Coercing Education

Can education be "over valued?"

I was reading how the Parti Quebecois want to increase the age for mandating kids stay in school from 16 to 18.

What else is new? Rather than come up with real, innovative solutions we coerce people into doing something they don't want to do under the guise of "what's right for them." We sure ain't surgical when it comes to dealing with issues. It's the same crap down south with "Hope and change" guy. Obama's presidency is more like "Lull and Maintain."

Forcing students who have no intention of or interest in academia to stay in school is draconian and nonsensical. People who think this way can lick my...lollipop.

I'm not suggesting we pimp out people who can't read or write (although that's happening anyway given the the current state of educational affairs) what I'm saying is to be more enlightened. Ah, therein lies the rub! For statists who want to make everything they deem necessary obligatory it's about creating an "enlightened" society by keeping a kid who could care less in school. Of course, once they remove the will of a person from the equation the student then becomes the problem of the school and parents. "He or she doesn't like school? Make them" is their insidious advice.

Rather, I'd work it backwards. I would remove the paternalism of the state and reduce them to a true partner; a mediator between student, parent and teacher if you will. Who knows better if a kid belongs in school? A parent and teacher or a bureaucrat? They say sports radio is all local. So is education.

Once it's determined a person shouldn't be in the education system, this is where the state in concert with corporations if need be, can create thoughtful options for those students. For example, a trade and other vocations. What is so wrong to take a person who demonstrates a special skill, say, in electricity and send them to electrical school as opposed to letting them rot in English class reading Poe? You know (glazed looks and cheek in palms usually are dead give aways) Poe has little value to them. No one wins. Not the kid, not the school, not society and not the macabre writings of Poe.

This is where I submit we over value education at some point. When I was in high school, it was easy to spot how many kids went through the motion. I'm gonna go Jose Canseco on everyone and say as many as 50% of students were probably not cut out for school. So what does the system do? Make them wallow within grounds of academia. Hey, better there than...anywhere I suppose.

Thinking back, there were three types of students. The first group knew their destination. It's as if they had a destiny to fulfill. Your engineers, doctors, lawyers, police officers and the sort. Within that group were entrepreneurial people who really couldn't care either way. Some wanted an education, others didn't. They just wanted a business. I fell into that group. I knew I could never work with a higher authority unless I truly respected them. The odds were against me and so it proved correct. The second group were the absolute clueless. Neither coming or going. Just going with the flow like cattle on their way to Bovine University to be slaughtered. I sometimes fell in that lull. The third group were the people who knew they didn't belong in school. They weren't interested and weren't going to be strong armed into being interested. These were the pragmatic realists. You know the type, they always knew stuff. Street smart, they wanted to earn income. To be productve early and fast.

My buddies fell into mostly the first and third groups. A couple of us touched the second group for a time (one ended up a diplomat, the other selling software. Both successful. I'm still a work in progress). The guys who were in the third group couldn't understand why they had to waste their time in chemistry class given they already had a passion and interest they could score off. Far from being dolts (as socialist/liberals will hav you believe because they didn't want diplomas) one was a Hot Rod mechanic and restorer. As one man said, "tu connais Joe? Tabernak, y'a vider'l Quebec!" "You know, Joes? He emptied Quebec!" Meaning, he was extremely good at finding American muscle car classics sitting in sheds and outhouses across the province, buying them, fixing them up and shipping them off to American buyers. Once he "emptied" Quebec, he split for Florida and hasn't been back.

The second "vocational" guy was Johnny. He not only wanted to be an electrician, he was actually at peace with it. We all looked at him strange. Little did I know, we were buying into the propaganda of the time. Stay in school, because...

No one knew why. Johnny didn't care. Moreover, he foresaw business in his trade in Canada was a dead-end. He was all stars and stripes. After spending years as a troublesome student causing headaches for all involved (then the state wonders why we have fucked up kids), including a bad first marriage, he refound his first high school love, hitched up and packed for Florida where he became a general contractor at 23. He would later move to North Carolina and is doing well. He never regretted his decision. America for him, is and will always remain the land of opportunity. I wouldn't be surprised if he ends up taking advantage of a construction boom in Tennessee as well.

I on the other hand, was made to explore. I didn't do it for various reasons. I do think back on the decisions but don't dwell on it. I have a clearer picture and will move in that direction now. Maybe all those books I read - I have a library of over 500 books and thousands of journals, magazines and periodicals - only messed me up more. Bope. Meh.

We should let our children fly. If they fall, they fall. They'll get back up. Man, that sounds effen cheesey but when you think of it, it's the only way to truly producde happy and productive citizens.