Is Curious George racist? That was the question posed to me in an assigned reading from an Ivy Tech Children’s literature class. The author cited the lack of physical space taken up by the monkey in comparison to the human characters as evidence of symbolic oppression.
There has been a recent positive shift away from the worship of institutionalized academics and into alternative learning. The prevailing school of thought was that institutionalized academics were pivotal to the success in America. But it’s clear to many that although many institutions do promote learning, academia doesn’t inherently guarantee progress, or learning, for that matter. This is due mainly to the many evidences of the short-comings of academia.
After spending seventeen years of my life homeschooled, the last two years have proven to me beyond a shadow of a doubt that the system of institutionalized academia is broken.
Again and again, the claim that institutionalized academics are pivotal to the progress of learning and innovation is perpetuated. Because we hear this on the news, from parents, and from these very institutions, many have innocently internalized it.
The academics often tailor their learning to high-performers, in which much of the time, the goal is to follow directions and gain knowledge, and obviously, there’s nothing inherently wrong with that. Indeed, there are a high number of CEO’s, entrepreneurs and innovators who hold degrees in their area of profession. Many innovations from the past century are credited to conventional education.
But the understanding of these facts as a direct line of support for the idea that progress and learning cannot happen apart from the world of these institutions would be faulty. These formal systems tend to push one structure of learning, mainly memorization, absorption of knowledge, and creation of works accepted by these institutions.
This is a far-cry from the Socratic method of Athens, Greece. Modern day academics (in part due to government funding) has a lack of choice. While there is some variety from college to college, and school to school to school, most programs are remarkably similar, in content and structure. In Market Education, which analyzes the history of education, author Andrew Coulson asserts that the American model of education more closely resembles the totalitarian, government-regulated system of Sparta, designed to serve military needs, than the market based-education in Athens.
While America has seen copious innovations since post WWII and the rise of higher education, it wouldn’t be foolish to think more diverse systems of schooling could spur on that progress. After all, as economist Tyler Cowen showed, we just emerged from a fifty year period of economic and innovation stagnation. This period, lasting from 1974-2023, was also when college education in America was at an all-time high.
Empirical examples highlight the limitations of traditional schooling. Diogo Costa, president of FEE.org, pointed out in a recent lecture that the bicycle was created out of previous inventions conjoined together. The skillsets utilized in this were a curiosity mindset and critical thinking, of which are not the goals of modern education.
Furthermore, the recent emphasis on independent learning has similar qualities to Athens, not to the glorified public education system. During the time of Plato, Aristotle, and Isocrates, Sophists and those teaching beyond high school would travel cities giving lectures which shared their knowledge. The deciding factor of who was able to teach was the students, not on the approval of institutions. If teachers taught well, and made sound logical arguments, they had a job. But only if they succeeded in actually educating their clients.
With the rise of podcasts, and other alternative education, the similarities of the market-based approach are shocking. The students choose the teacher, and the teachers must teach in a way accessible to their audiences.
Aside from this, even many employers are beginning to prioritize alternative education. Because of the lack of trust in conventional academics that began mainly in 2020, many more have begun to reprioritize, and look deeper.
In a revelatory discovery by James Lindsay and his colleagues, peer-reviewed journals with nonsensical claims and false evidence were accepted for publication. Although not every American is familiar with this specifically, many have seen the effects of institutionalized learning in their own lives, similar to the profound statement that The Man in the Big Yellow Hat is actually a symbolism of white dominance.
I have lost count of the amount of public schoolers who were impressed by my level of knowledge because I know who George Washington is. And still more who asked me to read something to them, simply because it was in cursive. These types of stories are more common than you would think, serving as signifiers that the system is best accomplished at producing insidious idiots, who don’t know basic geography, but can exceed at hiding their stupidity from the majority of society.
It’s crucial to understand the limitations currently implicit in this system. Being homeschooled was one of the greatest privileges I have ever received. Enduring two years of ignorant professors and nonsensical assignments has made me realize that I never would have made it to where I am now without being taught by my parents.
I don’t mean to highlight the stupidity of my peers as an insult to them, but rather as a red flag to my fellow Americans. The only reason we don’t realize how bad it is, is because most students my age know how bad it is, and they are ashamed. They’re ashamed at their lack of knowledge and the amount of time they’ve spent on school just to be left behind.
This is also meant to be an encouragement to those who opted out of institutionalized academics, whether that is college or public school. You don’t need the government, the government needs you to think you do.
While many would balk at the claim that progress can, and does happen at a substantial rate outside of institutions, the shift to alternative learning is making it clear that it can. Many of these failures are due to lack of accountability and competition. For so long, one system and one system only has been used, but now, we are seeing capitalism fix problems caused by an incompetent government. Now, the case against college is being made by the lives of Americans.