and the saddest thing of all was that we cared about the wrong things

a student shows up 20 minutes late. you would think the class was being bombed. what will the future generations say, if there are future generations? they will say that while the bombs were falling, while the food was being poisoned, while poverty was rampant, while various bigotries battered our brutalized earth, we cared about people being on time.

and on time for what? if they were on time, what would they learn? it brings to mind the line in sleeper..."prepare subject for a thorough brainwash." just what is our educational establishment in place for? if there was real learning going on, perhaps one could justify caring about students being on time. but, of course, true learning is done by choice. when you want to learn something, you take time to learn it. this truth explains why things are learned in the first place.

if i may reach for a comparison, it is like comparing rape with consensual sex. one is forced upon you, the other is a choice freely made. that is why 1984 reads better when you read it on your own, as opposed to it being on your school's summer reading list.

forced learning is an oxymoron. and, just what is it that this culture has to teach us? in five years at "one of the best public schools in the country," i have yet to see a student with a william blum book, or a barry harris cd. there is much to learn, and one will never learn it in the educational establishments created by the culture that is killing truth.

so, the student was 20 minutes late? perhaps he got some extra sleep, an activity much more important than sitting in a banal classroom. maybe the young man was eating, another activity more essential than taking notes on a plethora of information that will be forgotten as soon as the next quiz is completed.

eating, sleeping, sitting in a classroom.

the animals, which we once were, and still are, suicidal tendencies aside, can all figure out which choices to make.

sadly, our society can't.

and the future generations?

they will surely say that the saddest thing was, they cared about the wrong things.