[user104658]

Originally Posted by the truth

I hope youre right and Im wrong

I don't actually think you're wrong when it comes to schools, I've mentioned in other threads that I'm constantly horrified by my daughter's primary school and it's attempts to turn the kids into little conformist drones. I despise their "traffic light" punishment system, their insistence on holding bright kids back to keep in line with the lowest common denominator, and some of the things that I've heard of kids being punished for are mind boggling (clever kids finishing easy work "too quickly" losing out on playtime for "moaning too much" to the teacher that they were bored!). My view of the school system so far is that it is DESPERATE to homogenise young people. The school's mottos and goals, that they actually have painted on a wall outside, mention encouraging inquisitive minds and leadership qualities but I've seen absolutely no evidence of that. They encourage bland obedience and subordinance. We spend a good hour every day chatting to our daughter about her day after school and encouraging her to think critically about the things that have happened and what she actually thinks about them ("and do you think your teacher was right to do that?", "was that fair?" Etc.) just to ensure that she does remain an individual with opinions of her own, and not just a "but teacher sez".

However, I think that now more than ever (and the effect will hopefully only increase) young people today have access to an entire world of knowledge and opinions at their fingertips, and that is what makes the difference. We're bombarded with opinions of all sorts from all sides and that ensures that teenagers and young adults have little choice but to actually take a moment to think about who and what they agree with and where they stand. The days when mindsets can be influenced by blanket printed press propaganda are very limited, I think. I hope!