“In otherwords, in school we are not necessarily being taught things to help us grow as individuals, or that may allow us to help others, but rather we are ‘educated’ on how to best fit the needs of employers. We are taught to do as we are told, we are taught to raise our hand and wait patiently to ask questions, and maybe worst of all, we are taught to take figures of authority at their word, discouraged from questioning the sources and motives of those who have been ‘certified’ to mould our minds and shape our methods of thought. This, in and of itself, wouldn’t be so bad, except that it encourages a sort of lazy approach to learning. It teaches people that there really isn’t a big need to go and find their own answers, to draw their own conclusions. In some cases, it even goes so far as to teach people not to ask questions. In essence, it teaches people that someone else will have the answer to the question that’s too hard for them…and this is one of the greatest travesties of the modern age; that people are forgetting how to learn.” An excerpt from an essay I’m writing on The Bridges of Madison County, and how the functionalist perspective of life interferes with our basic human needs.
