Ask A Monk: Modern Education

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[TheSwross]

Hi Yuttadhammo,

Just because something is "natural" or not does not make it in accordance with the dharma. I don't think it is a good measurement of good /bad right / wrong. For examle we could say that it is natural for men and women to live together, engage in sexual relations, and have families. That certainly is true but it does not make those acts better in terms of dharma.

[yuttadhammo]

@TheSwross it's semantics, really... still, I would argue that there is nothing natural in things like men or women or poking body parts into either; these are pretty clearly artificial constructs. It seems far more natural is to give up all such constructs, which is indeed what I understand the dharma to be; so it seems to me that natural does equal dharmic.

[TBucker]

I completely disagree with this. Education, like most things, is a tool. It's how you use that tool which determines its value.

[yuttadhammo]

@TBucker a machine gun is also just a tool, this is not a good argument for the usefulness of institutionalized education.

[UU361]

The aim of public education is not to spread enlightenment at all, it is to reduce as many individuals as possible to the same safe level, to breed a standard citizenry, to put down dissent and originality. - H.L. Mencken

[yuttadhammo]

@UU361 If I wished a boy to know something about the arts and sciences, for instance, I would not pursue the common course, which is merely to send him into the neighborhood of some professor, where any thing is professed and practised but the art of life.

-- H. D. Thoreau

[Bakmoon]

5:05 "What other animal goes to school?" Fish ; - )

[Sofaklecks]

Doesn't it seem a bit ironic to talk about the uselessness of education via such a modern technical achievement like the internet?

[MrLogicstorm]

@yuttadhammo I think you are being far too harsh. Take for example when you start shooting off some of the products that come from modern education. Modern education also provides medicine and methods to help people. I agree with Tbucker and think that education is a tool, and like any tool (even a machine gun) what matters is the intention of the person using it, or not using it at all.

[Ant29]

Whaaaaaaaattttttt!!!! School is cool. Economics Rock and so is MATH! Mwaahahaahaaha. I love Calculus and Writing! I'm majoring in English and Math with a minor in Business. WOO!

[pathsounds]

@pathsounds NOW - this isn't to say that school is bad. But school is a 5th chakra event, introduced to society where the vast majority doesn't even have a strong 1st-4th chakra. So no wonder we fail, no wonder we hate it. It's just approached in the wrong point in our lives.

[pathsounds]

@pathsounds A college professor probably wont be able to understand why you have a problem doing your homework or why you do good in class but totally freeze up on tests. Oftentimes in bigger classes they wont even care. They don't even know who you are. Only you can ask the questions to why you feel this way, or why you're holding yourself back from success. That's the problem with school. It forces you to learn, when we naturally put up barriers that block us from truly learning.

[pathsounds]

@TBucker The idea is...that people today are blinded from their personal power. You can be a doctor today without college - all the information is out there. What's generally missing these days is the focus, the motivation, and the commitment to the path you wish to travel. So we rely on others, because we've been conditioned to, to teach us a curriculum - when it's much more empowering doing it on our own time, knowing where our own mental/spiritual/emotional roadblocks are.

[pathsounds]

@TBucker The idea is...that people today are blinded from their personal power. You can be a doctor today without college - all the information is out there. What's generally missing these days is the focus, the motivation, and the commitment to the path you wish to travel. So we rely on others, because we've been conditioned to, to teach us a curriculum - when it's much more empowering doing it on our own time, knowing where our own mental/spiritual/emotional roadblocks are.

[NlKNAK72]

@TBucker I'm not trying to impress you, ps, your ego is showing.

[gamma235]

@TBucker He's not saying doctors are bad. As a teacher, I have to say that I agree in large part with what this monk is talking about. School, from my perspective is more aimed at perpetuating ruling class money values and reducing education to tasks for students to perform. It's an obedience mill. We also need to rank our populace so that we can decide who is going to dominate whom in the future, cause perpetuating equality would be a threat to the elite power structure that we serve.

[WantedAngelina]

Great video, thank you so much

[TBucker]

@NlKNAK72 "just look at the world, it's a mess, and these institutions help to perpetuate this" Wow, sorry, I didn't know we had a *cough* computer expert in the room. Hey guys, I know what's wrong with the world today...there's just too many schools! HAHA wwwoooowww. Wanna know what the REAL problem is? It's people like YOU who think that school is a joke. Try learning how to be a doctor without college. Try being an engineer. The fact that you can fix my PC is not impressive.