How Our Schools Create Corporate Drones
We are all brainwashed and trained at an early age by parents,
teachers, and society to believe that getting a job is what we
are supposed to do. Maybe this was a good thing to do in the
50s, 60s, and even 70s. I'm not sure.
But things started changing rapidly in the 1980s with
technological advances and the first big wave of corporate
downsizing. Corporations no longer provide lifetime employment
and technology has enabled anyone to start a business from
anywhere.
What is true today is that having a job is not a good way to
build wealth or achieve financial security. Unfortunately, our
schools still train people to be good workers. They are not
equipped to teach people to be great entrepreneurs.
Bill Gates said at the 2005 National Governors Association
meeting that "High schools are obsolete...Our high schools were
designed 50 years ago to meet the needs of another age. Until we
design them to meet the needs of the 21st Century, we will keep
limiting - even ruining - the lives of millions of Americans
every year."
Schools teach children to sit still, be quiet, memorize
information, and take tests. Schools teach children that they
are worth more when they get an "A" versus a "C". These are not
skills and beliefs that make people good entrepreneurs.
Schools give children the message that they don't know what is
best for themselves. They must look to the teachers and
administrators to decide how they will spend their time. It
doesn't matter if they are enthralled with a book or science
experiment, when that bell rings, they better stop what they are
doing and hurry on their way so they are not late for the next
class. It doesn't matter if they are hungry or thirsty - they
must wait until lunchtime to nourish their bodies. And it
doesn't matter if they are tired, they can wait until they get
home to rest.
These are the lessons that I learned in my 23 years in school,
college, and graduate school:
Lesson #1: My worth as a human being is determined by my
performance. This has grown into an adult belief that I am not
OK unless I am getting A+'s in life: important jobs, promotions,
lots of money, big house, etc. (After all, our culture tells and
shows us what material possessions you need to prove to the
world you are getting A+'s.)
Lesson #2: I must look to outside authorities to show me how to
live my life. This has grown into an adult belief that my inner
intuition, feelings, and body sensations are not to be trusted.
I lived my first thirty years in my head, practically cut off
from my inner world.
Lesson #3: Life is NOT supposed to be fun. I have lived my life
with the belief that life was full of struggle and hardship,
that work is not fun, and that I have limited choices.
Schools condition us to look outside of ourselves for answers
and guidance. Schools show us that we are not responsible for
our own well-being. School conditions us to ignore our inner
guidance systems.
Some of our most innovative contributors to society were not
model students - remember Albert Einstein?
You may be thinking, "C'mon Debra, lots of kids don't like
school. It's not the end of the world!" And I say, "Well, why
can't we create a school system where children love to learn?
Why can't we trust kids to know what is best for them?" This
won't happen until adults start un-brainwashing themselves from
the lessons they learned in school. Adults need to stop passing
the misery onto their children.
I intuitively knew what was best for me at a young age but
wasn't even permitted to express this knowing. I spent most of
my 20's following society's false promise of happiness and most
of my 30's trying to unlearn the destructive lessons that were
force-fed to me in school.
The good news is that it is possible to seize control of your
life by undoing destructive social brainwashing. But first, you
must get clear on which false beliefs you still hold and replace
them with positive fear-free beliefs. It is a journey worth
embarking upon.