The Episode:
To download the audio, right click and press “save as”.
Remember to subscribe on iTunes or subscribe on Pocket Casts.
If you enjoyed the episode, don’t keep it a secret! Feel free to share it on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, Reddit, or your office bathroom wall.
The Cash:
We really appreciate all of your contributions! Every cent and satoshi we receive lets us know that we’re doing something worthwhile, that you are entertained by our program, and that you’re starting to question what you know more and more. Please be generous. Donate by BitCoin: 182CzJUbz8xb1JZjuVm2S4YUBfd3xk2XfM
Or donate your Altcoins using Shapeshift:
Or give us a small amount of money every month using PayPal:
The Story:
Do you remember your school days? If you’re like most people, you don’t reflect on the past too much. You could go through your life not winding your mind back to your time in a very strange place, a very different place. Depending on which country you grew up in, perhaps you had to go to school – maybe you were coerced into going to school. Maybe it was made clear to you that there just wasn’t any other choice. You might have gone through 10 or 13 years of your life, going to school every day without even questioning why you were doing it.
This was a place where you were going every weekday, where other people were forced to go too. If you had the choice, you might not have been in the proximity of these people at all. Caged wolves will attempt to dominate one another, using violence. If we put children in a cage, the results are not surprising.
When a teacher stands in front of a class and talks, the message isn’t so hard to determine. They might teach science, history, maths, or they might tell a child directly “You are worthless. You will amount to nothing.” Think back. Do you remember some variation of this from your “education”?
However, even if a teacher doesn’t directly insult the students, there is a meta-communication which runs right through the system. Many modern schools, especially public school, are still based on a military model. I tell you what to do, and you do it. If you don’t do what I tell you, you are disobedient, you are a bad kid, you shall be punished. If you survive this system with a capability for independent thought, you are the exception, not the rule.
How does schooling affect the way we think, for better or worse? Is it possible that you had some traumatic experiences there, that caused some mental scar tissue which may never completely heal? Have you forgotten so absolutely, that you would be willing to put your own children through the same thing? Let’s dive into these muddy waters of questions in the next exciting chapter of … The Paradise Paradox!
The Links:
Radical Unschooling – A Revolution Has Begun-Revised Edition by Dayna Martin
Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling, 10th Anniversary Edition by John Taylor Gatto
In the Absence of Fathers – A Story of Elephants and Men
Unschooling and Freedom Parenting with Dayna Martin
Who The HELL Are These People? with John Taylor Gatto
Pedro Kumamoto makes history with shoestring campaign and win in Mexico
Jeff Berwick on Emancipated Human
