The agenda of school, on the other hand, is (or should be) to open minds, to find what limits can be left behind, to rethink the entire framework with every single incoming class, to prove all that is in creation obsolete and to unveil a New Way beyond it. To teach back and forth between child and teacher, to explore the Self through a dozen frames, to push the boundaries of what were once thought absolute limits. Not to lecture to a flock of subordinates from books read. We need an engaging of these children in the Great Lesson of life, itself (the best teacher); physically manifesting (not by Tests, Quizzes, Essays, and Mid-Terms but through exercises, games, plays, or challenges) the Great Questions that all children must learn to apply to their world; manifesting the harmony and holistic quality of life and the world with perhaps groups, teams, and cooperative circles, curving lines, sweeping figure-eights (instead of square rooms of square desks staring at a solitary person standing in front of a board) how the underlying truths of life that cannot be avoided, what are the requirements of the Earth, the very important interplay between human and nature, the way to love oneself and therefore desire to expand the self—with knowledge, with physical challenge, with a duty to help others. No, I don't expect people to do this! Eventually, maybe. But more importantly, I don't believe people should hand off their children to caretakers for most of their conscious day, just hand them off to get some random Preach'NTeach. I know our current system, for the most part, demands we do so. But then again, I don't agree that this setup is very good for people on many levels.

And yes, sigh. I think in an impractical manner; in an "idealistic," or "philosophical" manner. That's my job. It is sometimes not a practical one. But I do see the practical harm upon children that results from this system of handing kids over to School. What is assumed, what is actually learned, what could be learned in that space, what is lost.

Rote memorization of answers to tests will not prepare anyone for this mess we leave. Furthermore, it defies logic to insist that our answers are the ones that should be memorized. Many of our answers have been abject failures, and those of our government have been criminal.

—Jack Blatherwick, Truthout.org

Seeing truth about the world and our own actions would, of course, begin with a real accounting of our nation's history, and this would immedicately threaten the government—which is propped up by a billion phony lines about principle and glory, but is actually a massive gang. Honest souls would see the neverending battle between the Small and the Large, a cruelly unfair dynamic because so often, as in America's dealings with Iraq, or many countries; or Ruiz's dealings with the people of Oaxaca, the large is the oppressor, the well-funded and well-armed thief. (One of the reasons I do like the original Star Wars trilogy is due to the metaphor of same represented.)

Across continents and centuries, the same symbols dance across the stage, the essence unchanged. Are you taking note?