My first day back as a substitute teacher at the same middle school I attended when I was twelve, and I never thought that I would feel the way I do now when I attended classes then. There are so many reasons that contribute to our current state of complete educational frailty, facing collapse. It is utterly painful to be a part of the system and sit back and try to be okay with the current state of education, and the children being brought up in such a way.
Firstly, and most importantly, the decline in education has been an intentional accomplishment pushed forth after World War II, moving the education of American kids into a state of thoughtless standardization. I have spoken about this before, but I think its so important to understand that this current system has become what it is now, because administrators have been slowly and gradually making changes to create a place of complete boredom. No thinking happens in school. Thats not the point now. And the few places that may allow for individual thought, such as literature classes and the arts are ALWAYS the first to get cut. Our government is not trying to produce intelligent and intellectual citizens. That only creates more possible opposition to their plans, such as increasing wage and income taxes, stripping basic rights and freedoms, among hundreds of other offenses. John Taylor Gatto is always a credible author on this subject area, and his books can be located all across the internet.
Secondly, the situation of Special Education has been a difficult area of discussion for me, becuase most of my post college work has involved children with special needs. Two years in a special needs pre-school working with beautiful children that are held back because of the neurological function they lack. There are a variety of theories on this increase, such as the explosion of Autism and other prevalent mental conditions. I whole heatedly believe that it is a large array of factors that are environmental and industrial in nature, along with a food system completely and intentionally void of proper human nutrition.
In terms of the environment I speak of are again a variety of different factors that I believe lead to this complacency of the current educational frailty. Environments have been proven throughout social and psychological theorists throughout history to have an ever lasting impact upon a persons life. In this case I am hammering down on the lack of respect that I believe the parents of the current generation are teaching their children. Is it completely their faults, no, I think not. They are aided in their inability to develop a solid moral groundwork with their children, particularly respect, by the disgusting excuse for media entertainment their children are consumed with and by. Mentally dumbing television, militarily minded video games to build a weak bodied army of trigger-happy youth, and other forms of advertising propaganda to inundate children with technology contribute to how youth learn, or rather don't learn to be respectful and socially conscious citizens.
Beyond this area of moral development, lies an environment of artificial living. Pause and look around you, and spend a few moments analyzing the sources of a few things you use on a regular basis. Computers, toothbrushes, deodorants and perfumes, cell phones, electronic devices of all kinds, laundry detergents, plastics of all kinds, wall paints and stains, multiple types of bedding and clothing fabric, etc.....all very synthetic. Made utilizing many modern processing techniques, forming something completely unintended by the natural world. We surround ourselves with these items becuase we have been told they are harmless and absolutely safe to use and live with, but what true research has been done to show that these items are in fact harmless? How much time does it truly demand to study the effects of recent technological and "better-living" commodities on our health? Our childrens' health?
In the same realm, I'll conclude with the overwhelmingly artificial food system we have been herded into living by. Many food documentaries and reports have come out independently and have exposed ample amounts of terrifying and even life-threatening effects of the foods we consistently ingest. GMO (genetically modified organism) crops, tomatoes spliced with fish genes to ripen slower and create a more durable skin and flesh, herbicides, pesticides, rBGH ( recombinant bovine growth hormone) lay-den meat and dairy items, heavily processed foods containing multiple corn and/or soy-based stabilizers, preservative and sweeteners...the list unfortunately never ends. Shrouded in lies, these foods remain unaffected by price increases the way that organic whole foods are, because of the corrupt subsidizing that occurs with the main food items: corn, soy, wheat, chicken and other meat and dairy products. When only a few companies operate the majority of the food market in a country, the money that they have available for lobbying and bill passing is tremendous and you are joking yourself if you don't think government officials are accept dirty money to pass legislature. Farmers of these agricultural sectors are tempted with a pretty delicious sounding deal of profit making, due to the government subsidizing. But companies like Monsanto have made it impossible to make any gain becuase of the costs of required machinery and seed upgrades, that have been designed to keep the contracted farmers in a constant state of sinking.
Finally, in the area of environment, I think it is increasingly more important to point out the alarming rate at which the pharmacological field is developing and prescribing psychoactive drugs. The implementation of these types of drugs began many years ago. The Citizens Commission on Human Rights is an excellent website for a historical analysis of the introduction of psychotropic drugging. ( www.cchr.org. ) Essentially, with the advent of the DSM Psychiatric Manual in the post WWII era, symptoms are agreed upon by a group of psychiatrists. With a show of hands, these powerful professionals agree upon what disorder a selected set of symptoms will include, and what matching drug will be most effective in "treating" the condition. These drugs cause irreparable damage to the physical neurology of the human mind, and once in the daily rotation long enough, the create a withdrawal effect when the usage is stopped. Psychoactive drugging has also create a nation of people with less chance for creative and willful thinking, especially considering the number of children being carelessly prescribed these drugs.
The education system faces so many uphill battles from a good-willing active public perspective, that it nearly seems impossible to direct the system into a state of progression. If more citizens take a closer examination of the place which they send their children everyday, and who and what is being sold to them as factual history, and how the government is not funding their developing brains the way they should be...maybe at that point it will become a possibility to rally together and forge a plan to produce thoughtful children. Steering away from the short-sighted and consuming culture we have been led to believe is how to survive, we can become a stronger and more productive society.
No comments:
Post a Comment