system of private schooling, not only would children be allowed to advance as quickly or as slowly as they needed, but teachers would also be able to cater to individual capacity, or else to that type of learning which was the intent of the school set up. If you are attracted to technology, why should you not be allowed to focus your studies on this so that you can become the best at it? If your interests most lie in the study of social affairs, why should you have to study so many maths? If you respond better to audio stimuli than to words on a page, should not a teacher be allowed to facilitate this so you can learn to the best of you ability? This is impossible in the current system. There is such a wide degree of varying interests that the best a teach can do is come to the highest possible consensus between one child to the next; and further, to the highest consensus between Federal, State and Local laws mandating certain standards.
In private schooling, even if schools were set up only for certain purposes, i.e., the study of mechanics, or of fine arts or of law, it is not as though you would not know other people’s interests existed. Surely, persons in your family, or neighborhood kids, would be going to a different school that utilized their natural propensities. You would learn be constantly striving to fulfill your potentiality, and you would also understand from a very young age that people are naturally different, but that this is of great benefit to you. The division of labor[2] would become apparent at such a young age, and you could understand what sort of important role this plays in the organizing of all life, of every industry.
Why, it is so absurdly asked without a thought, are children today so angry? Why the school shootings, and the misanthropic attitudes? Why the higher rates of suicide, the self-mutilation, the fights, the drugs? It is blamed on music or whatever other scapegoat is most convenient at the moment. Does anybody ever stop to think that the inherently anti-social institutions enforced upon so many children may have something to do with the anti-social feelings they then have? For how many generations, or how many years, do you expect a person to be forced into fraternity to people with whom he cannot relate, and still feel it an honor to deal with other men, as it ought to be?
- It is a common trend going on these days. School children commit suicides because of the “oppressive school system”. It is “Oppression” that some students get higher marks while some fails. Thus, there should be a grading system. Anybody getting 80% and above, should be graded A+. Alas! So, there is no incentive for a student to master a subject and gain 100% marks. Even if he gets 80%, he will be at the top. In addition, he can never fail. It is the making of mediocre.,ReasonForLiberty [↩]
- Division of labor, ReasonforLiberty [↩]
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246 views6 Responses to “The Mediocrity of Public Schools”
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Patri Friedman Says:
October 26th, 2009 at 2:55 pmAmazing article, almost made me come into tears. Is that your picture? Beautiful, serenic, cherubic.
GP Says:
October 29th, 2009 at 1:29 amI guess schools play very little role in instigating violent behaviour among students/teenagers. Most of the schootings or violent behaviour exhibited by teens is result of deteriorating mental condition which can be attributed to violent video-Games,Merilyn Menson, broken families due toincreasing divorce rates, absence of gun control laws(especially in US),lack of proper parenting which failed to recognise emotional needs of children which mostly drives them to loneliness and drug addiction.
I do not completly agree with notion that “oppressive school system drives failed students to suicidal attempts” and “Grading system will help in alleviating such situations”. The reason being - Most of such failed students are obviously dumb and low on self confidence, on top of it their so called proud parents scold them to the point that - they totally lose their confidance and self belief which makes them think that - there is no way out of this failure and lets end this torture once and for all.( read - suicide)
( which I guess is due to the fact that no proud father wants to hear “he is father of James who cudn’t make it to 9th grade” )
The problem here is -
1)If ur lazy,dumb ( i mean below average in your academics) and self-loathing individual u either accuse others for your failures or end up wasting your own life.
I guess same thing happened with so called “emotionally volatile,tender,loner,shy child as their parents describe them sometimes” who could not sustain in competition.
2)World & Evolution always followed principle of “Survival of the fittest” so if u can’t compete you will perish. So no matter how u try to accomodate such “failures” in this fierce, competitive world , one day they gona expose. and even if u shield them using Grading system - they will be just like pushovers who will never be able to achieve anything significant in their future if they don’t improve themselves.
3)That’s why its very important to have proper parenting,guidance right from your childhood which can inculcate -
importance of discipline,hard work ethics and moral principles such as -
— — — — — — — — -
Love the country; do it no harm.
Serve the people; never betray them.
Follow science; discard superstition.
Be diligent; not indolent.
Be united, help each other; make no gains at others’ expense.
Be honest and trustworthy; do not sacrifice ethics for profit.
Be disciplined and law-abiding; not chaotic and lawless.
