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category waterford | rights, freedoms and repression | opinion/analysis author Monday May 19, 2008 20:11author by Adam Bolgerauthor email milkchocolatemaltedmilkbiscuits at hotmail dot com Report this post to the editors

my opinions on school, propaganda, and my philosophy's

For years we have seen the effects governments have on our society. A government in the right hands can be a good things, but I have never except in rare occasions seen the government in the right hands... the hands of the people. The government does not make laws or treaties etc. without there own interests in mind. Schools are put in place to train the children of society into the working class and essentially places them into the cage of their organisation. School does not teach the students what they want to hear it teaches them what the government wants them to know, this is shown by how students are FORCED to go to school even if they don't want to learn whets in school and instead take their own initiative on what they want to learn. I believe that the average person is inherently smart and will feel the need to learn as they grow up because its not that people who are bad in school don’t have the brains or the interest to learn, everybody has the interest to learn. They do bad because they are not learning things that they have interest in. School provides more of a restriction on the mind then it lets it flower. It squeezes the mind into the hall of "right" thought and "morality", radical thinking is not allowed. Think if a student asked a teacher, what do you think of the idea of say anarchy, the teacher would immediately shut down the idea and say it was ridiculous. I remember my anarchist friend got called into the office of my school year head and she asked did he really believe in all that and said it was ridiculous, but somehow her ideas on religion didn't seem to be ridiculous, which seems much more ridiculous to me. Some thing that shows me that school is in the interest of the government is the fact that in Mexico there used to be free education before America had a say during the reforms and made the schools cost money in the interest of the government so they could get more money from entrance fees.

The school topic is just one thing, there are many other evident faults in the system today. People often hear of propaganda when discussing fascism and the Nazis, but the truth is propaganda is around us everyday. False promises are given to people all of the time true the TV, the newspaper, leaflets, shop windows etc. so that the consumer buys more products giving the shops and of course the government more money to aid the deceit and power fund. I know I sound bias, but having said that it is evident that governments do exploit their power and do it at the expense of society, there is some good that comes from international leaders but not enough to way out the bad. Propaganda is especially used in elections and majority of referendum. Right now, here in Europe there is a "treaty" that is going to be voted for in Ireland in a few weeks. This treaty promises more power in the hand of the larger European countries and makes the smaller a silent voice in the back of their head (more info: http://www.truthring.org/?p=6165).

The treaty has been made unreadable to all European member states, the treaty is basically a list of over 3000 amendments that link to other treaty's, if someone were to try read the treaty they would have to search for each passage and insert it. You have to ask what is the EU's purpose in hiding this treaty from the public. The treaty says that European law will outlaw national law, if a law in a country contradicts a European law the European law is taken instead. That is just one of the plans, for more info follow the link left. This treaty I believe has the aim making a third superpower which is Europe, with a European army to fight its side. Ireland has the last chance to block this treaty, the passing of the treaty depends on whether the Irish people vote yes or no. Some countries in the EU have not even been given a say in whether or not it is passed. As a result of Ireland say in this, pamphlets manipulating the voter have been posted all around Ireland, reeking of bias influence. It says at the beginning that it is not to influence the voter but to encourage them to vote, fair enough, but not one bad thing is said about the treaty in the whole pamphlet. Even the things that to the trained eye are negative things are perceived by the average person in a positive way because of the positive connotation used throughout the text. Advertisements on the TV and advertisements in the street have shown up in favour of the treaty and none against, this shows that the government here in Ireland has a much louder voice then the people. To show that it is because the people have a quieter voice that you see little negative things written about the treaty around Ireland, I searched in Google for "no to the Lisbon treaty" and "yes to the Lisbon treaty" all the results for "no to the Lisbon treaty" showed up as sites by people setting up low profile websites and forum websites where people posted comments against the treaty. All the results for "yes to the Lisbon treaty" showed up ass government websites and newspaper websites... coincidence?, maybe. The only reason anyone will vote yes for this treaty is because of the ignorance of the majority of the public. They don’t know what the treaty entails because they have NEVER BEEN TOLD, the only thing they have been told is to vote yes. Thankfully and Irish MEP (Member of the European Parliament) has come out and sent out leaflets about the truths of the treaty and has published as best she can a readable version of the treaty online (at: euinfo.ie). Please visit the links I posted and get the full info on the treaty it will open your eyes more, especially if your Irish.

I could go on forever, but I wont continue boring you, so ill move onto my last section "Philosophy". My philosophy on life has come from experience in life not from any book or from any person who tells me what to believe. You see if you push your ideas on other people you are doing the exact same thing as the government does. The world fails because of the attempt of spreading a worldwide idea. People all have different experiences and all have a different idea of how to look after themselves and others inherently, the conditioning society applies to the mind is what causes the corruption. I will tell you what I believe, which may enhance your ideas but not take control of them. The world is the world not some drawing where you can change any aspect of it. When you look outside you don’t see laws or morals in the air, they are all fictional. What is a law except words on paper, it is the law and code of life that entraps in the cage that the government and politics have put around us. The human race is getting more and more separated everyday by health legislations, laws and signs like "don’t walk on grass". Why can I not walk on the grass it has been provided to me on the canvas of the earth, it is there for me to walk on, it is not for someone else to tell me that its not the worlds grass, its there's. That is just an example but you can apply it on a larger level. Lets take a larger example, the native Americans. The larger Catholic nations in Europe decided that that land was rightfully gods, a sly way of saying it was their's because of course anything that was gods was theirs. The land had not been given to the natives or the Europeans, it is there for everyone, and just because a Nations flag is placed in the soil it is now property of that country. That is the bullshit that has slowly ripped apart the fabric of the world and has left us with an even bigger mess, it may not seem a bigger mess but it is except it is hidden from our eyes, but what you don’t know doesn't hurt, right? That is the mindset of the national leaders today everything is done behind closed doors oblivious to everyone and then nobody cares because they don’t know. So you see the world is more like a monopoly and marketplace then a place to live, love and respect your fellow living beings. The terms and conditions to jeopardising the marketplace are the laws, the place that makes you an employee of the marketplace is the school, once your in, you don’t leave, you are the employees of the government. All I ask is that you respect my ideas.

