Maybe forgotten in an active sense, but those years are critical for instilling the passive behaviors and expectations which help make us into productive human resources to serve the economy as adults. Things like learning not to talk until called upon, learning to ask before being allowed to use the restroom or for other bodily functions, learning to be identified by an ID number, learning to answer a daily roll-call, learning that our personal possessions will be confiscated at any time, learning to walk through security checkpoints and metal detectors, learning to expect the presence of a School Resource Officer whose job is to perceive students as a possible threat and protect the institution, learning we must dress a certain way, learning to buy our own school supplies necessary to complete our assigned work units, learning that being poor isn’t an acceptable excuse for not having supplies, learning that food won’t be provided for free even though we’re required to be be at school for eight hours straight, learning it is never acceptable to leave school grounds once we check in for the day until officially released at the end of the day, learning that disruptive individuals will be separated from their entire social circle and sent to a stricter alternative facility, learning that authority figures will discuss you with each other behind your back and may form prejudices based on gossip or on your familial relations, learning how it’s best to surpass our peers and that we can’t get the highest grade unless others fail, learning not to read ahead of our current place in the curriculum, learning never to read from unapproved sources, learning that truth is whatever the curriculum says is Officially True, learning how authority figures will punish or shame us for questioning the curriculum or beyond the curriculum because they are evaluated on how accurately we know it and thus must defend it to survive, learning how cooperation is cheating except for group projects where it is instead a thing to dread, learning to expect no privacy, learning to sit inside all day and only have free time once the sun sets, learning to be punished as a group for the actions of an individual, learning to tell on our peers for gold stars from authority, learning that a bell controls our daily schedule but individual authority figures can decide to keep us late anyway, learning to get up uncomfortably early and do a daily commute, learning to survive on less sleep than we need, learning we will be equally punished for tardiness as for absence, learning somebody else needs to write a note to acknowledge when we are sick before it’s believed, learning to be segregated based on sex, learning to be segregated based on seniority and that the oldest cohort will be regularly pushed out with no say in the matter, learning we must find a clique for social defense because loners are weird and deserve bullying, learning how punishments are decided by administrators who don’t know us individually, learning how rewards and punishments may be arbitrary depending on social status within the microcosm of the school, learning that we must also think about school in our free time and use that time to prepare for what’s due tomorrow, learning that “extra-curricular” work is basically a requirement if everyone else is doing it too, learning to walk in long silent alphabetically-sorted lines with our hands clasped behind our backs, etc. You know, important life skills.
If you have a problem with any of that, you have Oppositional Defiant Disorder. Here’s some pills to turn your brain off so you might still have a chance to “‘earn’ a living” and pay off your original sin of being alive. All hail The Economy!
