This rumination should be read in conjunction with: What I wish I was taught in school growing up.

Education in America is claimed to be the best in the world. It’s easy to make the claim. It’s harder to back it up.

I’ve divided this article into two parts. The first is just a list with little explanation. For those with Attention Deficit Disorder or those who don’t want to spend any more time than is needed to read a list. The second part gives some detail to each item on the list. For those with Memory Deficit Disorder who require a more thorough explanation to help them remember the items on the list.

PART ONE
The list:
WHAT I WAS
TAUGHT IN SCHOOL

1. How to stand in line quietly.
2. Saying “here” when your name was called for attendance,
3. How to finger paint.
4. How to print “A, B, Cs”
5. The importance of remembering and regurgitating what you are told
6. The history of our country that bears little resemblance to the reality
7. Rules of social behavior that maintains the status quo
8. Memorizing the what of subjects not the how or why.
9. The road to happiness is faith.

See “What I Wish I was Taught in School”

PART TWO
DISCUSSION

JH: So what is the first thing kids are taught in school?

JCH: The first thing I remember being taught in school was how to stand in line quietly.

JH: Stand in line?

JCH: It turns out this is a very important skill to master in our society, Think what it would be like to go to the movies or to the DMV if we hadn’t learned from an early age to stand in line and wait for orders. This kind of military obedience is a critical foundation for what being an American is all about.

JH: So it is.

JCH: And I’d like to add that virtually every school in America does a remarkably good job at teaching lining up while getting virtually no kudos for the accomplishment. Standing in line has broad application in society at large. Look at Southwest Air. Mvie theaters, Restaurants, Check out lines, at banks, grocery stores, public transportation and more.

JH: OK What’s the next thing kids are taught in school.

JCH: Well, after lining up outside we went inside to our classroom. The next thing I learned was to say “here” when my name was called for attendance. It must be important because we did it every day.
I’m a movie buff and the only movie I can remember where they took attendance was “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off “. Bueller…. Bueller?

JH: Good movie. What’s next on your list of what you were taught in school?

.JCH: I remember finger painting was an especially important subject being taught. I’m not sure exactly what I learned from finger-painting and I don’t know why it’s so important that virtually ever kid in school finger-paints at some time or other. So it must fill some basic need of our society.
It can’t be to teach us appreciation for art, because our society doesn’t appreciate art except in a monetary sense of art appreciating in value over time. Finger-painting as an art form is only appreciated by the parents of the finger painter.
There must be some other purpose
I’ve often thought that education is not the primary purpose of schools and that the main purpose is babysitting. Hypocrisy is a fundamental practice in our society so babysitting is never acknowledged as a basic purpose of schooling. Education as the purpose of schools seems best except when you look closely at what most kids actually get out of school.
If schools weren’t there taking care of children during the day one of the spouses would have to give up their weekly paycheck and take care their offspring. Even if the wife doesn’t work, schools give her a welcome break from dealing with her children.
So finger-painting seems to me to serve the purpose of filling time. There are 8 hours of time to fill during the school day. When you’re very young recess and finger-painting as essential time fillers. After all schools do have to do something with students or they might run amuck.

JH: So school has a critical function in our society that fundamentally has nothing to do with education.

JCH: Yes. Education such as finger-painting is just a handy time filling activity. I’m sure there are other reasons why finger-painting is so pervasive in American schools. Possibly finger-painting could be job training for American workers.

JH: What’s next ?

JCH: You would think the next big thing to teach would be reading, but I don’t remember being taught reading in school. My parents were responsible for that. They tricked me somehow into wanting to read. Then they gave me enough instruction and assistance to prevent frustration from causing me to lose interest and quit reading. Then they gave me access to all kinds of books to provide variety and a sense of self control.
Reading is not something taught or taught very well in American schools. That’s evident by how many kids get through high school with minimal proficiency in reading. All they can read are comic books and street signs. I suppose parents who work all the time to make a living don’t have the time or energy to teach reading.

JH: So reading isn’t a critical aspect of teaching in America.