Live plainly, work hard; do not wallow in luxuries and pleasures.
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
Renegade Division Says:
October 30th, 2009 at 6:53 amGP did you think that maybe the videogames and listening to Marlyn Manson(which btw demonstrates the source of your knowledge ‘Bowling for Columbine’, as Marlin Manson hasn’t released an album in like ages, he is so 1990s) actually brings the violence in the society down?
This is a really ridiculous statistical observation which does the same fallacy against which this whole site stands for. What is seen and what is not seen.
An anecdote given in ‘Black Swan’ points it out, a king around the start of Christianity was shown a painting by a preacher of a ship drowning and people praying on it. The preacher said ‘Look at these devout Christians, they prayed to God so they were saved by the God, you can talk to them, meet them, they are real’.
The King replied “That’s fine but what about the people who prayed but got drowned and did not live to tell the story?”.
This is exactly what the problem with ‘video game and pornography’ violence people suffer from. They look at the statistics and see that 80% of the criminals had pornography at their home and played video games, so they conclude that video games and pornography results in violent behavior, but what they don’t see is the number of people who BECAUSE of violent video games and pornography now DO NOT commit a crime.
How many kids are out there who would not commit a crime now because they gratified their fantasies and now feel better. Sure there will be a few still who aren’t satisfied by the video games and now they really wanna go out and do something real, well how are video game contributing to their crimes, they were way out there to start with.
Also almost all the criminals play violent video games(or lets say if they do) because to any criminal sitting still or trying to suppress his violent urges by gardening never works out compared to playing video games.
If you are having an urge to have sex(which if you are an adult male its given), what helps you more: watching porn and gratifying yourself or doing something completely asexual like gardening. Sure at times the latter might work too, but be real for how long? If having sexual urges is in our nature, what better way to not have build up and be associated with a crime than pornography?
Similarly what’s better for prospective sociopaths, getting them, immersed in virtual reality or preaching them, taking them to church trying to alter their behavior? (Even if latter is a feasible solution, how do you even know who is a prospective sociopath?).
Boy you really have faith in your Educational system. I scored 90%+ in every exam when I was in public school(Central School), the moment I shifted to a private school, the highest I scored from 6th grade to 10th was 69%(median was 40-50%), same city, same curriculum.
My GPA in undergrad in India was 2.6/4.0, and in America during MS it was 3.72/4.0.
So am I ‘obviously dumb’ according to your criteria, or boy genius.
The problem with our educational system is that the lack of free market in educational sector prevents testing of radical teaching methods, yes the private schools experiment with a whole bunch of things, but just not with curriculum and other restrictions put up by the government.
Amelia Vreeland Says:
October 30th, 2009 at 3:37 pmHow is it that school violence can be attributed to music or video games? I mean, I guess, just as you do, I have not quantitative evidence that it is indeed the lack of freedom of association and inability to develop ones faculties at the pace and in the direction one wants is what causes anti-social behavior, but certainly factors such as these play a larger role in deciding a child’s emotional response than does Halo. If you attribute it to the degeneration done by parents negligence to the child’s emotional needs, let us look at how time is divided by school children. In America, we have an 6 hour school day, and get around 8 hours of sleep. There is 14 hours gone. Are the other ten spent with the parents? No. There are your friends, your extracurricular activities, etc. When all is said and done children (at least in America) probably spend maximum, three hours a day in direct contact with their parents, which would be very odd. I’d say most of the people I know spend less than 2 hours. Who now has become more responsible for the child’s degeneration, the person who has been robbed of their right to the way they raise their child? Or the robber who has them in the grips for 6 hours a day?
I do not know where you get this idea that kids who fail are dumb. I am not even going to argue that with you. Perhaps a lot of the reasons some of them have low self-esteem is because they are not able to keep up on 8 subjects, only one or two of which they have an aptitude or affinity towards. This is not to say parents do not have the responsibility to foster their children and their intellectual abilities, but it is compulsory their children attend school.
The problem cannot be solved by changing the grading system because this is punishing people who are intelligent and showing kids that are slower that things will naturally come to them. Such is the system generally today that teachers grade on your “ability” to comprehend things and how much you have advanced towards this. It gives slower children an advantage they would not have in a seriously competitive world. It should indeed be survival of the fittest. Why, then, should the fittest be sacrificed for the benefit of the weak?
If you do believe, “Be united, help each other; make no gains at others’ expense,” how do you reconcile this with the public schooling system and taxation?
