The Problem With Schools. . .
. . . is that they don't teach you to think. They teach you all kinds of meaningless stuff and perhaps some meaningful stuff. But the overall problem is, they don't teach you to think. Neither do they let you think on your own if you already know how.
They teach you to figure out how other people think, but they don't help you to figure out how to think. I'm not saying that they need to tell us what to think. (They do that to a point anyway). I think we just need to sit back for a moment once in a while and say, "Well what's it to me?" That may be a bit crude, but you get the point.
You figure out how and why everyone else thought. Hobbes, Locke, Darwin etc. Well why did they think like that? Well, they agreed with these ideas brought forth by Mr. X and Y and Z. They themselves said this. They said that. Etc. I'm not saying that those things aren't important. But shouldn't it matter to consider whether or not I agree with Mr. X, Y and Z? And why would I agree with that? And why would I want to?
Just the other day in class, we were talking about something. What happened next, I honestly swear had not happened but a few times or less. Someone asked me what I thought of this particular subject. I said what I thought of it. Then they asked me why.
-Them: "Why do you think that?"
-Me: "Huh? Why do I think that? Well, um, um. . ."
I was totally caught off-guard. I was flabbergasted. I was dumbfounded. I had absolutely no idea what to say. Then I started thinking. Well, why do I feel like that?
According to me. Not according to Mr. X or Locke or whoever. Just me. It was an eye opening experience. Maybe it's a normal thing that happens to everyone, everywhere else. Maybe it's not. I don't know.
posted by Val at 11/28/2001 03:59:00 PM
