Education and Its Discontents

Editor’s Pick. Written by Ian Mayes.

The other day I was left in charge of the school library for the day, which I loved, since I have always been a library nerd. That same day I was also left in charge of the 6th grade class for one hour and 50 minutes. Since I am not into enforcing rules, the class quickly became a bunch of raucous chaos. I was cool with that, as long as nobody was getting hurt. However, a teacher outside the library heard the noise, came in and started yelling at the kids to be quiet, and glared at me for not enforcing the rules. To which I thought to myself “I don’t f***ing care.” This could be the kind of thing that leads to me leaving the volunteer gig.

Let me back up a bit here. I have beliefs about education in general, and epistemology in particular, that are different from that of most people. To begin with, I disagree with the very notion of “compulsory education”. To be “compulsory” means “you have to go whether you want to or not”. That, in my eyes, is wrong. That makes it a prison. Period.

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Selected content picked by the editor of Everything-Voluntary.com.