There has been a lot written about the idea of the school system as a colonial tool. It's not hard to comprehend. It makes sense when you take time to think about it. The public school system in North America was developed as a way to create a baseline of core knowledge including literacy, history, and basic skills that would train people to be employable in a labour based workforce. It's no accident that this system was instituted at the same time as the rise of capitalism: factories needed workers, bosses needed labourers. But more important than the content of the curriculum is the method in which it is taught: one that forces compliance, obedience, and a culture which declares that your time and mind belong to someone else, not to yourself. It teaches oppressiveness, power structures, and unhealthy competition. It teaches that adults know better than children, that "good" kids follow rules and fit into boxes. These concepts become core to our culture - we assume them to be truths of human behaviour, but they are not, and it take years of deprogramming to undo the damage they cause.
Schooling as a Capitalist Colonial Tool
Schooling as a Capitalist Colonial Tool
Schooling as a Capitalist Colonial Tool
There has been a lot written about the idea of the school system as a colonial tool. It's not hard to comprehend. It makes sense when you take time to think about it. The public school system in North America was developed as a way to create a baseline of core knowledge including literacy, history, and basic skills that would train people to be employable in a labour based workforce. It's no accident that this system was instituted at the same time as the rise of capitalism: factories needed workers, bosses needed labourers. But more important than the content of the curriculum is the method in which it is taught: one that forces compliance, obedience, and a culture which declares that your time and mind belong to someone else, not to yourself. It teaches oppressiveness, power structures, and unhealthy competition. It teaches that adults know better than children, that "good" kids follow rules and fit into boxes. These concepts become core to our culture - we assume them to be truths of human behaviour, but they are not, and it take years of deprogramming to undo the damage they cause.