Dazibao 5 (Adapt or Die)

Donnie Schultz, of Northern Colorado, recently posted this message on the wall of the ELF facebook group.

"You know, this is a good idea. Too bad it's entirely unrealistic. Have you ever thought about the acting forces behind the most effective school systems in the world? The German system, the Japanese system, the Norwegian system? Scheduling. Student-teacher distancing. Respect. Discipline. Your proposed "better way" sounds like a big excuse for lazy american students to be even lazier. I hate to break it to you, but the problem with modern schools only lies minorly on the administrations of these schools. Most of it lies on the students themselves, who have learned that they only need to retain the information until the final. I agree with you that the school system is dysfunctional, but specializing and descheduling is the absolute wrong approach. We need to create a stricter environment, where students will learn the responsibility they need in our not-so-representative-republic real world. You want to talk about a beaurocratic dictatorship? Try to buy a house."

Regrettably, the character limit on wall posts for facebook is 1,000, which isn't nearly enough for one of my tirades, so my response is listed here, as another dazibao.

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Donnie, your criticism is appreciated, and I don't mean that sarcastically, but you appear to have largely misunderstood the point of this. I largely blame myself for this, in my attempt to pack as much bile into this dazibao as possible, I've largely glossed over one very important point. Capitalism. That's the society we live in, for now at least. A society which, given the increasingly globalized nature of the world, lives by only one rule. Adapt or die.

The most effective school systems in the world demand a lot from their students. But stricter environments are incidental, I believe. Students must remain flexible, and so too must their schedules, but not flexible to their own needs alone. No. Teenagers, in this system, are the newcomers to the scene, and thus will largely be required to adapt their schedules around those of other people, or else they will be choked out by others who -are- willing to do so. Adapt or die.

Respect is bred naturally when the other person has something you want: money. If you can't sell your skills, you've failed the class, haven't you? Haven't I said the very purpose of these classes would be to breed marketable products? Respect came naturally enough to the blacksmith's apprentice, when he learned the trade from his master. It was as clear as could be that his master's trade brought him life, and that without that trade, without those skills, the apprentice would starve. Adapt or die.

Discipline? It's easy enough to be disciplined when your future is on the line. You want to be a writer, you want to be an engineer, you want to be a geneticist? Idly pursuing these skills isn't enough. You must prove you have learned in the free market, prove it by producing, by being a part of society. You must meet deadlines and satisfy customer demands. Adapt or die.

What makes you think you know so much about the real world, having lived in it for, what, all of one year? Sit and think. Do you think I went into this flying blind? I ran all of this past adults much wiser and more experienced than I, who've been living in the real world ten, fifteen, twenty years. Perhaps I got a bad sample. Or maybe they know something you don't. Maybe they know the secret to success is to do what you do for the sake of itself, not becauase you need to get a grade, or a paycheck. Maybe they know that the only way to excel is to fight tooth and nail for your vision of your future. Maybe they know that it isn't enough to just survive in the world, that to truly live you must chase your dream, and never, ever just put it off 'till later, that you have to be willing to defend it from your competition, from anyone who would threaten it. Adapt or die.

You think real estate is a bureaucratic dictatorship? Welcome to the free market, friend. Even now there are greedy, money-grubbing capitlists who have been cut off from the real estate money, and who are prepared to cut through the red tape with a flamethrower to bring you much, much easier housing prices, because that's what will get them paid: being nice to you. Freakonomics. Adapt or die.

I'm not saying that we shouldn't give students the chance to make mistakes or experiment. Teenagers still deserve some kind of safety net, as they're very prone to making mistakes. People make mistakes when they learn. But I'm not suggesting we let teenagers sit around and do whatever they want all day. This is not a mindless dream. I am not an idealist. I am a heartless capitalist, -literally- without compassion. This system wasn't designed to be fun, that was just a happy side-effect. This system was designed to be efficient, to produce adaptable, flexible employee's. And it will.

Why are you fighting this? Are you, perhaps, afraid, that your hard earned GPA is suddenly going to go up and smoke? That the last four years of your life will prove useless? I don't know. But if that is who you are...Well...

Adapt or die, Donnie Schultz.