Thank You,
A. Bolger

author by Adam Bolgerpublication date Thu May 22, 2008 16:47author address author phone Report this post to the editors

Thanks for commenting guys. I would strongly agree with the second comment left. I do believe that things thought from junior years up until secondary education cane be very usefull and sometimes essential i think secondary education should then be entirely optional to leave the option for children at that age to go out and take their own initiative to learn what they think will be most useful for them. I think the idea of school is a good thing but the aims have been lost in translation so to speak. It is more of a competition with fellow pupils now rather then ana im to receive the gift of knowledge.

author by Educepublication date Thu May 22, 2008 03:31author address author phone Report this post to the editors

I forgot to mention that I intend to vote No to the Lisbon Treaty too, but that's just by the way.

author by Educepublication date Thu May 22, 2008 03:09author address author phone Report this post to the editors

The article writer and the first commenter invite a discussion about the purpose and objective functions of educating kids. OK, the state, whether a democracy or unelected control center, has a continuing interest in producing "model citizens" who take their economic and political places (generally lowly places) on the social anthill. In Ireland the constitution gives parents the option to withold children from schools and arrange for private, sometimes home education. Homeschooling ventures have been attempted in a few areas, involving small numbers of parents and children. One homeschooling network was established in Clare among rural settlers in the 1980s. Tom Golden was one of the main players at the time.

Historically Ireland had its 'alternative' hedge school system during colonial times. The itinerant schoolmasters taught Latin, Greek, Gaelic, English and bits of maths, music, folklore and history (of course - it was colonial Ireland after all) to children of the downtrodden peasantry. The children were born into drudgery and some of them were to perish as wretched cottiers during the Great Famine. Nevertheless their parents felt that a smattering of classical languages, Gaelic and English among other items were good for the soul if not immediately for the body. The peasantry fed, sheltered and paid these hedgemen. They also plyed them with lots of poteen at weekend ceilidhes. Bishops looked askance at their notorious drunkness and freethinking attitudes to colonial rule, and worked slowly from about 1830 to support the schooling system being set up piecemeal by male and female religious orders.

Another alternative school, early twentieth century, was St. Enda's in Rathfarnham, founded with his own and borrowed money by "that man Pearse", son of an English stonemason. Pearse was once asked what he would do with a new pupil who was useless at the three Rs and could only play a tin whistle. "I would teach him to play the tin whistle better," was the instant reply from a humanist teacher who believed that bringing children to the enjoyment of culture was a paramount educational objective. The current 'points race' loses track of that objective. Irish children today are being information-processed for participation in the boom economy, with culture as a lipserviced afterthought to be mentioned at school prize day ceremonies.

I must disagree with 'author required' when he assumes that shovel-wielders don't need to be taught Reading,Riting and Rithmetic during their primary schooldays. Of course they do, and lots of music into the bargain. A shovel-wielder can become a respected folk singer etc. Literacy and numeracy enables people to search out brighter prospects and to obtain information about their entitlements, a hedge against exploitation. Music, history, folklore and languages also open worlds of culture, beauty, hope and example to young impressionable minds. Mission schools in the jungles of Africa and Latin America did just that during the twentieth century; slum schools in Brazil and elsewhere continue to do it today, even if only a fraction of the marginalised are benefiting.

I don't want to be completely adversarial here. I think the above article and the first comment are based on thinking about an important thing in our lives and the lives of growing children. Thanks for taking the trouble.

author by author requiredpublication date Wed May 21, 2008 23:33author address author phone Report this post to the editors

I do not agree with your initial rant against the school system. Either we finance a school system and take the birth rate as planning factor (well, one may have dreams?) and have everyone going to school for a couple of years or we leave schools to those who are interested in running schools and give them the freedom to run their school as they want. What use are skills like reading and writing to someone who's going to carry bricks all his life anyway? Such a person should rather start getting his body into shape than wasting years and years on History. They used stones to build houses a thousand years ago, they still do it - now go and bring those stones here. We don't need 4 million CEOs anyway, 400 or 40 will do. If we opt for 40, we'll need just one school for the entire country - what a wonderful world :)
Honestly: Giving everyone a fairly decent education is one of the biggest achievements in the last decades. Sure, current education systems are questionable, but what did we have before?

The above comment does not affect my opinion on the Lisbon treaty (which sucks, as far as I am concerned. The government of my country of origin did not ask me to vote on it, though, and my voice was ignored when it was raised...).

 
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