GP Says:
November 11th, 2009 at 4:21 am@Renegade
Similarly what’s better for prospective sociopaths, getting them, immersed in virtual reality or preaching them, taking them to church trying to alter their behavior? (Even if latter is a feasible solution, how do you even know who is a prospective sociopath?).
=> Its very naive to assume that prospective sociopath will be engaged in Violent video-games rather than behave as per his/her instincts ( which is nothing but - creating social disturbance/ violent behaviour/ killing ppl, etc ) to curb their desire for killing innocent humans. The point is - There are very few ppl in this world who understand the difference between reality and virtual reality. The ones’ which we are talking abt are innocent young minds who don’t know difference between real and virtual unless we ( read - parental guidance) explain them the difference.
See I totally understand your point of “Video games are just tools and its up to ppl how to use them i.e. for entertainment or fulfilling their fetish for violence or draw inspiration from them to replicate the game in real world”
but ur forgetting here the fact that - All kids are not blessed with proper guidance and parenting about these things so u can’t expect everyone at same maturity level…right?..thats where sensorship come into picture. Alos, if u take recent example of “new japanese video game - RapeLay” which theme based on raping a
japanese family by game player . Now just think over it - if such games broke into the market - “wht kind of moral / inspiration / ideals we are serving to young innocent minds?……just think over it from layman’s perspective and I hope u will get my point!
Now about the grading system - Well after reading your grades I wud say - your fluctuating grades in different schooling system could be attributed to your fluctuating amount of effort/study/understanding leve ,etc that you put in ; to get to the next level in your life and trust me, it happens - even in my case
I performed badly in my preliminary exam before the board exam in 12th and my dad told me that if I do not get into engineering on free seat ( yeah to get admission to top level engg college in FREE SEAT .. you have to score above 90% in your PCM group ( Phy. Chem, Maths) at my time in 2001), then just forget about
engineering as he was not willing to pay for PAYMENT SEAT ( 50k per year)…..that incident really struck me and i inspired me to do well so even though it was last 3-4days just before exams i managed to get 93.33% anrealised in my 3rdd secure admission on FREE SEAT in Engg. …
Another e.g. I realised in my 3rd year 1st sem of engineering . that - There is something called “PLACEMENT” where top companies come and offer u chance to work for them provided you have brilliant academics ( read - consistent/ avg. 1st class and above through your 8 semisters) — After that I realised i had to secure more than 70% in remaining semisters so that my avg. can boost and i can get a chance to atleast particpiate in placements . I did managed to get 76% and 74% in my last two semisters of BE and got placed in top MNC.
My point is - Some ppl are like “spring”. “More pressure - higher bounce!”..while some are just whiners/loosers - they just crumble under pressure and whine about lack of things and how external factors are responsible for their downfall.
@Amelia
1)For me quality rather than quantity of time that children spent with their parents is more important. So even if its just few hrs on weekends or few mins of talk at dinner table / bedtime - just to understand “wht’s going on in your daily life and if u need to share something with me” cud be helpful
2) regarding role of “violent video games” - I already clarified my stand to reply to Renegade
3) Now ur query about ” why schools expected students to clear in all subjects instead of letting them choose/ focuss more on the subjects which they like most ?”
- As per my understanding - Primary education is designed to teach basics of Maths, Language, Geography, History( cultures),etc to children so that they can gain this knowledge and decide for themselves wht is best suited for their liking/ personality for their Graduatio/ Post Graduation/ Masters,etc..
I don’t think anything wrong in that..is it? Such students can always study for “clearing marks” for such subjects - just to get through those subjects and focus more on their strengths / favourite subjects..right?
4) Now your query about - ” If you do believe, “Be united, help each other; make no gains at others’ expense,” how do you reconcile this with the public schooling system and taxation?
==> As per my understanding - The goal of public education system is to offer same degree of education as that of private school to students at low price..especially to the kids who cannot afford the cost of studying in private schools. If you talk about learning opportunities for children below average normal kids
then there are special schools meant for that - especially for dyslexic children who cannot compete with rest of the normal kids for the obvious reasons.
5) I said somehwhere in my earlier reply “failed children are dumb” . I did not mean to offend poor performers . Wht I mean is - they are “dumb” in that particular subject. If they have fighting spirit then obviously they can improve but the thing is - some students really lack this ability “to bounce back” and hence, they termed as loosers.
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