After taking an apprenticeship test, I discovered that a major component for passing was the ability to follow directions. Years later while pursuing a degree in Community Development I was made aware that many of our aptitude tests also have this direction following component. Upon further investigation it came to my attention that civil service exams incorporate this component as well. Now there's no doubt that a professional, a student, and/or an employee's ability to follow directions is and should be a major concern. But, on the other hand, the knowledge of how well one can follow directions can lead to the gauging of one's willingness to adhere, and allow another an opportunity to establish an undetermined amount of control over that person's life.
Since 2008 there have been discussions concerning the belief that one of the factors used in determining the number of prisons being built, is based on the number of students who can't read at a third grade level. The consensus of the penitentiary planners is that these particular students often fail to improve over time, and are most likely to drop out, do drugs, and wind up incarcerated. Call it conspiracy theory if you will, but it doesn't seem to be a coincidence that these same third grade testing results, that reflect an inability to follow directions, can play a major role in determining, at an early age, who's trainable and who's not. No worries though, because there's a place for either or.
Whether purposed or not, I see our educational systems as training rather than teaching facilities. I see our subsequent involvement in corporate and business institutions as a proliferation of the same type of training that it takes to maintain the existent hierarchical system. Now I'm not blaming administrators, teachers, professors, managers, or corporate execs because they're only doing what we are all being trained to do, and that is to adhere to the directions of the higher ups. This method of interaction, without some contribution from us, is not going to stop. Let's face it. unless one is offered an alternative way of thinking, one is trained at an early age that there are those above us and those below us. We are taught to seek upward mobility and told that the means for doing so is to follow the direction of those in charge. Now this type of 'education' extends way beyond academia. In a word, from the class room to the board room and beyond, you either pass or you fail. It doesn't matter whether the criteria for passing is biased, unethical, or of little value to you or anybody else; you either play the game the way you're being 'taught' to play it or you get off the field.
What I suggest is that we tell our children and continually remind ourselves that the way in which we interact with one another is not always as it should be. However, our well being is contingent on recognizing the methods employed in our interactions, and figuring out how to circumvent the liabilities that these methods incur. These liabilities can range from harboring feelings of either inferiority or superiority, to creating a platform for unnecessary and aggressive competitiveness. We can play the game, but we can not afford to get caught up in it. We must not look at ourselves as being better than another, but view ourselves and everyone else as doing the best we can with what we have to work with. Until more of our schools teach us how to be critical thinkers, and how to use our individual gifts for the benefit of self and others, we must make a concerted effort to bring some much needed good to the hood.
To train is to condition/prepare; to teach is to enlighten. The world may continue to train us on how to follow rules and to do as we're told. But, at the same time, let us continue to remind each other that we each have a light and it's our obligation to let it shine so that the entire world may one day do the things that Love, not man, leads us to do.
I'll Holla.
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