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Learning on the Internet (Anti-School)

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How long do they really think they can get away with it? The failure of the modern education system is so well known that even some of those who are involved in enforcing the system sometimes admit to it. In short, school still sucks. And now it sucks even worse due to the rise of the Internet. It’s actually a crippling blow. The education that can be obtained by the determined individual over the Internet (whether for free or through paid e-learning courses) is undermining the brick and mortar shams we know of as schools today. Law enforcement and older/brainwashed generations are some of the last remaining bulwarks that keep the old education system around and prevent an easy transition to a more realistic way of obtaining education, over the Internet.

Yet, things are happening and people are realizing some of the things that can be accomplished with today’s technology. New generations are growing up with a different mindset, and people are seeing reasons to think differently about education options for their kids. Though home schooling has gained in popularity as one option, some people have been known to forgo any mandatory state requirements and supervision of the education of their children all together. Some people seem to have found ways of teaching their own kinds at home, along with ways of disappearing through the cracks. For some young students this may turn out bad, but for those who are taking advantage of the technology, who can tell what kind of amazing education people may be showing up with in the future.

Knowledge is a form of power, and a way that life can be made easier. For those who are taking serious advantage of the river of knowledge on the Internet, their future path may reach unheard of heights. The more culture becomes dominated by tech savvy youth, the more respectable e-learning may become as a sole means of education. Who wants to risk getting shot to death by some stupid idiot at a school when instead they can stay home, learn through their computer, and then go hang out with their friends they have made on-line? Who knows what the neighborhood community may look like in the future. As Frank Feather said in his book, Future Consumer.com, “It would be much cheaper for the U.S. and Canadian governments to give a free PC to each household that doesn’t now have one and then switch all schooling to in-home study. In turn, they could close down the schools and save at least $1 trillion a year in school budgets. For a fraction of the sum they could provide constantly updated e-learning materials and online tutoring to every student from age two through PhD.”

Lastly, is technology, drugs, hobbies and other experiences merely a means of escape from all the crap? The Doors drummer John Densmore once noted in his Doors biography Riders on the Storm, that mind expansion was the thing in the 60’s, and escape is unfortunately the thing today. It seems to me that perhaps one of the keys of life might be that people need to realize there is just no realistically lasting pleasant escape from all the crap in life we have forced upon us. Yet maybe if we walk the road of expansion, then maybe we can expand far and beyond the stupid, oppressive limitations that the government sometimes mistakenly try to enforce. Maybe then we will see the demise of brick and mortar schools as people embark on a groovier journey into the unknown. Send in rants or comments for possible future topics!

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Gamemuse

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Written by: David Loren Buehner
13 September 2001

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