http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acLW1vFO-2Q
Every word is 100% true.
Before first grade, I was in Montessori. On my first day (~4-5 years old) our teacher sat us down on the floor and addressed a large poster that was on the wall above one of the windows.
"Treat others as you would like to be treated" She gave a simplistic explanation for our little brains.
"What a BRILLIANT idea!" I thought to myself - It's a system which creates, rewards and perpetuates a positive attitude towards one another! I treat you well, you find a way to treat me better, in turn I treat you even better - holy shit! This is amazing, I love it, what a great, philosophical society this is - I'm soo lucky to have been born here, now!
We're all adults here, we know the truth of how people treat one another. The golden rule is some fantastical ideal that is FAR beyond the reach of the average person.
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Going into first grade, I'm told my IQ at this point was measured "over 150". I had recommendations from kindergarten teachers for advanced programs. We moved to Pennsylvania from Michigan before school started, the counselor at this new school looked at me and threw out all this information and put me with everyone else. "It's a new environment (having just moved here), let's see how he adjusts" ... excuses ... excuses.
What she really meant - "He doesn't look socially well adjusted. His shoes are ... multi-colored and wild, his hair is a mess, his shirt is WAY too big and his shorts don't match anything!?" (The travesty).
There was a girl in my class who was in the "Excel" program. She wore perfectly knit sweaters, with perfectly ironed jeans/skirts with a perfectly plain haircut, had a perfectly folded bagged lunch, who read all kinds of books. She was the social ideal AND she was smart. Kudos, you get to go to "Excel", Lisa.
My first day of first grade was horrible. The school smelled funny, the desks were just a tad too small, strange kids, no parents... There aren't any rules (that we know of at this point), many of us have never been put into a room with 30 other (strangers) kids our age for the first time. I desperately wanted to raise my hand and ask if we could have class outside, I wanted to get out of this horrible, uncomfortable environment.
I'm 6 years old and I have a lot of energy. You stick me behind a desk and tell me to sit completely still and to be completely silent?! FUCK YOU.
Q: What is the point of this, what is the purpose of forcing children into this uncomfortable position for 6-8 hours a day?
A: We're training them to be tolerate of sitting in cubicles 8-12 hours / day.
Let's talk more about the environment. At this point in their lives, the situation of school (being stuck behind a desk in a room full of 30 other children) is completely alien. There is no adult-adult interaction to observe, there is no past experience to call on for guidance on how to act. You have put 30 children into a situation that is 100% completely, absolutely new; and given them NO information on how to act. Child development at this point takes a DRASTIC, irreversible change.
While some children will draw on past experiences with small groups to determine how to behave, those who have not had these experiences, or who are not developed enough to try to find correlations, are now marching down their own invented path. School is now a wilderness and the children are raising one another. Teachers don't have time to teach how to behave, etiquette comes second to the course outline. This is the beginning of the human psychopath.
School judged me by how I looked. My peers started to as well. School said reading was for REALLY SMART kids, I hated reading, so my peers thought I was dumb. School said, neatly folded lunch bags are a sign of good organization, and good organization is a sign of intelligence, so my crumpled lunch bag meant I was dumb. etc, etc, etc...
I no longer wonder why high production value is more important in an election than content of philosophy.
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http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/underground/prologue5.htm
Read from "After I spoke in Nashville, a mother named Debbie..."
There is OH SO MUCH MORE to come...
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