Stop Thinking

I had forgotten what it was like to be told to sit down and shut up by a teacher. But I remember now why I stopped volunteering information in class somewhere around sixth grade. They don’t use those exact words, of course, but their dismissive, totalitarianism answer does the trick well enough. Stop thinking and listen.

That is the first lesson of school: Teachers have agenda. They have answers, too, but those are all tied up in what the teacher thinks is more important.

I recognize the need for an agenda. The teacher knows what needs to be taught, and they can’t be chasing every little white rabbit that pops into one of their thirty students’ minds. Unfortunately, we learn by chasing the little white rabbits.

This, from Fahrenheit 451 sums up school pretty well:

“It’s a lot of funnels and a lot of water poured down the spout and at the bottom, and them telling us it’s wine when it’s not.”

I wholeheartedly agree with Bradbury. I love to learn, yet a hated school. I think most of us do. But the system is not set up for us to learn. It is set up for us to listen.

So this is—verbatim—what my teacher told me today

·         You could do that, but don’t. Keep it simple.

      ·         Don’t try to use anything you’ve learned before, or in the past.

      ·         Don’t worry about learning more when one is all you need.

      ·         On your homework and the test, just copy what I’ve put on the board, don’t try to come up with something on your own.

Oh, and this is where my novio works. His escuela, if you will. Sort of see why he didn't post pictures of it earlier. Not really all that photogenic, is it?