What we know is built on the shoulders of giants. Education is fundamental for any society to function. Many things and ideas have been
explored by philosophers and scientists for thousands of years, who have been conducting experiments or simply observations that have been the subject
of critical thought for millennia.
In fact, the whole purpose of a bibliography in the back of a book was to trace that book's origins - in fact, a book kind of has a family tree
of sorts in that respect, because the book referenced can be referenced, and some of those roots actually do extend back to places like Ancient
Greece, in particular.
Breaking off from this cultural structure is not a great idea, necessarily - because a lot of things people think on A.T.S. and whatnot have already
been thought of, a lot of things I think about have already been thought of -
Although it is still an amazing thing to have ideas that intrigue one enough to learn more about it - and it is also good to find new ways of learning
things, or to be able to see past labels, or to bring new perspectives to the table and not be limited by past constructs,
as long as this is done in moderation and we are not cut from the lifeblood of our ancestors entirely. In that case, we could ironically be held
hostage to perspectives that are much more limited in scope.
Our education system has little interest in building this foundation, instead its entire purpose is indoctrination -
Think about it, why pass laws to enforce strict limits on learning, but limits that do make sure that people know, and only know, what they need to
function and go to work? The point is indoctrination, it is not education.
The internet allows for free access to information,
Notice that there is a natural tendency of people to want to learn more! How come this isn't harnessed by our education system?
I'm not saying to get rid of the education system, I am saying that we need to protect the right and encourage the right of the people to be educated,
especially outside of a hostile environment like a classroom. It particularly worries me when the same hostile environment to learning is also
carried to the home life.
What constitutes a safe learning environment may be entirely different from person to person, but we do need to be encouraging people to get together
and talk about things in the community, and we somehow need to provide a way for that learning to be held accountable to reality in a way that simply
keeps people from being misinformed but does not obstruct progress or making mistakes, or creativity, or ambition.
In addition, we need to make sure that people have the opportunity to have safe learning environments. This includes making sure that people are
allowed freedom of speech and freedom of assembly, these are the two cornerstones of an education system that is operating outside of the
establishment -
And as I mentioned earlier, there is nothing wrong with that, because it can compliment what we learn in school with what we actually want to learn in
life.
But if the internet is shut down, are libraries going to return and be full of updated texts and fresh books with the latest? Not necessarily.
Businessmen may figure out that they can make quadrillions of dollars by taking something we already have (information) from us and siphoning it back
to us in exchange for disproportionate prices.
Finally, reading stuff online is not the same as experiencing it, or talking about it with someone, or making sure that sources are accurate - so the
risk of disinformation runs a bit there.
edit on 18-9-2013 by darkbake because: (no reason given)