Schools are open...

Schools are open again, and I feel bad for the kids.  As a boy, I used the books I was issued at school to teach myself. I found any interaction with the teachers, and being around the kids to be a massive detriment learning. Really it was a kind of psychological torture.

When the schools closed due to covid, I thought how lucky the children were. They could learn, and not suffer. But that is over now. Hell has reopened. 

School Drills.

A child of a friend of mine told me that his school is doing drills for what to so if there is a gunman on campus. The odds of that being useful seem rather slim, but it is in school, so I guess it is a fitting place for a pointless task. It made me reflect on the amount of time that was wasted on fire and earthquake drills when I was a boy.

As a child in California, we did earthquake drill a lot. Never mattered. I knew as a child any quake big enough to actually cause damage to the building would likely kill the students too, but at least an earthquake felt like a real threat. It was wasted time. but was better than most of the "education" going on.

Fire drills were another time waster. Never felt like a real threat. Even if part of the school was on fire, odds were that it wouldn't be big enough to effect the whole campus. Always kind of hoped for a fire, as I would of said to hell with doing what the drill had taught, and just ran off campus and back home. If the fire had been in the classroom I was in, I did have a fantasy of trying to kneecap the teacher to leave them in the fire. Not that I would have done it... really.

It all makes me look back at school and wish just one person would have been honest with me. Just once to have had a person tell me that "none of this will matter". I might of found ways to enjoy school. As it was, it was 8 hours a day of psychological torture from the age of 5 to 18.

Education.

While I was in a waiting room a child asked me what school was like. He was going into kindergarten, and wanted to know what to expect. I was first surprised that a child so young would approach me being large and bearded, but secondly rather at a loss for what to tell the child about k-12 public education. The boy's mother came up and got him before I could answer, she seemed worried, but the child was in no danger. Since then I have tried to think of a way to describe k-12 education, here are a few of my thoughts.

If I were to be bluntly honest, I would say school is 7 to 8 hours a day of psychological torture and emotional abuse. Most actual learning will be done alone on your time, and teacher will serve only to get in the way of the process. I guess the teachers are mostly acting as an obstacle so they feel like they earned their paycheck. This is clearly not something to tell a child, so perhaps speaking more symbolically would help.

School is basically a raping of the mind. Only when you don't enjoy being raped, you are told it is "for your own good", and that you will "look back on it fondly someday". Gang rape might be more accurate, do to the fact you will deal with many teachers over your time in school. Here again, I think this might be a bit much to tell a child. Maybe something the child could relate to would help.

Ever watch "Tom and Jerry"? Well in school you will be Jerry, and the teacher is Tom. Only Tom never gets any comeuppance. So... basically just "Tom and Jerry" if Tom won. This feels about right, but the child might think you were talking down to them.

School is like if you saw a vast forest, and in that forest was someone tryong to cut down the trees with a sledgehammer. And when told that a saw or axe would work better, that person treats you as if you have just spoken blasphemy. In this the students are the trees, and the teachers are holding the sledgehammers. This gets across the unpleasant nature of the experience, while also hinting at where the root of the problem lays.

A way to help teachers.

Before we get started on this subject I want to be clear on a few subjects. First, I was a good student school, and was near to the top of my class. Second, any academic success I ever had was in spite of the educators around me and never because of them in any measure. Thirdly, I realize their may infact exist educators that actually help students, never witnessed it myself, but I concede  the possibly. Forth, I am only speaking about K-12 education. Having said all of that...



Education in the USA has been poisoned. That poison is the teachers we hire to teach. They are not heroes. On average, they spend more time to spread the myth that they are heroes than actually teaching.  They have turned school days in to psychological endurance tests for children, where torture is sadly not too strong a word to describe the situation.

Teacher for the most part spend their time torturing children and lamenting the series of life choices that made them become teachers. The vast majority of them failed at whatever their ambition was, and our now stuck in a second choice they hate. They hate themselves for what they have become and take it out of the child, the poor children.

Now there is good news, most teachers spend a lot of time thinking about suicide. The problem is most of them are far too cowardly to go through with it. The answer is so simple, we just need to give them that extra push they need.

So to every teacher out there, do it, end it once and for all. There are many ways to do it, painless and painful, depending on your level of self hatred. The students will be better off, and so will virtually everyone that is in your life. As a bonus, you will never have to wake up earlier to see the children you so hate. Everybody wins.

Why I Love Halloween

Long time readers of this blog will know that I have a love of Halloween. Some of you have asked "why". So, this week I will try to explain my love of this holiday.It should be no surprise to anyone that childhood memories play a role in my love for Halloween. Of course, there are other reasons as well.

First, it was the only holiday that wasn't in someway ruined by members for my family. My parents didn't fight over it, my brothers did not do things to make it unpleasant. There was no boring day spent with extended family ending in a bad meal, like so many other holidays. There was just costumes, candy, some time alone going door to door.

Also school was a little less torturous during Halloween. School was a kind of psychological torture for me, from the first day of kindergarten to final day of high school. While my grades were good, I hated everyone, everything, and every moment spent in school. However on Halloween it wasn't so bad. The teachers didn't seem as suicidal and incompetent. It was the one day I wasn't the most outcast among the students, on Halloween that "honor" went to the kid with no costume (likely the child of fundamentalists).

Now that was all a long time ago. In adult life I have found more reasons to love Halloween. From the various hooker outfits that women wear on Halloween, to the cheap candy you can get on the first of November. Plus it seems to be the only barrier to Christmas taking over more of the year than it already has.

There is much more I could say on this subject. However, most of it is either too personal, or too depressing, for this outlet. Thanks for reading. Next week will be a bit more funny, and a lot less personal.