This is the fourth instalment in the series on schooling vs. education. This time I focus on conformity. What is conformity? Is it simply in our nature to conform or is it a learnt trait? Do the schools really play a role in teaching us to conform? What are the dangers of conformity? And what could be the antidote?
This is not an exhaustive discussion on the topic of conformity, which is vast, but a conscious attempt to focus our attention on this topic within the context of the State and its hegemonic relationship with society.
I owe a debt of gratitude to the channel "Academy of ideas" for their inspiring content that influenced me greatly in the making of this episode.
I mention in this episode, among others, Frederick Taylor Gates (grandfather to Bill Gates). Frederick Taylor was a business advisor to John D. Rockefeller and in 1903 he founded the American General Education Board. Gates wrote:
“In our dreams, we have limitless resources and the people yield themselves with perfect docility to our moulding bands. The present education conventions fade from their minds, and unhampered by tradition, we work our own good will upon a grateful and responsive rural folk. We shall not try to make these people or any of their children into philosophers or men of learning, or men of science. We have not to raise up from among them authors, editors, poets or men of letters. We shall not search for embryo great artists, painters, musicians nor lawyers, doctors, preachers, politicians, statesmen, of whom we have an ample supply.
The task we set before ourselves is very simple as well as a very beautiful one, to train these people as we find them to a perfectly ideal life just where they are. So we will organize our children and teach them to do in a perfect way the things their fathers and mothers are doing in an imperfect way, in the homes, in the shops and on the farm.”
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Presentation and production - Orí Harmelin
Bumper music - The tallest of Orders by Simon MacHale
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A big thank you to Simon MacHale and Daniel Shafrir for their help and support in creating this content.
