I’ve seen this link with this headline a number of places recently, and I find it bothersome. Valedictorian Speaks Out Against Schooling in Graduation Speech
The problem is that the speaker isn’t speaking out against schooling. The objection is that other things have replaced schooling in schools: the emphasis is on doing well on the test, at the expense of learning. There is no call to end education, the demand is to fix a flawed system.
Some of you may be thinking, “Well, if you pass a test, or become valedictorian, didn’t you learn something? Well, yes, you learned something, but not all that you could have. Perhaps, you only learned how to memorize names, places, and dates to later on forget in order to clear your mind for the next test. School is not all that it can be. Right now, it is a place for most people to determine that their goal is to get out as soon as possible.
I am now accomplishing that goal. I am graduating. I should look at this as a positive experience, especially being at the top of my class. However, in retrospect, I cannot say that I am any more intelligent than my peers. I can attest that I am only the best at doing what I am told and working the system. Yet, here I stand, and I am supposed to be proud that I have completed this period of indoctrination.
The problem is that the speaker isn’t speaking out against schooling. The objection is that other things have replaced schooling in schools: the emphasis is on doing well on the test, at the expense of learning.
Oh, yes. So true. When I graduated high school, we wanted to learn and didn’t much care about grades.
Okay. I lie. I graduated high school more than 40 years ago, and most of my classmates wanted to get good grades and didn’t much care about learning. I suspect it has ever been thus.
In 1969 more than 1200 sophomore students enrolled in MSU first term organic for chemistry majors, including Uncle Al. 15 graduated BS/Chem at the end, including Uncle Al. In 2009, MSU with 45,000 students overall, is still outputting around 20 BS/Chem annually.
Liberal Arts student, “I’m so depressed.”
MSU BS/Chem, “I will vomit on your grave.”
Not every MSU BS/Chem is a whiz-bang chemist. The race is not always to the swift, nor the battle always to the strong” (re Ecclesiastes 9:11), but only a fool would bet on diversity. When has anybody found gold or diamonds in taconite (the ore, not 47.316667°N, 93.362222°W)?
Ignorance is educable, stupidity is forever. On 11 April 1965, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act terminated US public education competence, forever. We have been disimproving on that ever since. Uncle Al is intolerant of weapons-grade imbecility as process or output.
(BTW, anybody out-of-state going STEM at 21st century Moo U is a fool. All they want is your money – big time.)
Maybe the speaker didn’t explicitly call for the end of education. However, quoting people like Gatto and Mencken is pretty damning, especially Gatto. (Seven-lesson schoolteacher, anyone?). However, it’s also false to assume that education has many things now that it didn’t used to have. The system of education we have is extremely similar to that established in Prussia as a means to educate workers and soldiers. It was also meant to teach compliance to the rules, nationalism, and a bit of reading and math. The things this person was talking about have always been present and are at odds with notions of learning through curiosity and self-motivation.