Author: Jason Free

This case study of poor communication and avoidance between powerholders and protesters is being repeated again and again, all over our country, in the streets, and on our campuses.

Those who possess the power are impatiently waiting for protesters to get over themselves, tire themselves out as if they are kids kicking and screaming on the floor of Walmart because they aren’t getting a new, shiny toy they want.

The problem(s) with this 20th century mindset is that today’s protestors don’t want a frivolous toy, and they won’t just lie down.

You can say there are many holes in the un-schooling approach, but we don’t see anyone getting bullied or shot. There’s no warehousing of kids. There’s no artificial pressure to learn due to standardized testing. There’s no generational debt.

Hippie dippy is far from perfection, but it’s miles away from the hellscapes we’ve created in our schools.

The payment model, before COVID, for higher education was a complete joke.

Today, the model is tantamount to extortion.

The pay-for-performance model in use within healthcare must be considered as administrators plan for the remains of the 21st century.

If I can’t get a job, my school owes me money (probably incentivize the hell out of the school to help me get a job, huh?)

If I can’t keep a job, my school owes me money (my school should offer me free follow-up education and/or credentialing).

When higher education factories continue to have no accountability after students graduate, they will be replaced by organizations offering more employment and financial security.

They won’t change.

Good riddance.

In academia, you are either an example or a warning.

Peterson is a traffic cone that’s been run over a few too many times.

You are not alone.

The ACLU is a tremendous resource of information and support for students seeking to make meaningful changes on, and off campus.

Reach out, learn, and turn it all into action with as many other people as possible.

At what point do we stop kidding ourselves?

Having this debate is just playing into the hands of Big Education and each option comes from the same factory designer.

Today, the outputs of Big Brand education and Generic Brand education are essentially the same: 20th-century pedagogy, student conformity, and arrested development for our country (at best).

We are being trained, not educated.

We are cogs, not people seeking to better their lives, and those around them.

Harvard is no different from Middle Tennessee State.

Bristol County Community College is no different from Stanford.

They are all factories using its workers/students for their own self-interests.

You will be quickly replaced and forgotten.

Forgotten, except your loan debt will never stop following you, and you will have a life-long struggle trying to use their antique education to work successfully within an ever-changing modern world.

Good luck with all that, no matter which factory brand you attend.

Read the full article by Catherine Gewertz HERE.

While standardized testing is bullshit, this delay will undoubtedly impact funding, and a pandemic is no time to slow down funding.

Teachers need training on working with students and parents remotely. Students need supplemental study materials and support.

What about schools and students in areas where internet access is not easily accessible?

What about the mental health issues caused by fear and isolation that will invariably increase and deepen?

What about parents and their ability to work and care for their children?

Very difficult real-world tests are coming to all of us.

If we had any real vision and commitment to providing the best education possible, this chaos could be a great opportunity for dramatic and positive changes for us all.

Instead, our dumbasses are fucked.

This protest is a perfect example of speaking truth to power. 

Students are much smarter than they are often given credit, and they can see through the bullshit their teachers and administrators try to pass off as the truth. 

Just like with parents, school workers ought to understand that “just because we said so” does not make it true, and you are only creating more of the predictable and boring barriers between you and your students.¬†

Let’s hope these student continue to hold their school accountable and that their officials and teachers put a stop such unnecessary games.

Calling out elected officials for being overly privileged dinosaurs, to their faces, on national television, and viewed on YouTube over 1 million times.

We have goosebumps.

Please. Please. Please.

Kids do this. Record it. Post it.

Please. Please. Please.

Go face-to-face with the assholes controlling your lives, look them straight in the eyes, and let them know they are just narrow-minded, hypocritical, overly-entitled pieces of shit who happen to be in a position of power.

Kinda like an abusive parent doing everything they can do to keep their kids from having a better, easier life than them.

The only self-respecting thing to do with these assholes is to literally, or at least figuratively, spit in their fucking smug faces EVERY chance you get.

Wow.

No one seems to know what the fuck to do when there is “an active shooter in the area”.

Why is that?

A tornado or earthquake are just as unpredictable, although they feel less likely to occur than school shooting, but we have drills for those events.

Why is this chaos still a thing at our schools?

Because no one really gives a shit.

Say whatever you want.

“Thoughts and prayers.”

No one really gives a shit.