The Magic Formula

(Note: this is based on my own experiences in education, i.e. in American private Catholic then later public schools)

When you're old enough to leave your parent's side you go to preschool or daycare. You color, you play tag, you dress up, you play in the sand or with toys and action figures. No one expects you to pass a test or complete an assignment, you can just be.

A few years later is kindergarten. You have to learn to read, to write, to do math, maybe find your country on a world map or learn a little about dinosaurs. You have your first tests and quizzes and folder of homework assignments and there is more pressure to get work done. Then they introduce you to the formula.

"Everything you learn now will be important later and will prepare you for the next grade. We're learning this now, and next year you'll learn this much more about it."

Each grade level is designed not so much to simply teach you the skills and subjects for that year but to prepare you for what you'll be doing in the next.

You need to do well in school to get GOOD GRADES. You neeed good grades for COLLEGE. You need college for JOB. The trajectory is set and everyone is glued to the same set of tracks where we're all expected to count off the milestones and smile and laugh and be ready to move onto the next segment having just completed the previous with little time to prepare. Institutions bill themselves as loci of preparation, existing only as a means to an end as you travel from Point A, which I guess is your childhood home or maybe your childhood as a whole, to Point B, which I can only describe as "the future." Point B is some nebulous place out beyond the now that should always occupy your thoughts and that you should always be striving to make as good as possible and be continually prepared to enter–but not without simultaneously taking care of the quotidian here and now. It's why parents and teachers always push you to put all of your effort into your studies while rounding up extracurriculars to round out a resume, and still have the same question perched on their lips everyt time you see them:

"Where do you want to go to college?" "What do you plan to do once you graduate?" "Where do you think you'll be in five years?"

That last one is my personal favorite since I'm often just trying to figure out where I want to be at the end of the semester.

But of course, going back to the mandatory track, where does this leave people whose cars maybe derailed? What about the student who couldn't acheive the GOOD GRADES? Not everyone has access to the same educational resources or opportunities and for some the standardized tests that students in well-funded schools just laugh off might be a real challenge. Or of course there are students for whom school and education must take a back seat to everyday life. I have no personal experience with such a situation, but I can't imagine algebra homework seeming all that worthwhile when it's a struggle just to put food on the table at home.

And for those who scrape by with the GOOD GRADES, a transcript can only take you so far. Next one needs to enter COLLEGE, that institutional arbiter passport-like degrees that allow entry into the job market for those lucky enough to possess one. The problem with college is the price tag. Sure there are hundreds of scholarships out there, but simply applying to a scholarship or even 30 scholarships in no way garauntees success. But what about work-study programs and financial aid packages? Work study can make a dent in some fees, maybe the cost of text books or a lab fee but the outstanding balance doesn't disappear after some months working in a dining hall or library, not to mention such a program is built on the conviction that all students in need of work study have enough time outside of classes/clubs/sports/etc to devote hours to work. Well then what about financial aid? Financial aid in great in the moment but student loans pile up. Fast. And so many people spend their post-grad years just trying to dig themselves out of the massive hole of debt they're stuck inside of. But of course, COLLEGE is more important than sanity or financial security because...

You must complete COLLEGE to find a decent JOB. I'm sure a lot of people remember those old commercials with the kids telling people they dropped out, like the guy trying to buy himself a wallet but when he reveals himself to be a dropout the person behind the counter brings him a tiny wallet that could barely hold a few bucks–get it? ha ha, because he dropped out so he's gonna be broke for the rest of his life! Even that very term, "dropout" for people who choose not to continue persuing education, connotes leaving something premarturely or abandoning something. It does make sense that some careers require advanced degrees, healthcare for example–anyone preforming surgery on another human being whould at least have a general idea of what they're doing–but what about the scores of people whose undergraduate degrees have little if anything to do with their career? Did having a piece of paper to say "I went to college" make that much of a difference if what you studied has absolutely nothing to do with what you're actually doing?

What really frustrates me, though, is that with all of this in mind it seems that people who don't follow the traditional GRADES, COLLEGE, JOB, path are somehow less-than, like they're deviating from such a path means they as people are woth less and don't matter as much. If everyone had the same access and the same abilites to take advantage of that access, maybe this wouldn't matter as much, but the reality is equal access has yet to be achieved forcing many people to go without and remain "less-than" in the eyes of the many.