DEVIL'S WORKSHOP?
My office overlooks a school. This location provides me ample opportunity to observe children in an environment, which to me appears to need much change. Children are happy, no matter what we adults impose on them. Their energy, mischief and zest, is infectious and never fails to perk me up.
Feelings of despair envelope me on the other hand when I observe how we invest in our future. The kid’s backs are stooped as they carry their overweight school bags. There are no sports or play area to speak off and the children try to run about in the small courtyard and on the semi covered rooftop for a brief while before they dragged inside to memorize something more.
I sometimes chat with some of the kids as they wait for their ride. I learn that most of them are not going back home but to some tuitions / classes and even more study. Children naturally want to play, but sadly their wants or needs are not a consideration for most educationists, parents, or the government.
Most kids get home a little too late in the evening and then they spend time in front of a television set or some video games before they are marched off to sleep much later in the night than they should.
Our current schooling system was born from the needs of industrialization a few hundred years ago. Further pushed by priests and governments to keep their flock timid and busy at all times children were managed by the motto 'An empty mind is a devil's workshop'. Nothing could be more sad or further from the truth.
Industrialization as undertaken so far is mostly based on maximum exploitation of resources. This approach demands that the majority of people and employees should have facts and not thoughts. They must possess a compliant spirit to take orders and not independence and of course having fun at work or during learning is deemed dangerous. This approach deadens the mind rather than enlightening it.
As a result many children do not get a moment free, and this suits parents and teachers just fine. Many parents and teachers are anyway absorbed in their own genuine or imaginary issues and struggles.
I spent almost my entire childhood in a boarding school, and my youth living in college hostels. The institutions were set in quiet places and free of many of today's distractions. I had encountered my share of fantastic teachers and petty tyrants. The curriculum was not killing because we did not have so much drivel. Sports were encouraged along with extra curricular activities that helped build character and develop the personality.
One thing many of my friends now look back with incredibility is the amount of time we had on our hands, to do, really nothing. These were times for fantasizing, and to spend in wonder. The space, and time afforded us the luxury to daydream, to study ourselves and the world around us as we experienced it and the world we wanted to create.
What differentiates humans from lower species is our overdeveloped mind. Our current social and education system clutters the mind, stifling our thoughts and not allowing the mind to breathe. When the mind is overfilled with facts and figures even temporarily, it knocks off large chunks of creativity.
The end result of this education-lifestyle combination is the output of generations of a well informed, non creative, mentally and physically weak people.
When you live for more than half a century it can be advantageous to be able to look back and study cause and effects of various actions and inactions. I classify my associates and classmates into four categories;
1. First the sloggers, they always worked hard and they still slog at their careers and in their lives. Un-lived they are often overworked and overstressed. They believe they are avoiding the devil's workshop.
2. Bums, these folks never did anything then and decades later still pretty much do nothing very useful even today.
3. Negative achievers who day dreamt and fantasized about the future. Driven by negative influences at home and from their choice of friends and associates they went on to notoriety and often burnt out.
4. Positive achievers who continue to achieve success. These folks are often not only generating wealth but also do interesting things. They lead useful and generally more fulfilling lives. Contributing to society many of these people daydreamed away but were guided by a good value system and worked hard applying both mind and spirit. Most of them participated in sport and extra curricular activities
Let's give our kids space and a good value system and just watch them create an interesting, healthy, happy, caring and successful world.
Pablo Picasso the famous artist said; "Every child is born an artist, the problem is staying an artist when you grow up"
A wise man once said; "If you do not build castles in the air, you build them nowhere".
Interesting thoughts on this subject can also be found at the following two blogs;
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