Modern Schooling System: Introduction

Coming to the end of my senior year in high school, and thus leaving standard public education system forever, I think I can safely say the most interesting, useful, and informative things I've come across in life had nothing to do with the modern educational system.

Public education today is in a horrid state of affairs: creativity is discouraged, blind submission is mandatory, and nothing useful is taught. Even worse, although students are taught fact after fact from age 6 to 18, many students don't really learn anything.The good students grow up to be model citizens who are afraid of getting into trouble or sticking out from society in any way.

But I try to avoid explanatory models and stick to predictive models and improvement. If allowed to continue unchanged, the 'model person' will become so bogged down by trivial 'facts' like George Washington won the Second World War, the Universe is made up of String Cheese, and the sex lives of celebrities, that much useful information would get pushed out of the way simply because it is not valued by a society that doesn't value excellence in thought.

We see this in art. "There are only a few successful artists in the world, and the odds are not in your favor that you will become one of them," say many responsible, caring adults. This discourages many impressionable, trusting children from pursuing a career in the arts. Does this mean there's no talent? No, just that one will probably not make an income to support the standard model of living that the model person is told they want.

Imagine this on an intellectual level: the current trend in securing cheap labor is to go overseas and exploit poor countries' desperate people. It is likely that in a few centuries of time, this form of slavery will somehow become outdated, around the same time the dilemma of employing the people who were replaced by machines will get solved. This will all lead to a giant work force who will be used for simple, basic labor. At that point, basic schooling won't be necessary, as all one would need to do was learn how to do one simple job and go to a factory looking for employment.

This would probably lead to worker abuse as witnessed throughout the rest of history, but I fear I've presented enough information for now (which is the fancy way of saying I've drifted way off topic). But this thread is by no means dead: this is the beginning of a new series. Tomorrow will bring a synopsis of the material currently covered in schools.

And by tomorrow, I mean next time I go on this thing.