Questions put by a teacher to Michael Mendizza

Question 1.

Einstein, who went to school in 1980, wrote later: “School failed me, and I failed the school. It bored me. The teachers behaved like Feldwebel (sergeants). I wanted to learn what I wanted to know, but they wanted me to learn for the exam. What I hated most was the competitive system there, and especially sports. Because of this, I wasn’t worth anything, and several times they suggested I leave. This was a Catholic School in Munich. I felt that my thirst for knowledge was being strangled by my teachers; grades were their only measurement. How can a teacher understand youth with such a system? From the age of twelve, I began to suspect authority and distrust teachers.” Albert Einstein

Well, today too in 2021, I would like to explore how much the school situation has changed since then. Today we could teach our children not only Maths, Science and Geography but also Yoga, Robotics and Vedic Maths but what about the internal world of each child? Is it enough to keep a school counsellor to take care of the psychological world of the student ,whereas we teachers go on teaching only Maths ,English ,Geography etc? What are your views on it?

Michael Mendizza: Schooling and learning have always been completely different states and objectives. Schooling is not about learning. It is a mechanical form of cultural conditioning designed to deeply imprint obedience to authority, conformity and non-critical thinking on the part of the parents and the child.

Only 3% to 5% of life-long learning is acquired through any form of formal training, including schooling. Of that 3% to 5%, the child retains less than 5% for any length of time. Is there any wonder that a bright and sensitive mind like Einstein would see this?

Teachers are well intended. ‘Form is content’ is the axiom. The form of an experience, for example the form and structure called schooling, is the primary content learned. What we think of as content, math for example, is the bait to keep the mouse in the Skinner box. With comparison being the primary means to beat each child into submission.

We can change the subjects taught but this does nothing to alter the form and structure that defines the primary experience. Compulsory schooling has always been about crushing innate intelligence in exchange for conformity to the social system. That is its function, which is working as designed.

Question 2. 

As we all have been taking online classes since 2020, I have felt that during these pandemic times , the Crisis in Education has become more glaring. The children were not able to play in open parks, meet their friends and peers or were exposed to stressful situations at home like parents losing their jobs, or losing close ones to Covid-19. As a result they have been bombarded with various kinds of fears, insecurities and uncertainties.

Do you think, had there been something in-built in the Education system, involving all the stake- holders like both parents and teachers ,to help each child deal with and be aware of their internal crisis, could this crisis be better dealt with?

Michael Mendizza: No. Because, as described above, schooling itself is a crisis for most children. The fears and isolation that the pandemic has ushered are not spontaneous. They have been designed over the past two decades to drive children into the arms of technology, where everything the child does can be monitored, added to the data-base so AI can completely replace teachers and parents in the achievement of the true goal which is conditioning. Children are not children. They are not even students. The new reality is that children are commodities to be exploited by technologies with the punishments and rewards being implemented before the child even behaves, based on past data-algorithms. Predicative rewards and punishments based on conformity.

Question 3. 

Is school a good place to hold up an internal mirror to the child? If yes, does this mean compromising on academic excellence of the child?

Michael Mendizza: In the current system, no to both. The school is the conditioning agency. The mirror in this context will only reinforce the desired conditioning. The school does not care about the child. The child is a commodity to be conditioned.

Question 4. 

At the eve of an expected third wave, when we do not know for sure when the online classes would stop, and normalcy would return , the child has been and will further be exposed to a lot of fears in themselves or it may have seeped into them through their environment , social media, etc. What is the role of fear as an interference in the learning process of the child?

Michael Mendizza: Fear, isolation and conformity is the learning process and as above, it is the primary content being learned – by design. The new normal is to, as above, replace teachers as was done with parents decades ago, and have machines complete the process of conditioning far more efficiently.