Knowledge is power.  Unfortunately, educational systems have been infamously flawed in creating, molding, and shaping that knowledge in children.   As someone who is training interminably to become one of these educators, I feel as if I’m in a position to relay the inadequacies of this system.  Well, basically, it looks kind of like this:

Ideally, we believe that children have infinite potential, or at the very least a lot of it.  This potential is honed and crafted by education and turned into knowledge.  Knowledge grows as we age, and we become wise, well-adjusted, fully contributing members of society.  And if you’re even half the pragmatist as I am, you know how much that last sentence reeked of garbage. 

In this real world, the educational system is akin to sandpaper.  Potential energy stored up in these children is turned kinetic as these kids are raced down this chute where the school system rubs the potential out of them.   In essence, particularly in urban and poorly funded schools, there is a culture where procuring knowledge and having a passion for learning is highly frowned upon.  Sometimes, kids might even feel threatened by it.  We live in a world dominated by peer pressures that lead towards all the values we try to teach our kids to avoid.  Debauchery, apathy, ignorance, fear, rashness.  I found that this school system is starkly similar to that of the Shinigami world in Death Note, a barren wasteland (see above) where any Death God is ridiculed for doing “work.”

Then of course, we move onto college where we specialize even more.  Basically, we sacrifice having knowledge of many things about the world such as history, art, music, science, language, and so on, so that we can learn all the tiny little nuances about the one subject we major in.  So basically, we become "good" at one thing while we forego every other subject pertinent in our lifetimes, ruining any potential that was left in us.  Is it no wonder that people's careers are so stereotypical?  Then we begin work where we spend long hours at our often fruitless labors, come home and have no idea what to do with our lives except chill out and sleep, and that's it.  Throw in a little reproduction here and there, festive holidays to forget our banal, empty souls, and we can enjoy old age and senility creep up on us where we can experience the joys of having neither potential to grow nor any meaningful knowledge.

How can we change this?  Well, I’d like to believe I can make a difference.  I have yet to give my all to any endeavor in my life yet.  I’d like to believe I have the will, the skill, the intelligence, the savvy, the charisma, and can make a special connection with the kids.   I believe that my joy for science, knowledge, understanding, and criticism can be passed along to those I meet.  And heck, these kids are more or less forced to listen to me, haha.  Will it be too much of a task to handle?  I don’t know, something inside me thinks that it won’t be too hard.  But this teacher training is endless amounts of fluff that vanquishes my hopes and dreams.  Not the difficulty of the material, but the endless commutes, classes, and lectures that no one feels will help them as teachers one bit.  Yes, I know things won’t be that easy, I know it’s not easy to work with kids, but that’s how we learn right?  Through trial and error, through experimentation, like a true philo logos.   Just let me at them already!