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Is it intelligent to live in fear?
I ask this question because it seems to me that many
people are studying around the world not because they
love learning, but because they are afraid of what will
happen if they dont study. For example, they are
afraid they wont pass their courses and they
wont get high school degrees. Then they wont
be able to get into a university.
Their parents usually believe it is in their
childrens best interest to go to a university. They
really believe this. It is one of societys most
deeply held beliefs. It is like a new world religious
belief.
But I challenge it.
My hypothesis is that the forced education system,
combined with the belief that going to a university is
good for your children, creates more problems than it
solves.
In other words, it makes the world a worse place. It
creates a system based on fear. The fear of not getting a
university degree is the fear of not getting a job. This
fear now permeates society around the world.
But is it intelligent to live like this?
Is it intelligent to live with this kind of pervasive,
built in, fear?
Or would it be more intelligent to think about how to
change the system so there is less fear of not getting a
job? For example, to change it so young people were
learning out of the desire to do what they really want to
do?
Would it be more intelligent to change it so they could
choose when to take exams rather than have exams be the
center of their young lives? See Give hugs,
Not exams **
Would it be more intelligent to change it so they could
learn independently, from home or from their
friends house, and thus not be subject to near
constant control by government employees, for example? I
am talking about the public schools, who are filled with
government employees who also are afraid of disobeying
too many of the rules imposed on them by the state. Or,
if it is a private school, the employees are afraid of
breaking too many of the school director or owners
rules.
As I look at schools in the countries I have visited, I
see a lot of fear. That is one reason I ask if it is
intelligent to live with so much fear.
I see a lot of parents who are stressed nearly each
morning, over getting their child or teen to school on
time. But why? Why not change the system to make learning
more independent, so no matter what time the student gets
there they can pick up where they left off the day
before? Or better yet, let them learn via the Internet so
they dont even have to go to schools if they
dont want to?
It is my hope and dream that schools, and the governments
around the world, will have less control over the
learning process.
It is my hope and dream that learning will become
something done more out of desire and less out of fear.
It is my hope and dream that schools will become less
places where young people are indoctrinated with whatever
cultural, religious and political beliefs held by those
in power in their particular niche in the world.
It is my hope and dream students will one day be less
patriotic and begin to think of a united
world, free from violence and wars.
It is my hope and dream they will make friends in other
countries and share ideas, and become more intellectually
and emotionally independent, yet united.
It is my hope and dream they will question the status quo
in their particular cultures and think more of values
which are healthy for all of humanity, all the world.
S. Hein
July 9, 2007
Paysandu, Uruguay
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