The Void Engine.

I am posting this from class. Yup, that's right. Sitting in the middle of my writing for radio class during our break. I was struck with a sudden urge to put down what was going on around me into words.

There's a certain hum of white noise that always falls over a crowd of students when the teacher departs from the room. If you sort through the static you can discern conversations and comments that speak truer of people than anything they'd say when being listened to directly. I am immediately aware of a certain degree of, for lack of a better word "immaturity" from some students. Certainly not all of them, and in fact they are the exception, not the rule. I know part of the issue is the age of some of the students. Many of them are fresh out of high school and are devoid of any major developmental stages. It's not their fault, it really isn't, but it does nag at me when I hear their droning about this and that.

The title of this post is really about high school in general. As a machine whose primary goal has become a holding tank for students, the function of high school is woefully lost in the bureaucracy of the system. Yes there will be students who actually learn, grow and emerge from high school as learned individuals who are set for post-secondary, but for every one student like that there is ten or more who aren't ready. I don't blame the teachers, I can't. It's not their fault that the system is failing so many kids. Partly it's the parents for their lack of involvement and partly it's the government for providing and demanding a level of performance that is less about education and more about numbers. Schools look better if they have a high pass rate. Principals (especially business minded principals) are more concerned about getting good ratings than the welfare of the students. Too many are bumped from 48% to 55% all in the name of keeping statistics up. What does this mean in the long run? Underdeveloped and unprepared children are being conditioned and thrust into the post-secondary world without the necessary skills to succeed. This places a huge onus on the professors at college's and universities to take these students and turn them into something. It becomes a self perpetuating engine where schlock is shoveled in, and schlock is shoveled out. These students then produce children who have less expected of them than their parents did, and sequentially we become dumber and lazier as a culture.

Some would argue that our advances in tech and medicine are signs that we're advancing as a society, but so many of those advances are made by the few and not the many. Culture as a whole is growing dumber. Once upon a time classical studies like music and art were part and parcel with etiquette and diction studies in school. Somewhere along the line these were deemed unnecessary for the proper formation of a good student, but when it comes to the work force potential employees score higher on employer checklists if they are eloquent and proper.

It is for these reasons I look forward to one day perhaps having children of my own. You can bet they will be the most prim and proper children in the classroom because they know what wrath will befall them from their father should they step out of line.