Anti Fed Ed Warriors, we’re not far from Halloween. As we’ve seen in previous years, many of us fed up with Common Core, used the season to make up flyers, treats, or similar items to raise awareness. While the awareness has been raised, it hasn’t been enough to stop Congress from continuing the overreaches into education.
(Source for image, emphasis added is mine.)
However, this year, try something a bit different. Try a short video. No, you don’t have to create one (although you could, if you like). There’s a Monty Python skit from 1969 that will send a very vivid picture of what we are seeing in education. Wait, what? Monty Python?! Yes.
We know the shift in education is all about pigeon-holing us into jobs. Jobs some test said we’d be good at, regardless of the fact our desires may be somewhere else. Monty Python ‘nailed’ this is their 6 minute skit. If you not seen it, here it is. It’s called “Vocational Guidance Counselor”. Start the video at the 51 second time mark.
If you can’t watch the clip or you can’t stand Monty Python, here’s my summary.
A grown man walks into the guidance counselor’s office. The counselor greets him with the news that his career test results have arrived. The counselor tells the man “Based on test, we have a clear picture of you. I can say without hesitation that the job for you is
chartered accountant.” The man responds with “But I already AM an accountant. You’re not listening, that’s what I’ve been and I want something different.” He continues, “I want something new, something exciting–something that let’s me live!” The man then describes how bored he is as an accountant. He’s dissatisfied, feels stifled in life.
Basically he’s confined to a job he hates. Finally, the counselor asks what the man wants to do. Excitedly, the man answers with ‘lion tamer’. His eyes light up, his body language shows happiness.
Instead of finding the man a lion taming job, the counselor steers every bit of the conversation back to accounting. Systematically destroying the desire to tame lions.
The counselor is ‘slick’ with the dialogue. Tells the man he could get to lion taming via accounting, but it would be a long journey he may never complete. Telling the man “It’s a different path from A to B.” The counselor begins to patronize the man by saying, “If I call the experts and alert them to this change you want, they will challenge this into submission.” Finally, the counselor just tells the man he’s wrong in wanting to tame lions.
Warriors, this is what is happening every day in schools of all ages and in job placement centers. If it’s not the same scene, it’s very similar. What the Monty Python players hit on is sadly a stark reality in 2018.
Warriors, we’ve seen the workforce base shift ruin academics, we’ve seen kids burned out from all the confinement at schools. We’ve seen kids commit suicide over the dullness and sheer meanness existing in education. The ‘education’ is killing them from the inside.
Consider this, based on the skit, adults are facing this, too. Just as they are in 2018 when attending any institution where WorkKeys or similar types of career tracks are given. Why? They (the tests) force CTE (Career Tech Education), apprenticeships, internships, workforce credentials or certificates…not true diplomas!
Think about our teachers, principals, and guidance counselors. I would hope they would see this, stop and think, ‘what am I doing?’ and help us bring an end to all the CCSS Machine degradation and indoctrination.
Maybe, just maybe, it those helping spread this drab alignment could see through a truthful bit of banter that they are contributing to the demise of millions, they’d ‘get it’ and stop in their tracks.
2 thoughts on “Truthful Banter”