Michel Foucault once said, “Schools serve the same social functions as prisons and mental institutions — to define, classify, control and regulate people.” Our human egos lead us to believe that we are free thinkers, soldiers against an omnipresent evil which may come for us in different shapes and forms. Our pride transfers into nationalism, the evil energy which convinces us that our empire provides a more free society than others.
Capitalists thought they had proven their moral aura when they began to overthrow feudalism in the 16th century. Today, we are constantly indoctrinated by media with stories about capitalist heroes such as Batman and Captain America.
Communists, known formally as Marxist-Leninists, thought they were on the right side of history when they drew swords on capitalists and proclaimed justice for all their evils. They failed to see in themselves anything other than Robin Hood, a necessary vigilante who would restore the injustices committed by the rich on the poor.
Unfortunately, life does not work in distinct colors. The gray philosophical questions of morality either have no answers or are too daunting for the human mind to comprehend. At the end of their lives, when many capitalists and communists fade away into the deep nothingness, the unheard prayers begging for judgement by the long catalog of their victims will trail them and fade away.
Humans have to ask why we can abuse with such fervor. We have to question why we can murder with such certainty. The truth is, no matter how free we believe our society to be, and no matter how much we associate with the label “free thinker,” inculcating institutions exist around us, reaffirming the values we were brainwashed into.
The most important institution for indoctrination has been the school system. Brazilian educator Paulo Freire explains the issue stating, “The more completely she fills the receptacles, the better a teacher she is. The more meekly the receptacles permit themselves to be filled, the better students they are.”
All around the U.S., millions of adolescents sit idly in gray wastes attempting to learn. In many ways, K-12 education is like a prison system. At an early age, you are divided from your peers and classified into an IQ range. You are taught what to think, told what to learn and given permission when to eat and use the bathroom.
Consistently, scientific publications have shown a correlation between recess and improvement in the classroom. Despite this, recess is not required at many schools and is being reduced in the U.S.In this depressing educational environment, the essential human trait for liberation, curiosity, is murdered and young people begin transforming into machines.
If K-12 education is like a prison, college is like parole. College is a false illusion of freedom. The choice of attending class and the footsteps of college students roaming freely around campus promise incoming freshman autonomy. But to the capitalist predator that is a college institution, freshmen are just fresh meat.
Before their prefrontal cortices are fully developed, 18-year-olds have to make the fatal decision of deciding the rest of their lives before the bully that is college administration will plunder all their lunch and rent money for each semester to come.
Students pick majors for which they are uncertain of and follow the monolithic path of a four-year degree in hopes this is the shortest time needed for an optimal college career.
The more hours they pile in their semesters, the more disinterested they become in each class. The longer their college career survives, the more reluctant they are to change majors and pursue their interests or even find them.
Eventually, students begin failing in the classroom and their curiosity dies beyond revival. Rather than standing up to the system which oppresses them, they develop defense mechanisms such as the slogan “C’s get degrees.”
They lose interest in learning and questioning the world around them, socially and scientifically. The stress transforms them fully into machines unempathetic and ready to enter a technocratic economy. This is not a mere accident. Currently, schools are made for finding jobs, not for learning. They are designed to maximally profit the opulent minority.
Empathy and curiosity directly interfere with these ambitions, so they are crushed early on.
In the beginning of the 18th century, the World Society of London was the leading establishment for scientific discovery. Its motto was “Nullius in verba,” Latin for “see for yourself.” In other words, the quintessential disposition of scientific thinking is to question everything.
We need to create an educational environment which constructs discussion between teacher and student, a system which gives incentives for exploration over disciplined regurgitation and debate over submissiveness, rather than a demagoguery. We need to make an atmosphere where students have family cohesion, but we must also invest in their idiosyncrasy.
Human individuality and the need for creative practice mean humans should find their niche rather than to be classified or molded into their adult form.
We need a system where students are more than just a statistic. If we extend the idea of learning outside of the confines of gray classrooms and we adopt the attitude to question everything, perhaps we can solve the qualms communism and capitalism never could.
Soheil Saneei is a 20-year-old biological engineering sophomore from Metairie, Louisiana.