Smart vs Educated. Lived vs Learnt

The longer I spend in education, as both a student and a teacher, the more I question its value.  For me, Nate Shaw, was so “remarkable” because he wasn’t educated, not despite of it.  Arguably, being subjected to the school system would have taught him that he was a black, working class man, who should know his position in the world. Yet through working the land, he learnt how valuable he was as he excelled at something that he loved. And despite all the adversity he faced in his life, knowing that he was worth something somewhere, arguably, was why he refused to allow his spirit to be broken.

As I watch my students, there are so many (too many) who are ‘failing’ in school. Failing or, should I say being failed, only because they don’t excel in the academic subjects that are so valued and because they refuse to be trained into obedience.  Their interests are ignored, their smarts not explored and, sadly, they are taught everyday that they are failures.  Yet, these students have so much to offer. They are often the most personable, the most thoughtful and the most interesting. Their lives outside school are fascinating (and often painful), yet none of these things are valued or even considered.  And how can we expect them to value themselves as wonderful and important individuals when, from such an early age, they are positioned as not good enough?  As Einstein said, “everyone is a genius, but if you judge a fish on its ability to climb a tree it will go through its entire life believing it’s a failure”. 

And what is waiting for those of us who ‘succeed’ in the school system?  We sit in graduate schools, regurgitating other people’s thoughts (usually white, educated men's thoughts).  Like I said in class, we were only reading about Nate Shaw in the first place because a white, educated man decided he was worthy to be read.  Arts aren’t valued, emotions and feelings avoided and real lived experiences are only valid if they can be supported by some educated person's thoughts (just like I, ironically tried to validate my own reflections with an Einstein quote above).  But George Orwell’s ‘Down and out in Paris and London’ wasn’t such a powerful book because of what he was taught at Eton. It was so powerful because of what he learnt in the world.  Because he lived it, because he felt it was what made reading it so compelling. And still, despite how real this book was, I didn’t learn anything about poverty from reading it. What I learnt about poverty came from what I have seen and what I have felt in the world.  No one could teach me that in a school.

“If I asked you about art you could give me the skinny on every art book ever written...Michelangelo?  You know a lot about him I bet.  Life’s work, criticisms, political aspirations.  But you couldn’t tell me what it smells like in the Sistine Chapel.  You’ve never stood there and looked up at that beautiful ceiling.”  Good Will Hunting.