автор: mitkoeapostolov

Early morning in ancient Greece. Wealthy white (ish) men gather in the agora to discuss the meaning of life (philosophy, or love for wisdom), mathema (knowledge) and music. This is their schola - free time. They have this free time because they do not need to work - neither in the fields nor in the city. They have slaves for that.

When these rich white men have kids, they want to pass down the knowlege they have discovered, so the offspring can keep their status and have a higher chance of survival. This is how one day the daskalos (designated slave) takes the children of the master to the gymnasium (place of study and exercise), while the other slaves work in the house or in the field. The children are complaining - they do not want to go to school. Instead they want to sleep in, play around the house or go out in the fields. The slave cannot believe his ears - he would give anything to be able to send his children to school instead of watching them shrivel in misery.



Millenia pass and the dream of the slave comes true. In most countries that have adopted the lessons from the ancient Greeks, people enjoy equal rights. Their children are required to go to school and learn.


School has become a shortcut (as opposed to its initial concept of a privileged hobby) - an obligation through which all children are given equal access to ready knowledge. This way instead of going the long way of learning everything on their own when they are ready, children are forced to learn it 20-30 years earlier in their life than the men who discovered it.


Most of the kids do not grasp the concept. Most of them never will. Most of them never need to. Thankfully, modern society has adopted another lesson from the ancient peoples - the division of labor. Humans now can survive doing thounsands of things without ever having to go to school.


So are we right to force on our children something that was originally only understood and appreciated by wealthy grown men? Are we not robbing them of their childhood? Are we not robbing them of the journey to discover their own knowledge when they are ready? Should knowledge be a universal right or an individual privilege? When I was young I considered the former was just. Today, I fathom the latter to be right. Not about the sexist slavery bit, but about the part where human society is organized according to social class - the rich usually have a more profound understanding of life than the poor (because of Maslow pyramid). To prevent the poor (who are usually a majority) to rebel against the rich (who are usually a minority, following the pyramid structure) we ensure society remains porous - the poor have a legal socially accepted way to become rich. In short, capitalism and democracy. In such a system different types of knowledge will reach people according to their social class - meaning when they are actually ready to assimilate it.


Same is true for age. I consider most children do not need to go to school before teenhood. Instead they need to be kids, to enjoy games, to fool around. This could be organized in community socialization centers, where professional educators act as facilitators and not as teachers (much like in Finland, even though I hate it when someone gives Finnish education as an example - it is such a cliche). This way children who decide to attend these centers will learn how to behave in society without having to act like adults who go to a 9-5 job every day. From teenhood children could gradually start being exposed to knowledge, be it theoretical or practical. The idea is that only those who want study what they want, as was the case with the first schools in ancient Greece (I think in practice this is exactly what is happening in our schools today, save for some outlier children, who are forced by their parents to be overachievers). Education should once again become a privilege and not a right, so those involved in it appreciate and understand it as opposed to suffer and negate it (as illustrated well in the song Another brick in the wall by Pink Floyd).


Every educational system is a reflection of the people who create it. This is why if we want to change the system, we should first change ourselves, not the other way around. Changing the system before the people is doomed to failure, regardless how good or just the system is.


Early morning today. Every child, depending on their social class wakes up to a different reality. Some get picked up by a limo and go to play in a luxury socialization center nearby. Others get beaten up by their alcoholic parent in the ghetto. Or vice versa. As long as there is a clear and open path for the two to exchange their places if they want within a few generations everything will be OK.


And then of course, there is the middle class. Some of them will try to go up, others will unintentionally drop down. But some will be just in the right place. Average children will go to average community socialization centers, preparaing to live an average life and be OK with it.