Valedictorian Speaks Out Against Schooling in Graduation Speech

Anyhow - I hated school :) and too bad never finished university (too much parties).

I want to thank you for your beautiful articulation of the sad truth that makes mass education painful for so many people.

Unfortunately, school very effectively destroys people's ability to act on the reality you tried show to your classmates and community, but I am appreciative nonetheless because it is better to give the truth a voice, even if it falls on deaf ears. You exposed yourself and embraced vulnerability, and that is the most powerful thing a human being can do.

If you have any pedagogical theories, please share them with the world. I am all ears.

Thank you.

H. L. Mencken wrote in The American Mercury for April 1924 that the aim of public education is not "to fill the young of the species with knowledge and awaken their intelligence. ... Nothing could be further from the truth. The aim ... is simply to reduce as many individuals as possible to the same safe level, to breed and train a standardized citizenry, to put down dissent and originality. That is its aim in the United States."

[.. snip ..]

For those of you that work within the system that I am condemning, I do not mean to insult; I intend to motivate. You have the power to change the incompetencies of this system. I know that you did not become a teacher or administrator to see your students bored. You cannot accept the authority of the governing bodies that tell you what to teach, how to teach it, and that you will be punished if you do not comply. Our potential is at stake.

For those of you that are now leaving this establishment, I say, do not forget what went on in these classrooms. Do not abandon those that come after you. We are the new future and we are not going to let tradition stand. We will break down the walls of corruption to let a garden of knowledge grow throughout America. Once educated properly, we will have the power to do anything, and best of all, we will only use that power for good, for we will be cultivated and wise. We will not accept anything at face value. We will ask questions, and we will demand truth.

So all (most? many?) of us will probably agree with her (at least as regarding our own schooling).

I know I do.

But the trouble, the reality, is that most students can't do what she suggests, using our minds for creativity, and not rote work. There really is a difference in intelligence, and the sad truth is that for most students school is exactly right.

The good news is that the really intelligent rise above it and succeed anyway. The lost ones are those that are just a bit more intelligent than the rest, but not quite enough to succeed on their own.

And for the majority, it is great for them.

I think this is one of the areas where it is so easy to criticize, because of course there are problems, unless someone actually recommends a good alternative system, I just ignore them.