A reader writes that in order for the education system to improve, not only do bureaucrats and educators have to raise the bar, but students, too, need to shed the attitude of entitlement they seem increasingly to be bringing with them into school.

Matt responds:

Thank you for your insights into education and how people learn.  Your comments are very germane.

I believe that education is about possibilities.  I think we have to broaden our scope as to what those possibilities are.  If we get the Pollyanna attitude that anything is possible, that opens us up to all kinds of opportunities.  Possibly I could be a great surgeon, but because I would hate to put even a stickpin into my own hand, I don’t see how I could ever slice into somebody with a scalpel.  There are many other things that, even if I could do them, I wouldn’t, just because of my personal choices.

But I think that quite often we put ourselves and others into boxes, and we expect them to stay there, and ourselves to stay there, too.  A great education system would be able to tap into our human longing for fulfillment, and to take away the false impression that we have succeeded or failed. I don’t happen to think there is any such thing as failure.  The only failure is not trying.  If you don’t do something, it’s 100% sure that it’s not going to get done, at least not by you.  That kind of attitude keeps people in a caste system:  “This is who you are, don’t step outside of your box.”

I think that’s the strength of democracy, where just about anyone, given the right situation and a push or two, can do almost anything.  We’re not destined to be who the system thinks we are.  The question we have to ask ourselves is:  Are we losing that democracy within ourselves within this feeling of properness:  This is proper, this isn’t. There are certain things that I suppose we need to learn are not proper, so that we’re not farting in church or belching in a restaurant.  But you don’t learn about that in school; you should be taught it in your home.

Another question related to this is the caliber of our teachers and whether the best teachers are being valued enough by the system economically.  In the past, we had unions.  Now it just seems to be negotiations:  You don’t get what you’re worth; you get what you negotiate.  But the most important thing is feeling rich in what you do, even though you think people might be stealing from you, or you’re giving it away for nothing...  You know it has worth, because you know it was the best you could do on a particular day.  The real sadness would be if you took an idea from someone or decided you were only going to give somebody half of what you were capable of.  That would make you unworthy of yourself.  Possibly the person receiving your endeavor wouldn’t have the capacity to know whether you were giving your all or just begrudging them the crumbs from the table.

Regardless, we have to respect ourselves.  Every generation should try to build on the last generation.  Are we living up to those standards?  Are we trying to add to the luster of our inheritance?  Or are we neglecting and shortchanging our heritage by our selfishness or failure to live up to our own future? These are all questions that can be answered only by meditating within ourselves to find out what the hell we’re doing and why we’re doing it.

I think Lincoln’s observation that “you can’t fool all the people all the time” is so true.  We can’t fool ourselves all the time either, so we have to be very careful of what we do and why we do it, and then we have to know intrinsically that what we’re doing is right.  And if we don’t get paid well enought for it, well, that’s just tough shit; at least we’re doing what we love.

Matt