School is Stupid: Notes from the Classroom

We pretty much know that we have to change how we're educating our kids, right? Perhaps one of the reasons why we're not doing what needs to be done is because the business of school is out of sight. We send our kids off to school believing that educators are educating our children. It's time we all took a long hard look at what's really going on, decide whether this is what we want and go for change. This book allows you to sit (with me) in the classroom and witness first-hand what our kids exposed to. It will all be familiar to you since you went through this yourself. Regardless of your experience I want to point out how silly it is to endlessly demand a young person sit down and be quiet and at the same time complain that they show no initiative. School is stupid because it is built on the premise that our kids are empty vessels that need filling up: that old notion that we are born sinners and must be shown the right path. It's time to allow children to follow their own learning directions and thrive in an atmosphere of enthusiasm and agency. As a struggling artist I have had to do many low-paying jobs. This last one as a Teacher Aide in a high school shocked me to the core because so little has changed. School does little to develop our children as functioning adults let alone artists. Instead it demands homogeneity, compliance and adherence to the business model. It's time we saw how education is indoctrination. The buoyant innocence of our young people is taken advantage of to perpetuate an education model that may pay lip service to creativity but in fact stifles it at every turn. Yes, I am being highly critical but throughout the book I comment on how teaching is made difficult for teachers as well as learners. I saw what they are up against in this system. I want their lives to be easier. I want everyone to enjoy learning, especially in a learning place we call 'school'.