I often find it productive to ask myself the question: if the world I’m living in right now is a dystopia, what are its most dystopian features? School is near the top of that list, as is circumcision.
I know. I still feel psychologically wrecked/burned by it all and afraid to be proud of expressing myself (my strengths and weaknesses), and still overly judged by other people’s notion of what it means to make proper progress. It defines and tracks *everyone*, it limits our social circles (and confines us to permanent bubbles), and it makes us feel guilty over doing anything that’s different. I frequently feel like I’m on the defensive. I wish I could have a childhood I was fully proud of—that I want to show off to the rest of the world (and create value for others), but it has all been destroyed by my desire to please others. I also wish I could have an Internet history I was fully proud of.. rather than one I’m defensive about..
And because of the system, I still feel constantly on the defensive for justifying my current life path.
People should be proud of what they learn—they should want to show it off to the rest of the world, rather than throw all their assignments away. They should also be proud of how they’re unique/different from others (including their weaknesses that *others* can fill them up in), especially if they process the world in a weird/neurodivergent way (and can’t necessarily learn the same way that others do) or if they work best in a “support role” who make smart people feel comfortable. They should be unashamed of showing how they might be wrong (and how their thinking can be fixed in the future). They overrate independence and ability to be seen as “better than others”.
And they should take advantage of their comparative strengths when their neuroplasticity/fluid intelligence is at its *highest*, and receive feedback from older people who actually have experience interacting with the rest of the world (rather than in their own bubbles)
BTW—I took a unique extreme in going for maximizing my own knowledge rather than optimizing for the meta-game of figuring out what knowledge I should learn and what knowledge is best left in the heads of others (and I seem to have better memory for knowledge in the heads of others than most people do).
“If not for school I wouldn’t have anxiety”, is an appealing theory, but I wouldn’t put much faith in it. I propose that your anxieties are not due to school, but due to people in general.
An interesting thing to look at here is the history of literacy in England. Here’s a graph of illiteracy, declining from 90% to 5% (for men) from 1500 to 1900. Of interest is that the compulsory schooling acts—basically the adoption of a system very much like our modern system—happened in 1870, at which point male illiteracy was already down to 20%. So how were 80% of men learning to read before then? Well, the government was subsidizing education starting in about 1830, even though it wasn’t compulsory. But male illiteracy was only 40% then!
The answer seems to be something like: there were schools that people paid for, or they did Sunday school, or they got tutored individually, or they got tutored in small groups, much in the same way that people might learn any other skill now, like art.
I can share what school i grew up in. It’s a multi-age Democratic school. multi-age means it has kids ranging from 4yo to 18yo, and they can all interact in the same environment. Democratic means a bunch of things. no student is forced to go to any classes, you choose what activities you want to attend, you choose how to spend your time. you may spend it in a lot of classes, you may spend it in no classes and just play with mud all day (which i did a lot of). Further, kids have direct say and influence on how the school runs and what the rules are through committees (which one can get elected to) and the parliament, where everyone has an equal vote.
It’s not the perfect/optimal system, and I’m not trying to say that’s how education should all look like. but as far as non dystopian education systems go, this passes the mark easily.
I’ve been there 14 years, and had a fantastic time all throughout, i learned a bunch of things that i never would have learned have i been in a regular school, and even after i finished school i enjoyed coming to visit for whole days often.
I often find it productive to ask myself the question: if the world I’m living in right now is a dystopia, what are its most dystopian features? School is near the top of that list, as is circumcision.
I know. I still feel psychologically wrecked/burned by it all and afraid to be proud of expressing myself (my strengths and weaknesses), and still overly judged by other people’s notion of what it means to make proper progress. It defines and tracks *everyone*, it limits our social circles (and confines us to permanent bubbles), and it makes us feel guilty over doing anything that’s different. I frequently feel like I’m on the defensive. I wish I could have a childhood I was fully proud of—that I want to show off to the rest of the world (and create value for others), but it has all been destroyed by my desire to please others. I also wish I could have an Internet history I was fully proud of.. rather than one I’m defensive about..
And because of the system, I still feel constantly on the defensive for justifying my current life path.
People should be proud of what they learn—they should want to show it off to the rest of the world, rather than throw all their assignments away. They should also be proud of how they’re unique/different from others (including their weaknesses that *others* can fill them up in), especially if they process the world in a weird/neurodivergent way (and can’t necessarily learn the same way that others do) or if they work best in a “support role” who make smart people feel comfortable. They should be unashamed of showing how they might be wrong (and how their thinking can be fixed in the future). They overrate independence and ability to be seen as “better than others”.
And they should take advantage of their comparative strengths when their neuroplasticity/fluid intelligence is at its *highest*, and receive feedback from older people who actually have experience interacting with the rest of the world (rather than in their own bubbles)
BTW—I took a unique extreme in going for maximizing my own knowledge rather than optimizing for the meta-game of figuring out what knowledge I should learn and what knowledge is best left in the heads of others (and I seem to have better memory for knowledge in the heads of others than most people do).
“If not for school I wouldn’t have anxiety”, is an appealing theory, but I wouldn’t put much faith in it. I propose that your anxieties are not due to school, but due to people in general.
What does a non-dystopian alternative to school look like? Private tutoring? Hoping that kids will decide to educate themselves?
An interesting thing to look at here is the history of literacy in England. Here’s a graph of illiteracy, declining from 90% to 5% (for men) from 1500 to 1900. Of interest is that the compulsory schooling acts—basically the adoption of a system very much like our modern system—happened in 1870, at which point male illiteracy was already down to 20%. So how were 80% of men learning to read before then? Well, the government was subsidizing education starting in about 1830, even though it wasn’t compulsory. But male illiteracy was only 40% then!
The answer seems to be something like: there were schools that people paid for, or they did Sunday school, or they got tutored individually, or they got tutored in small groups, much in the same way that people might learn any other skill now, like art.
I can share what school i grew up in. It’s a multi-age Democratic school. multi-age means it has kids ranging from 4yo to 18yo, and they can all interact in the same environment. Democratic means a bunch of things. no student is forced to go to any classes, you choose what activities you want to attend, you choose how to spend your time. you may spend it in a lot of classes, you may spend it in no classes and just play with mud all day (which i did a lot of). Further, kids have direct say and influence on how the school runs and what the rules are through committees (which one can get elected to) and the parliament, where everyone has an equal vote.
It’s not the perfect/optimal system, and I’m not trying to say that’s how education should all look like. but as far as non dystopian education systems go, this passes the mark easily.
I’ve been there 14 years, and had a fantastic time all throughout, i learned a bunch of things that i never would have learned have i been in a regular school, and even after i finished school i enjoyed coming to visit for whole days often.