#not every kid just ''didn't pay attention''. some are disabled or homeless or being abused etc.

[softgrungeprophet]

i have to say i really do agree in general with posts on the need to educate oneself and that you are responsible to some extent for continued learning and growth but i do think dismissing the issues with the US public school system is unhelpful especially because frankly, positioning education in the context of what is functionally, as foucault noted, Prison Lite (especially for the black and brown and particularly poor kids) does not encourage curiosity and often takes kids who like to learn and teaches them to hate it

i mean even just college, how many people get burnt out by college and like... stop reading? and that's a comparatively privileged (and extremely pressured) form of paid education, not like underfunded public elementary schools or whatever where for example kids in special ed are simply not taught and IEPs are in constant violation (college has a lot of the same structural issues though, especially for disabled students and students of color)

there is a powerful inequality in the US school system and i don't think it's particularly useful to simply pretend that every flaw in ignorance is some kind of ingrained aspect of "stupid bad people who don't pay attention" like i'm sorry that most 14 year olds don't respond well to being trapped inside a building without air conditioning for 6 hours a day, sitting in hard chairs, using textbooks that are 20 years out of date, and if you have a learning disability or adhd or anything like that you basically get abandoned.

i don't say this as some kind of like, free excuse for people to not ever try to learn anything but it is very much a part of the larger explanation and I don't think you can really talk about self education if you are completely unwilling to acknowledge that there is more to it than people just being lazy lol especially considering the socially charged implications of productivity, "laziness," education and poverty as they entangle

also just like... if you refuse to acknowledge a problem and make it a wholly personal issue then you are also refusing to correct the very real inequalities and issues that do exist.