Learning Cool, Ignorance Expensive

1st Day Of Shcool

Has public school been a good thing, bad thing, or has it made no difference at all?

The answer would depend on who is asked.

The conspiracy theorist will run off a list of ills produced by government sponsored public schools.

I used to see through this paradigm, quite ignorantly and arrogantly as some of my past writings may reveal.

Schooling, or 'education' being a clearer term, used to only be afforded to the wealthiest people or to those who had the time and resources available to teach their children.

Learning a trade, or a skill, has always been one form of education, but the education would usually begin and end there.

Learning how to write, for example, was a valuable commodity in what eventually became the modern cultures of today.

Only a certain class read books and penned letters to one another.

Verbal communication becomes second nature, yet to convey the intricacies of verbal speech into words is a difficult thing to teach when both parents are illiterate.

Vocations have opened up to many more people than only those who, according to familial descent or apprenticeship, would have opportunity to participate in a specific market or trade.

When looking at ancient structures, the skill-set to produce enormous geometrically intricate buildings was not conceived by illiterate peasants.

It was, most likely, the illiterate peasants who built the structures, their only commodity being their bodies (labor).

Yet, right now at the tip of your fingers are the 'secrets' to building such structures... as well as entrance to countless libraries full of books that can teach you what only a small segment of society throughout time had opportunity to read, let alone discover and learn.

Public libraries are not found in all places on earth, but where they are found, those who can read have little excuse for their lack of know-how.

And where no actual building exists, where there is internet access there is a wealth of knowledge awaiting the eager and diligent mind.

Public education has realized its intended aim: to broaden the market's reach, to engage a population's workforce and develop a thriving culture that meets its own wants and desires.

The educating of the public has brought us all closer, teaching us the ability to communicate with each other, to understand our collective past, and to hopefully learn how to love one another as no other time in history has realized.