Everything that exists on this Earth is made out of the same Common Core, the same molecules, and the same atoms. 75 % of the earth is covered in water. Up to 60 % of a human body is made up of water. Pigs are animals whose anatomy so closely resembles the human that a pig heart can be transplanted into a human and provide that human with a functional heartbeat. According to the animal liberation front over 100 million pigs are slaughtered every day in the U.S. It is the brut

From this perspective it appears that much of what we learn about being human and about functioning in society is random at best. Advertisers certainly do not openly disclose or take responsibility for their part in educating us to want to buy certain products. And parents certainly aren’t trained to stand as sound examples of what it means to communicate effectively with other people. We tend to think of education as the formal training we get in school. We think of academic

In The Republic[i] Ancient Greek philosopher Plato famously said that: “The society we have described can never grow into a reality or see the light of day, and there will be no end to the troubles of states, or indeed, my dear Glaucon, of humanity itself, till philosophers become rulers in this world, or till those we now call kings and rulers really and truly become philosophers, and political power and philosophy thus come into the same hands.” Plato claimed that we all ha

When we look at the word ‘education’ most of us see either the years of education we have behind us or the education we are taking now or that we’re about to take. We see dusty classroom and teachers and textbooks and endless homework with little to no connection to reality. When we look at the word ‘education’ we see something that someone else expect from us, something we’re doing for someone else; our parents, our teachers, our future employers. We see education as a requi

China’s rising economy and how we need our students to be able to compete with Chinese students in the global knowledge economy. One of the reasons for this is that Chinese students generally test very high on the ever-important international test scores. (See for instance this infograph http://stateimpact.npr.org/ohio/files/2013/10/NAEP-TIMMS-Math-Comparison-WEB.png) The Chinese education system is build around the country’s so-called socialistic ideals where the young are e

“ Words can be like X-rays if you use them properly — they’ll go through anything. You read and you’re pierced.” ― Aldous Huxley, Brave New World A couple of days ago I was having a discussion about the history of the school system and since I have two degrees in education, a bachelor in pedagogy and a master’s in educational sociology, I saw myself as an expert in the subject of discussion. But as the discussion continued I was shocked to find that I didn’t hav

In the last blog-post I wrote about a teaching situation with three boys. In the blog-post I wrote about who these three boys were very different in their ability to read and write and I mentioned an episode where one of the boys were writing faster than the others and how I tried to equalize the situation between them. Afterwards I had a conversation with a friend about the blog-post who assisted me to realize how I had, in that moment where I thought I was equalizing a poin

In my work as a teacher in preschools and elementary schoolsI often see children without adult supervision or contact. It is especially disheartening in preschools for very small children, because it is quite a rough start in life being ‘thrown’ into an institution filled with other children and noises and where the adults have little to no time to care for you, let alone see or hear you. Often I see children in fights or with hands red and freezing from being outside or with

The following article is written by guest blogger, M.M who is a teacher’s aide from the US. Continuation from: http://teachersjourneytolife.blogspot.com/2013/10/drug-education-in-american-schools-day.html Drug: a chemical substance used in the treatment, cure, prevention, or diagnosis of disease or used to otherwise enhance physical or mental well-being. (Dictionary.com) We provide drug education courses for the young, have them do research papers, talk about the effects/cons

Teachers in classrooms all over the world are faced with great apathy towards solving the problem of bullying. In fact, very few teachers have received any form of training on how to deal with bullying and if you are a parent, this ought to be alarming because you do in fact not know the kind of environment you are sending your child into day after day throughout the years they attend school. As most parents know, it is also not necessarily the most easy to communicate with a

In this blog-post I am continuing with the Kindergarten Paranoia series, focusing here specifically on paranoia towards social relationships and friendships with other children. However I am also going to share a general perspective on how the current educational systems specifically those dealing with the first few years of a child’s life, are failing not only our children but the future of humanity as a whole. When I look back, this point was not as prominent in kindergarte

In this post we are again diving into the paranoia existent within the pre-school or kindergarten facilities around the world. I am specifically utilizing my own memories and experiences with attending kindergartens as a child as well as my experiences with working in kindergartens as an adult. As I mentioned in the previous post, I have been astounded when looking back, at how much paranoia I actually experienced, even as a small child. In this post I will specifically be lo

–> In and from this blog-post we are going to dig deeper into the paranoia existing in the school-system at a personal level and I will take my point of departure in my own experiences. I have worked in many kindergartens and preschools both in Denmark and Sweden through the past twelve years. I have seen and worked in some of the worst and some of the best kindergartens and preschools. I have seen a few teachers that were passionate and many who were not and who were burned

In this post we are going to explore the concept of ‘critical thinking’ in relation to propaganda and the paranoia of the education system. For context of what we will be discussing here, I suggest reading the previous blog-posts in the series. Critical thinking can broadly be defined as the ability to critically assess knowledge and information independently for oneself to discern whether or not something is true or false and the concept has been given significant value over

–> In this post we are going to have a closer look at the extensive dissemination of propaganda in and through our educational systems. Because most people’s minds, when they hear the word ‘propaganda’ immediately jump to images of Nazi leaflets or Russian billboards or other typical fascist or totalitarian historical forms of propaganda. Seldom do we consider ourselves the recipients of propaganda, which ironically has been one of the greatest achievements of the propaganda

Before continuing with the next part of the Paranoia of Education series I will here walk an interim point wherein I will walk a process of Self-Forgiveness on what we’ve walked so far in the previous series about the Paranoia of Standardized Testing. Through self-forgiveness we are walking a process of taking responsibility for our own creation as the Paranoia of Education as it has become, for example as seen within and as the Paranoia of Standardized Testing in the current

We have come to the 6. Chapter on our exploration and uncovering of the Paranoia of the Education System specifically focusing on the Paranoia of and within Standardized Testing as how it currently exists. In this blog post we will discuss how children’s well-being is affected by standardized testing and what possible consequences manifest when children are forced into an ineffective education system that focuses on anything but education and exists only to serve the paranoia

In this post we will be discussing the actual effects that the paranoia of standardized testing has on children in their day to day living as they attend the school system. We will continue the discussion from the previous post on how market capitalism has embedded itself into the education system. To understand the context of what we will be discussing here I suggest reading the previous posts in this series: The Paranoia of Standardized Testing (Part 4): Market Capitalism E

In this post we’re a continuing with the series on the Paranoia of the Education System and more specifically the Paranoia of Standardized Testing. In the previous post we looked at how the Paranoia instigated by and of Standardized Testing has had the consequence of forcing schools to compete with each other. In this post we’re moving into the classroom and are looking more specifically at the consequence of Standardized Testing for the work of Teachers. For context to what

We are once again turning our focus towards the Paranoia of the Education System and here specifically continuing from the previous introductory blog post in the series on how Standardized Testing is a form of Paranoia implemented into the Education System causing Children to become Beings Trapped by and within the very Paranoia as it has been proselytized into them through the Education System. In the last blog post we investigated how standardized testing was born out of pa