Our Oppressive Educational System


     As a result of a tragic event at a Denver school where two teenagers killed 13 people and themselves, the nation’s attention has focused on factors influencing the increase in stress, depression, self-harm and suicide in young people. I suggest that the search for the root of the problem has not been exhaustive and that this search will find that the roots of the problem lay in our culture and our views about how to conduct ourselves in the workplace, and in the schools that help prepare students for the workplace.

    John Cleese has suggested that 90% of business organizations manage predominantly by fear, ie: there are consequences that threaten a person’s security and well-being if they do not act consistent with the organization’s expectations and culture. My personal experience in the workplace and the research that I have undertaken over the past ten years have convinced methat we have got it wrong. We have designed an autocratic and mechanistic workplace with thedomineering culture that has been successful in achieving material goals and blatantly unsuccessful in creating a quality of life in the workplace, an opportunity for people to work with joy.

    Our society has designed its educational systems to prepare people for working in the prevalent domineering organizational culture, focused on teaching existing knowledge rather than facilitating the capability of students to use their inner wisdom and creativity to solve problems.

    W. Edwards Demming stresses that the underlying objective of his philosophy outlined by his fourteen points is to provide an opportunity for people to work with joy. The inference is thatthis is not the case. A parallel exists in the educational system; our children are not learning with joy, or in many cases, are teachers instructing with joy. Rather, we have adopted a structured and uncreative approach in which we teach our children to memorize facts rather than facilitate their ability to explore, think, discover and learn.

    The primary contribution to the depression faced by many teenagers is that they are being forced to meet the expectations of an unhealthy educational system. This struggle is far more difficult for the student whose underlying personality is one that wishes to foster creativity, exploration, discovery and learning. It can be understood that students with this inclination are not as successful within the current educational system as those who are willing to follow the rules and be successful in an unhealthy educational system. Our society is suffering from having chosen a mechanistic and materialistic route to survival. We urgently need leaders who can help us find the pathway to a successful and meaningful lifestyle which also yields sufficient material success to satisfy our needs.

    I personally believe this way is awaiting discovery and that many have discovered it but are unable to be heard within what has become a largely self-serving and competititve struggle to gain financial security no matter what the means.

    What is our primary challenge? I suggest it is that those who lead us today have succeeded within a system that has been driven by material terms for the few who have capital; but unsuccessful from a material viewpoint for the majority of those who rely on their wages for survival, and unsuccessful and, in fact, corrupt for the spiritual life of the whole community. Nottoo many years ago, people who spoke out against the existing power structure in China were executed. There was no freedom of speech. Fortunately, our society is open to dialogue and I believe it is now time to challenge the ways of the past and work together to build a healthy and meaningful future for all.

    Working harder to make the old domineering paradigm successful in the marketplace is a dead-end. Organizations need to innovate to stay ahead of the competitors and improve their ability to contribute to society.

    Thoughts implicit in this bobtale.

    1. Our society is experiencing an increased level of stress, depression, self-harm and suicide in young people. There is a need to understand the root causes of this increase which lie in ourprevalent domineering culture.

    2. The majority of organizations manage predominantly by fear and there are consequences if organizational members do not act consistent with the organization’s expectations and culture. A culture that is been successful in achieving material goals but has stifled the opportunity for people to work creatively and with joy.

    3. We have established an educational system designed to prepare children for working in the predominantly autocratic and mechanistic workplace. Children are not learning with joy or in many cases teachers not instructing with joy. We have a structured and uncreative educationalsystem in which we teach our children to memorize facts rather than facilitate their ability to explore, think, discover, and learn.

    4. A primary factor influencing the depression of young people is that they are forced to meet the expectations of an oppressive and unhealthy educational system. We need leaders who will facilitate a change in the domineering organizational paradigm to a partnership paradigm tofacilitate the changes in our educational system that provide students not only with intellectual knowledge but also experience in using their inner wisdom to learn and be creative.

    5. Working harder to make the old dom ineering paradigm successful in the marketplace is dead-end. Organizations need to continually improve the value they provide their customers to stay ahead of their competitors and to improve their ability to contribute to society.


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