The Social Conditioning Problem

[speculumphilosophi]

As a quick example, some people in France are rioting over standards of education in schools and institutions. It's clear only a percentage of the huge unrest is actually linked to that issue, but let's take just that issue in isolation:
How can it be people totally depend upon society for education?
I can honestly state pretty much all my knowledge to date never came from any classroom, school or institution. In fact, I did very badly at school, especially due to initial learning disability.
The truth is there's no rule of evolution that binds us to state regulated education. A good initial step to explore that reality is to watch the philosophical film (written by Bruce Lee) The Silent Flute.
Social conditioning is the impact of environment and culture on our thinking. The accepted views of any majority tend to permeate the individual, restricting independent analytical, critical thought. Academia is saturated by social bias, where history is either ignored, or re-interpreted to fit with modern elitist policy and social trends. The same thing happens on Social Media. Countless "experts" with huge numbers of followers usually lack any genuine, hard-earned credentials in their field. Instead, they rely upon the norms of social programming, ingrained from earliest school experience.
Even if educational institutions deteriorate, we really don't have to take that as the last word.
The one essential ingredient we need to become smarter, better informed, analytical is summed up in one word: "Curiosity". Einstein quoted it as the only factor that set him apart. Mostly today it's missing except in children, whose innate curiosity gets eroded by social conformism and imposed, quasi religious thinking.

 

[Morell]

School is indoctrination system with side-effect of teaching you something. Reading, writing, counting are essential. The rest has various value and use. (bad that music was dropped, as other arts that develop the soul and discipline)

But that's not new. Catholic church supported free education here when protestants were getting big. Jesuits started free schools and accepted protestants too, because it allowed them to turn those kids into Catholics. After industrial revolution the schools became tools tot rain workers, thinking that they know a lot, but cannot use it anyhow and being psychologicaly trained to be controlled by the bell, just like in the factory.

Education itself is very useful and essential. Schools however are loosing that value. They socialize, they teach reading and writing (when not in USA, apparently) they teach math which is bloody important. But beyond that we need some completely new system of education. Most of education people use they now get outside of school. That itself is evidence of that.

 

[HoldAll]

Social conditioning happens all the time. We can't help conditioning each other, and I don't believe any centralised top-down government indoctrination of the education system exists. Governments come and go, the zeitgeist keeps changing all the time.

When I went to school, we had several conservative headmasters (one of them even a priest), while most of our 'soft science' teachers were progressives, and some could even be called 'leftist firebrands' - except for our asshole psychology & philosophy teacher who was an extremely conservative Catholic. Most of my own social conditioning most probably didn't come from school but from my classmates, and the worst that could happen to you was being ostracised for not conforming to the Code of Coolness developed by ourselves in accordance to what was taught to us at the time but more importantly, what was currently fashionable in teenage trends and music, and let me tell you, it could get pretty suffocating at times; I can feel its reverberations to this day. Years later, at reunions, some even complained about having been 'coerced to blindly question authority' by both their teachers and classmates, having become more conservative in the intervening years.

In my opinion, it's the state's duty to provide a modern infrastructure for its educational system as well as adequate training for teachers. If it fails to do so… the voting age is 16 where I live, and (peaceful) student rallies are common whenever governments publicly contemplate budget cuts. It all works, by and large.

 

[speculumphilosophi]

What you address primarily is the concept Pink Floyd was getting at (little wonder, as Sid Barrett was pathologically individualistic). That is, the more obvious social programming.
The real crux of my point also stresses "curiosity" over mechanical processing of knowledge. If you look.carefully, people will typically tell you, "I want to learn such and such. Where is there a course?"
Bruce Lee was very aware of this. He got into.a lot of strife when he criticized schools of Karate or Ju-Jitsu, for mechanical, rote-based, belt-inspired but not free-thinking approaches. Bruce was definitely self-taught in his later life.
Curiosity I think is the way to go. Curiosity makes someone want to learn, above being graded or judged, or pressured into conforming to tradition in any subject. It's not good to depend upon some recognised expert, as opposed to self-exploration and curiosity, especially if you consider knowledge is innate. We all know virtue from vice but far fewer people allow themselves to be guided by their inner potential.

 

[Faria]

"Curiosity". Einstein quoted it as the only factor that set him apart.

Now we call it "autism."

If you want an accurate assessment of education levels near you, set up a retail shop and start selling things. All day long you will hear endless ignorance about whatever you are selling.

Most of my career, my customers have been people in the higher income levels, and most of those positions require education. The same people who passed Caluclus exams and wrote papers about global economics are completely unaware that Paraguay or Namibia exist. If it's not on TV, it doesn't exist, and if it was important last week but isn't on the TV anymore, it doesn't exist. If it's provably wrong and on TV, it will be believed. If it's not something they need to know in order to live, i's a good bet that they don't know it at all.

And nobody cares. They won't be educated, they won't be curious. It's a big stupid herd of cattle, and you either get on a horse and start whipping them into pens to be made into steaks, or you get out of their way. The education system isn't designed to make people better or smarter, its sole function is to physically contain the youth so they don't become delinquent and then trap them in debt so they don't become productive.