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The other day, it “clicked” for me: I think I understand better now what schools are really for.
A thread of conjectures
A thread of conjectures
It is generally believed that schools exist to help children learn. Of course, we CR folks know that’s baloney. Instead, we understand—thanks to TCS—that schools exist to *standardize* children—to replicate society’s memes as faithfully as possible under threat of punishment.
That's static-society stuff. But I’m starting to see that it goes deeper than that.
Consider a child who is interested in, say, astronomy. There are no elementary-school classes about astronomy. And even if there were, it is highly unlikely that every child will happen to be interested in *everything* shoved down his throat every year, at just the right time.
So the child wants to learn about astronomy—but doesn’t get to. Instead, he is coerced to learn *other* things he *isn’t* interested in. Day in, day out, for some 12 years. As Popper said, he has to learn answers to questions he didn’t ask.
What can one possibly do in such a situation to stay sane? One must learn to put one’s interests on the back burner and prioritize other people’s interests—in this case, the teacher’s, and society’s at large.
One must learn to coerce oneself into neglecting one’s preferences. I think *that* is what school is really for: not just to standardize children, but to break them, too, to get them to place others’ interests over their own.
I recently asked a 14 year old close to me if she’d like to go to college. She said no, but that she probably will anyway because she thinks she *should*. It’s heartbreaking.
It is only after 12 years of mind-numbing boredom and neglecting one’s preferences that people voluntarily spend the next 30 years at jobs they hate. It is in school that they learn how to live with problems instead of *solving* them.
It is there that they learn that their interests have no chance of leading to anything fruitful, and quickly shut them down.
Parents are often complicit in this. They take away things that their children enjoy, e.g. computer games, or at least put time limits on them—so their kids spend less time doing what they *want* and more of what they allegedly *need*, which is determined by anyone but the child.
I’m thankful that David Deutsch places emphasis on *fun* and *interests*. They're hugely underrated.
If school’s main purpose is to teach children how to neglect their own interests and pursue other people’s, that also explains where altruism comes from—the evil doctrine Rand so eloquently refuted and which, she says, “regards man, in effect, as a sacrificial animal”...
...quoting Auguste Comte. It explains why people live *for other people*, and then expect the next generation to do so as well. It’s what they were forced to do during the most formative years of their lives after all!
It explains why so many expect their peers to sacrifice their happiness for the health of others by agreeing to house arrests. Why those who don't want their salaries to be cut in half by taxes are considered "evil." Why so many can't begin to imagine a world without coercion.
I think many experienced critical rationalists understand this deeply—but for me, it was a breakthrough. Though the topic is sad, writing this thread was fun. I’m pursuing my interests *right now*. I love critical rationalism.
I organized these thoughts a bit more and added some detail here: https://blog.dennishackethal.com/2020/11/12/the-true-purpose-of-schools.html