JCH: Instead of reading I remember being taught how to print.
Learning to print was hard and frustrating for me. But my handwriting today is indicative of the quality of the teaching when I was struggling to learn how to print legibly. I could be a doctor my writing is so bad.
It’s frustrating because I write in longhand before I type it on the computer and the illegibility really slows me down when I’m transcribing my notes. This habit of writing in long hand comes from learning to write stories, poems and such occurred long before I learned how to type (at Marina Junior High in SF. It turned out to be one of the most useful courses I ever took) or got a computer. Whatever the reason I have to start off with pencil or pen on paper. It’s how I learned to write stories. It’s a habit.
I recall reading there was some famous author that could only write when he was in a bathtub of hot water. Robespierre I think, or some French guy anyway.
I do remember long ago there was a time I liked to smoke dope and lie in a hot bath and watch TV. But no writing. I could barely speak coherently on dope. That’s why they call it dope. Ah those were the days. But I digress. Back to topic.
I blame the system for not doing a better job teaching. I’m not talking about the education system because it’s just doing what it’s been instructed to do and the teachers have been taught to teach in a certain way, I found learning to write frustrating and so I only did enough to get by. Now any skill requires practice. A lot of practice for most people. How do you encourage kids to practice. By making it frustrating, by having class size so large that individual attention is given to a select few. This frustration always results in loss of interest. Why is frustration or boredom such a major facet of education. To my way of thinking it comes from a societal level. Where suffering is considered good and a necessary part of growth. I’ve been told suffering builds character. I know from experience suffering doesn’t build character, it destroys character. It’s a Judeo Christian belief that life through suffering is the way to heaven. The Puritan belief that fun is a sin and must be snuffed out wherever it is, and it becomes a holy mission making life miserable for others who would just rather get along as happily and privately as they can. My point is I’ve had good teachers. Not many but a couple. Most teachers know there’s something wrong with the educational system but don’t see their part in it or what to do to improve things. All I’ll say is if the teacher makes it fun for the students they won’t be frustrated, they won’t call it work and the practice hour will fly by, the end result will be better for everyone. I’ve suffered my whole life with semi illegible writing. I work on it but it takes a lot of effort and time to change a habit and when I’m trying to write fiction or an essay the energy devoted to handwriting takes away from the creative content. Just look at the last few paragraphs. Where’s the humorous side. It’s mush too serious. Maybe the next topic in what children are taught in school will help.
I’m talking about classes in math, a lot of history (more on history later), science, and virtually every other subject.
What is taught? And what is learned. Lets begin with Math. My introduction to math was the multiplication table. What was being taught: Memorization. Very simple. Easy to test. Definitely. Easy to learn. For some yes. For most. Frustrating. Students would complain: Why do we have to learn this? It’s no fun.
I had one good math teacher. One. And don’t ask me how he did it but he got me interested in solving word problems. I didn’t have to do them. I didn’t have to memorize things. But I sure remembered the formulas I made up to solve them. I had fun. Now what’s fun for me can be torture for someone else. That’s where the teacher comes in. It has to be fun for him to figure out what works for what student.
The same thing occurs in teaching foreign languages. Vocabulary. Long lists of words to memorize. I took Latin and German. Lists of words to translate. Easy to test. Are we learning the language? No. In addition to memorizing words we were given passages to translate. It didn’t take me long to figure out that the homework involved famous authors and famous passages. The Latin teacher liked Caesar veni vidi vici. I would track down a translation and copy it. Same with German. Teachers always like Goethe. It would take some time. I would have to translate some by myself, enough to guess the book and I would scan for the passage and reference the translation. I probably spent more time and energy tricking the system than I would have if I just sat down a translated word by word the passage. But that was tedious. It was more fun cheating. Did I learn Latin? Some. I still had to memorize some words and that has proved helpful in knowing roots of words I run across reading. How about German. The same thing. My classmates, those that are still alive, can speak German to our old retired teacher (Frau Vasvery). I can’t. I did get advanced placement and credit for 2 years of German so I did get something out of it, but how much came from the German classes I took at age 7 when my father was stationed in Germany.

History as taught in America is almost a total lie. The history that is taught is about an America that it wished it were, not what it really was. I didn’t realize this for a long time. Most people haven’t had the time to read what really happened.
History is written by the victors. And victory is seldom achieved by the righteous, the good or the fair. But the victor is who has the most and best weapons and who has the most intelligent, imaginative and ruthless leaders. Every time. Goodness has nothing to do with it. But when the bloodletting is all over the winning side wants is to appear righteous, good and fair, that God was on their side, that the defeated deserved their defeat.
So history records and documents the lies as truth and to say otherwise is treason and those who say so are enemies of the state and should be exiled or killed. And that’s the way it is.
This isn’t just an American affair. It is the way history has been written everywhere and everywhen. That rosy past that politicians speak of going back to was no better tan the greed and larceny that make chaos today. So we memorize the dates and we learn the fabrications of what happened. Easy to test. Yes. Pointless to memorize. Most definitely.

We finish with English. Again memorization is big. There is a lot of reading. See rumination Reading. But since we have never been taught how to read a lot is missed or glossed over. There is so much that could be done in English class it seems a crime if it doesn’t happen.

Just look to the movies for inspiration: Dead Poets Society, Stand and Deliver, Pay it Forward, Coach Carter, October Sky, Good Will Hunting, 3 Idiots, Freedom Writers…