Tag: Education

If only we were as smart as the things we have invented

Posted on by philipdodson

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We have gone from hunter-gatherers, to being able to send satellites to the edge of the galaxy. From writing on cave walls to sending packets of data instantly anywhere on the planet. We’ve modified crops, cloned sheep, created AI, and so much more.

I am not here to argue about whether it is progress or not, if we need it all or not.

My thoughts, if we are this smart, how comes we are still so dumb as humans in other ways?

We still go to war, still build houses on flood plains, continue to destroy the very planet needed for our survival, poison the foods that we eat with chemicals. We frack for gas and oil, yet it pollutes the environment.

We have ignored all the lessons, which we could have learnt.

The list could go on……

The answer as to why we still do all these dumb things is simple.

The greed of a few and the acceptance of the many.

If we all questioned more, then we would not be as dumb.

Are children not humans too?

Posted on by philipdodson

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It seems amazing to me, that in 2016, we still use shaming and humiliation as a way of controlling others.

This is especially prevalent in education, where the humiliation of children seems to be still completely acceptable, and sadly, all too common.

We hear people in education rattle off the ‘values’ of their particular establishment, yet often these values do not seem to apply when it comes to how children are educated or treated.

As adults, we would not accept being treated in the way in which it seems OK to shame, humiliate, shout and even bully children in schools.

Modern education is a shaming, scarring and humiliating experience for many children, hardly likely to prepare them for the world. Add to that, most of the content that is taught is so out of date with our current and future world too.

In a world, where the established order strives more and more for the standard, the bland, the homogenised and especially the compliant, the education system is at the forefront of this. The giant state run compliance factories churn out more and more cogs, to be used as assets by large corporations. Trained never to question, or deviate from the instructions of the system.

There is no empathy, no kindness and very little humanity in the process of educating our children. This is perhaps why there is little of those three things in the world from the system.

We have mainly removed the physical punishment in schools, thankfully, but we have not removed the more traumatic and scarring, mental cruelty of being shamed and humiliated.

Why do we not treat children the same as adults? Are children not humans too?