Changing our educational paradigm.

“School is boring.”

The problem of education today lies in its control by the State. The State conceived education in the late 18th and early 19th century; primarily in the economic times of the industrial revolution, and the intellectual mindset of the Enlightenment. The current paradigm was meant for a different age. Because of the State’s monopoly on education, it is the only entity that can provide a conformist education system that we see today. The problem, however, is that we need to go exactly in the opposite direction: diversity.

The justification for this is simple. Consider a school. A typical school contains work schedules, compartmentalization of different subjects, and a chain of authority. A factory would be described in the same way. It is a linearized system. We are “manufacturing” children by batches (age groups), and teaching them the same things. Why is this? Why are we as a society, forcing organic, nonlinearized people, into a linearized and conformist system?

Much of what we learn in public education is stored in short memory and then quickly forgotten, simply because it did not touch our passion. The fact of the matter is that we can only truly learn something if we are passionate about it. If we are passionate about something, then we will go out and voluntarily seek it. Thus, even if one approaches education with the assumption that there is a specific set of knowledge that one must learn, the school system is certainly not an effective means to that end. The employment of force as a means of education is therefore not only null and useless, but counter-productive, since by spending time and energy in forced schooling one forgoes lasting education in areas about which one is passionate.

When talking about people’s physical appearances we can clearly see that all humans are not exactly alike. We come in all different shapes and sizes, different skin colors, and body build. Why is it that we do not apply the same mentality to our minds? If each human is unique, then why standardize their minds? Instead of conformity and standardization, we need to go in the opposite direction. We need diversity, and choice. Instead of going in one direction, we must go into many directions at once. The problem is not about setting a higher standard or a lower standard. The problem is that there is a standard.

The problem with standardized testing is that people are being measured according to a value system of a special interest group (the State). The types of subjects that are valued by the State may not always be the subjects in which a person has talent or interest. There is no point to drill a set of subjects into a person, if that person has no passion or aptitude for it.

The only way to accomplish diversity is to abolish the current compulsory public education system. The free market consists of humans as a whole, each acting out of his own will. It is the most diverse system that has ever existed. No one single person needs to design an education system. Each person according to his ability will be free to choose and design their path of education. Privatization is the only way we can reach this goal. Instead of “manufacturing” children, we will be putting them in the right conditions for them to flourish.

“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” -Albert Einstein

Written By: Kelvin Silva

Edited By: Aristippus, Clayton

Tagged: Education, Free, Market, Privatization, Public, Sir Ken Robinson, System