Schooling: A Capitalist Indoctrination

Schooling: A Capitalist Indoctrination
by BJ Murphy

The specialization of ones own diverse abilities has become, at least from what I've seen here in America, a way of life now as the school system increases based on capital, but decreases based on intellectual, intelligent learning towards those going to school, in what used to be, for the path of higher learning. Why is it that one chooses to only specialize towards one goal, despite the vast possibilities of learning much more? Is there not a sense of merely educating your mind towards all, rather than towards a simple goal of an entirety of life? What we face today are universities pumping out workers for self-beneficial reasons in the name of capital.

I cannot help but wonder where exactly this nation is heading when I see hardworking students entering college to learn, but then come out as debt-riddled workers leaving without a true goal in mind, due to the goal being achieved already & now just ready to be partaken upon. Whether the student is paying to go to college, or has already paid to go, & is merely working already to pay the state back after getting a nifty loan for a possible 4 year degree, the problem is dead center of it all, the students are paying to learn or for what they learned. Is there not a better way of handling this? I never seemed to understand the concept of paying to make a better of yourself, when the payments brought forth is used as the limitation of how much you better yourself.

Three things are created through capitalized schooling: the rich, the workers, & the poor. All of which is achieved by how much money one can cough up, rather than the willingness to learn all that can be learned. We hear the reasons for going to college from kindergarten to senior year of high school - to find out who you are & what you want to do. But how can one find out who s/he truly is & what s/he's capable of when one is limited to how much s/he can learn? This is where I find that the educational system has turned into a workers factory for the consumers of specialized learning to be consumed, themselves, later down the road.

Venezuela has recently started a revolutionary new approach to schooling. What this plan contains, which was created by his brother Adan Chavez, is the beginning of nationalizing the school systems. What this allows is free education to all that wants to participate. Now, he made it fair to where he allowed private schools to continue, but they had to follow by rules, for private schools shouldn't indoctrinate whatever lessons are felt to be presented. This is all being paid for through State income, for Venezuela has dedicated itself towards a new way of educating their people. France has been using this type of schooling as well, where all students are allowed to go to college for free. The rules are that each student that participates will do the same thing, but will be granted all learning capabilities, allowing the student to work towards a higher way of bettering themselves. This is one of the main reasons why France statistics show that students there get much higher math scores, rather than the U.S. which ranks 24th of 38 in mathematics, 19th of 38 in science, 12th of 38 in reading, & 26th of 38 in problem solving.

Though, as I am a supporter in this type of learning system, I feel that this is merely the beginning of a transitional stage towards a much more higher way of learning than we are beginning to see now. We are now realizing that making a better of our people & teaching them as much as possible, while giving them equal opportunities through education, is a far more effective approach than the dying out method of putting a price to people's education. Though, there is still money being used, which is through the use of taxes. Even though I am for this method far more than how America runs it's school systems, I feel that, until money is completely taken out of the picture of educational reform, we will never truly give students the type of education that they deserve, better yet, is a necessary possibility.

Where does money play into the educational system? To pay for books & materials? No, since these are all manufactured by the use of resources & can be provided without the use of money. Man doesn't even manufacture these books any longer, & most importantly, we don't even need books anymore due to computer-based alternatives. So that just leaves us with the materials for teachers, which plays into the same effect as books do. These are not manufactured because of money. Money only plays as the conditioning of making man do unnecessary labor. And, like the books, are now manufactured by machines, not man. Man makes the machines, but this could be done without money, for people that create these machines do it for the love of doing so, not the money. Money was there to allow these workers to live in a capitalized society. Though, if there's no monetary system, there's no need.

So, now that books & materials are now knocked out of the category, what else does money play into? That's right, the teachers. Again, plays the same as I was saying about boring labor to humans which could be replaced by machines. Though, machines wouldn't do that good in teaching, not human-based in my opinion. Which is where my other point comes into effect. People do what they love, because they love doing it, not because money might be involved. I've written & published 3 books so far & I receive no profit from it, except for maybe $1 or 2. I love writing books, so I'll do it for free. So, let me ask you this - would you rather be taught by a teacher who loves teaching, or be taught by someone who's just doing it for the money? See my point?

One thing that I've noticed when I was in high school was that school started to become a military recruiting area. Our scores began being evaluated & observed to try & find potential for what the military are looking for. I remember taking the ASVAB test, where I was told I could find out what all I'm good at & what I could be looking for when I go to college - notice how they push you into only specializing into one subject. I took the test, & a month later I was told that I did excellent in all categories, & practically that I could do whatever I wanted in life. This brought a good thing to my life, pretty much lifting my hopes up for a better future. But then a few weeks before school was to end I get a knock at my door from home. I open it up & there an army recruiter was standing by my door. I wasn't sure why, since I never signed up for anything, due to my opposition against the wars that are being waged. I allowed him to come in & talk to me. The first thing he brought up was the reason why he was at my house, which really made me start wondering what the school systems are really trying to pull off from all this. He said that he reviewed my ASVAB test & was impressed at my scores. I was then informed that the tests were being evaluated by the military to try & find people with the best scores to try & pull to their training. After letting him have his say, I politely told him that I wasn't interested & showed him the door. That was the end of it, but the realization of what the HIGH SCHOOL is doing to help the military really puts a new perspective on me on where the educational system is going.

The point I'm trying to get out of this is that we are being taught within our educational systems, not to make a better of ourselves, but to find a job & do that job until we retire. This all happens while the "educational" system profits off of you & your activities. The system that controls this nation profits off of the workforce, so why should we fuel the state that controls us? Education is what creates who we are in the future. So it's not surprising on what our school's have become after taking a look on how the workforce operates these days. I know what you must be thinking - if one doesn't specialize on a certain subject how can we get someone like doctors? The problem I have about this idea is that we are conditioned to believe that one must partake in such niche roles in society, which is only used to help profit the system. Questions were brought forth by someone that I know on a forum which directly related to the points being made here:

Should the guy building bridges be forced to build bridges his entire life? Should he be allowed to do something else when he no longer enjoys building bridges?

These are great points that need to be brought into attention. Should a person be forced to remain in such a job that he no longer loves doing? Sure, we're not exactly forced to stay in a job, but when you quit you have to mention that in your next job application. If you're fired then that goes into a record for your next employment to look over & is used to decide on whether you should be hired or not, & let's not forget the difficulties & stress brought forth when wanting to start on a new degree pathway through our capitalized educational system. This is merely used as an illusion of choice on what we want to do. Another point that needs to be realized on why it's hard to just quit your job & try searching for a new one is that, in a monetary system, bills need to be paid, & stopping the flow of income in the search of your newly desired job costs a lot of money - the military then comes in around this time of pressure & desperation within one's life.

Another question that might be asked would be, "how will things get done?". The answer to this is simple - in similar ways on how things get done now. The only difference would be that people will not be forced to do the same work their entire lives, unless they want to that is. Let's not forget that a lot of the roles which are being performed today within society will no longer be around any longer in the next coming decades. Man (mankind) should be freely allowed to do what they want to do within society, yet the profitable specialization idea seems to have become the alternative to 'freedom to work'. For what I feel to be a capitalist indoctrination within our educational systems, this needs to end now.

The main point out of all this is that it all starts through education. This is the very source of why things are what they are in life, especially within the workforce. If we are to start such a new revolutionary way of thinking, it must begin with education. Until we begin to realize this, I fear of what is to come to this nation's future.

“In a communist society there are no painters, but at most people who engage in painting among other activities.” ~Karl Marx

Question Everything...Deny Nothing