Evolving through the industrialized world

Religious societies inculcate citizens that questions brought on by the theories of evolution are always taboo and not allowed in discussion regardless of the merit they provide on how we have adapted to our changing world. As a teacher (also as a social human being) we are required to adapt to our environments where we behave a certain way at home, differently at school, differently at work and our attitudes around our true friends can totally show that we have multiple personalities but it is sometimes amazing how each social group only know their shared personality and would never believe our ability to become a ‘new’ person depending on context. The quote below shows how as humans in the capitalist world there is reason to become differentiated and fragmented based on the needs of our societies.

“On one extreme end of society, the division between intellectual and physical labour, the separation between town and country, the ruthless exploitation of child and female labour, poverty and the impossibility of a free and full development of full human potential, and on the other extreme, idleness and luxury”

With the many forms of persecution and social classes that exist there is also the issue of the division of labour in communities, in the home and in the school/workplace but successful CEO’s will tell you otherwise. There is a saying “if you want something done right then you have to do it yourself” which is a direct relation to my thoughts and reflections all week as I was getting concerned about fields I never thought mattered. The article said that ‘the educated class’ is crippled by their education which trains them for a certain specialty and forces them into lifelong ‘slavery’ which got my attention. This week I was involved in discussions on inclusion in schools, suicide prevention, the rights of trans gender children, a failing education system and the ills of academic freedom (it was a busy week), we then had a presenter saying you should not get involved in everything because it can overwhelm you and this matched the limitations identified by the reading this week. I was fueled to make changes and get in contact with persons in administration as something has to be done to make the world a better place but the reality is our training allows us ‘limited’ impacts on society as if the persons in their individual specializations are ineffective then their system may never change as for us to step in where we are not trained becomes rather difficult.

We then must think about our existence as being part of a production line, we make our small contribution but sometimes never really knowing the final product and as educators this becomes a problem especially with the many correlation and interactions of the various syllabi used in schools. An example is where the same topic is taught by the math teacher and the chemistry teacher and then the physics teacher and sometimes not only does the student not understand it after all those lessons but this could have been taught in a multi developed lesson covering all three subjects which would save time and introduce more activities and experiments but this is not the reality as we only worry about our specialization.

I saw a meme recently that said ‘this life of working just to pay bills is not for me’ and I agree 100% but in an industrialized society built on capitalist ideologies then the ‘degradation of human personality’ becomes a real threat and how do we break from the reality of working just to pay bills. Based on the work of Robert Owen (from the 1800s) the future of the educational system ‘will combine productive labour with schooling and physical education for all children above a certain age, not only as a method of increasing social production, but as the only method of producing well rounded educated human beings’ and this means that the combination of education and manufacturing labour will create all rounded people but will this actually happen.

Our daily experiences allow us to see changes in the work force for the minority ‘the educated class’ but on looking worldwide and among the many uneducated persons how much has really changed where many classrooms still reflect the factory line and then the lack of resources and parental help leave students to gaining little from the classroom experience which forces the cyclic system we have grown to become accustomed as part of our lives.

Can we really be ‘jack of all trades master of none’?

The three roots to the liberation of man was an interesting concept but with the reliance on power and wealth even for those of us just finding our place in society will we be ready to give up the life we so always dreamed to free man’s personality from its suppression as once I achieve the status of ‘educated class’ will I not be free myself which was my goal all along.