<p>"Last month, Erica Goldson graduated as valedictorian of Coxsackie-Athens High School. Instead of using her graduation speech to celebrate the triumph of her victory, the school, and the teachers that made it happen, she channeled her inner Ivan Illich and de-constructed the logic of a valedictorian and the whole educational system."</p>
<p>"The saddest part is that the majority of students don’t have the opportunity to reflect as I did. The majority of students are put through the same brainwashing techniques in order to create a complacent labor force working in the interests of large corporations and secretive government, and worst of all, they are completely unaware of it. "</p>
<p>“We are more than robotic bookshelves, conditioned to blurt out facts we were taught in school. We are all very special, every human on this planet is so special, so aren’t we all deserving of something better, of using our minds for innovation, rather than memorization, for creativity, rather than futile activity, for rumination rather than stagnation?”</p>
<p>Okay, so what about these kids…</p>
<p>“While others sat in class and doodled to later become great artists, I sat in class to take notes and become a great test-taker. While others would come to class without their homework done because they were reading about an interest of theirs, I never missed an assignment. While others were creating music and writing lyrics, I decided to do extra credit, even though I never needed it.”</p>
<p>I don’t buy any of it. She practically blames the school for suppressing peoples’ individuality and creativeness?</p>
<p>She’s telling us that her school suppresses qualities of humanity so the students can work in mindless corporations and secretive governments? It’s her own fault for not finding any interest in her subject. She’s the result of her own mentality!</p>
<p>■■■■■ She just implied that the last ranked person “beat the system”; in other words, that person is real “winner.” The Kid with the lowest grades is the winner.</p>
<p>Why is that?
If she thought the educational system was making slaves, and she happened to be the “best slave”, you can infer that she thought the last person to have beaten the system. Why is that a stretch?</p>
<p>Different wording perhaps, and different emphasis.</p>
<p>I wish I could’ve been there too!</p>
<p>It was also an amazing speech in itself.</p>
<p>Although I hope this doesn’t cause some people to mistake it for a criticism of the material we have to learn (i.e. a math major shouldn’t have to learn english, or government/etc.). Instead it is a criticism of the system in which we learn it and the pedagogy.</p>
<p>The value of the material we are supposed to learn is a bit more distinct from this.</p>
<p>I can’t believe the author made an Ivan Illich reference. I officially want to marry the blogger, though I feel like s/he is ignoring the fact that Tolstoy’s points in the novella were cogent, practical, and valid rather than unrealistically idealistic.</p>