For the 'stuff I wish I had read when I was 13' file:
"Officially the purpose of schools is to teach kids. In fact their primary purpose is to keep kids locked up in one place for a big chunk of the day so adults can get things done. Teenage kids used to have a more active role in society. In pre-industrial times, they were all apprentices of one sort or another, whether in shops or on farms or even on warships. They weren't left to create their own societies. They were junior members of adult societies. Teenagers seem to have respected adults more then, because the adults were the visible experts in the skills they were trying to learn. Now most kids have little idea what their parents do in their distant offices, and see no connection (indeed, there is precious little) between schoolwork and the work they'll do as adults. And if teenagers respected adults more, adults also had more use for teenagers. After a couple years' training, an apprentice could be a real help. Even the newest apprentice could be made to carry messages or sweep the workshop. Now adults have no immediate use for teenagers. They would be in the way in an office. So they drop them off at school on their way to work, much as they might drop the dog off at a kennel if they were going away for the weekend.
School is a strange, artificial thing, half sterile and half feral. It's all-encompassing, like life, but it isn't the real thing. It's only temporary, and if you look, you can see beyond it even while you're still in it.
If life seems awful to kids, it's neither because hormones are turning you all into monsters (as your parents believe), nor because life actually is awful (as you believe). It's because the adults, who no longer have any economic use for you, have abandoned you to spend years cooped up together with nothing real to do. Any society of that type is awful to live in. You don't have to look any further to explain why teenage kids are unhappy." - Paul Graham
"Officially the purpose of schools is to teach kids. In fact their primary purpose is to keep kids locked up in one place for a big chunk of the day so adults can get things done. Teenage kids used to have a more active role in society. In pre-industrial times, they were all apprentices of one sort or another, whether in shops or on farms or even on warships. They weren't left to create their own societies. They were junior members of adult societies. Teenagers seem to have respected adults more then, because the adults were the visible experts in the skills they were trying to learn. Now most kids have little idea what their parents do in their distant offices, and see no connection (indeed, there is precious little) between schoolwork and the work they'll do as adults. And if teenagers respected adults more, adults also had more use for teenagers. After a couple years' training, an apprentice could be a real help. Even the newest apprentice could be made to carry messages or sweep the workshop. Now adults have no immediate use for teenagers. They would be in the way in an office. So they drop them off at school on their way to work, much as they might drop the dog off at a kennel if they were going away for the weekend.
School is a strange, artificial thing, half sterile and half feral. It's all-encompassing, like life, but it isn't the real thing. It's only temporary, and if you look, you can see beyond it even while you're still in it.
If life seems awful to kids, it's neither because hormones are turning you all into monsters (as your parents believe), nor because life actually is awful (as you believe). It's because the adults, who no longer have any economic use for you, have abandoned you to spend years cooped up together with nothing real to do. Any society of that type is awful to live in. You don't have to look any further to explain why teenage kids are unhappy." - Paul Graham
posted by howtolive.org at
4:42 PM
4 Comments:
And yet for that teenager from a blue-collar family who will enter the workforce immediately after highschool, can you honestly say that reading catcher in the rye (or another book that so often inspires and impresses teenagers) and discussing it, being moved by it, becoming lost in it, has no value? That learning about the planets and rock formations in an environmental studies class has no value because they will not all grow up to be geologists? I still believe high school is useful not merely as a college-prep tool. And to suggest that teenagers in the 'olden days' were less depressed, more respectful, and more helpful is, i believe, simply falling into that myth that things were 'better' for earlier generations.
I like this blog a lot, have enjoyed most of the posts, but this one angered me.
By
Amy, at 9:08 AM
Thanks for your comments. My intent was not to anger you or other readers, although I do try to say things that will challenge the way people think... I try to be 'inciteful' as well as insightful. I learned very little during the first 12 years I spent in school, and although some of the blame should be placed on my own apathy, I place most of the blame on the system itself. Note that I don't blame the teachers, which as a profession I have tremendous respect for, but the system itself, which I feel has become a tool of the wealthy to keep the population working and consuming rather than thinking.
I would certainly agree with your point about the value of knowledge that isn't specifically intended for career advancement, but I don't think that our education system is delivering this wisdom in the most effective way.
Please feel free to reply if I didn't understand your reasoning. I can't speak for the author of the quote but I'd be happy to elaborate on my comments if you disagree or if they're unclear.
By
howtolive.org, at 1:48 PM
I can positively say that I have absolutely no idea what my dad does for a living. And I'm 23! I'm among the masses that see no connection between education and career.
By
Mick, at 11:08 PM
I am unaware of my views/opinions on this post, but it truthfully made me think. It made me look at the education system in a whole new light.
By
Anonymous, at 11:06 AM
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