Beyond Selidor

Day 22 – Something that upsets you
Wow, I've skipped a lot of days. Sorry about that.

There are many things in this world that upset me, but I'm going to talk about just one of them, because, in my opinion, a lot of the other things that upset me can probably be traced back to this. I am talking, of course, about poor education.

I'm not talking about countries without universal education, where only the very rich and privileged are able to go to school, although that is horrific and more anger-inducing as what I'm about to talk about. But I don't come from any of those countries and I have no experience of what it is like to live there and would feel odd ranting about it for this reason.

No, what upsets me is the poor standard of education that can be found in wealthy countries with universal education. There really is no excuse for it. If the money isn't there, reallocate it! If the good teachers aren't there, change your admissions policy for teachers going into training and for goodness sake increase the salaries and improve the working conditions of public school teachers!

My own education was in no way flawless. Some years I had good primary school teachers who were engaging and resourceful and went out of their way to teach every child, to pitch the class to every ability level and every learning style. Some years I had primary school teachers who spent the entire time letting us watch Disney films and playing golf with a metre-ruler. (I wish I were exaggerating. I'm not.) One of my high school English teachers got us so engaged in the drama of Death of a Salesman that I, anya_1984 and psuedoskribe, and then half the rest of the class, started crying as we acted out Willy Loman's death scene. One of my high school English teachers was unable to control the class and presided over an hour-long argument between a disruptive boy and one of my friends who objected to his disruption. But on average, I'd say that my education was pretty good. The good teachers outweighed the bad, and the inspiring teachers outweighed the merely adequate. On the whole, the only differences between my own public education and my sister's extraordinarily expensive private education were that she had to go to religion classes and sing hymns at assembly, and the quality of her sports equipment, drama studios and facilities was a lot higher.

This is as it should be. There really shouldn't be any difference in the quality of teaching between public and private education, because public education should be a viable alternative that stands its students in good stead. And yet...I was lucky. I was privileged to grow up in the most middle-class, most educated city in Australia. I was privileged to live in the wealthiest suburbs, where the best public schools were located. I was privileged to grow up with a mother who was aware of what was going on at my schools, and who noticed when I was struggling and made sure I did something about it. I was privileged because I was taught by people who did not force-feed information to me, but instead taught me how to think, who did not see success as an easy path into a well-paying career but rather as becoming a fully conscious human being capable of making intellectual, political, moral and aesthetic decisions based on reflection, engagement and self-knowledge.

I am not saying that I am a particularly wonderful or clever human being. I make terrible mistakes. I am ignorant in so many areas, and sometimes I say wrong things. But I am aware at least that my education has been been pretty good, and that when I screw up it is in spite of my education and not because of it. And I am aware (not least because of the stuff I see on the internet every day) that not everyone from a similar background has had even my luck when it comes to education.

It makes me speechless with rage when I see how badly some people have been failed by their inadequate education. By teachers who didn't see their potential, by teachers who shouldn't have been teachers, by teachers let down by the limitations of their budgets and curriculums and the dominant ideologies of the countries or states in which they taught. By understaffed schools. And by an overarching philosophy that it is acceptable for there to be a two-tiered education system, where the rich get taught well, and the poor get taught badly. It is not acceptable. And it makes me so angry.


Day 23 – Something that makes you feel better
Day 24 – Something that makes you cry
Day 25 – Your sleeping habits
Day 26 – Your fears
Day 27 – Your favorite place
Day 28 – Something that you miss
Day 29 – Your favorite foods/drinks
Day 30 – Your aspirations