I remember sitting in Study Hall back in the 70’s, waiting for the Internet to happen. Unbeknownst to me, it WAS already happening, in secret, for the Department of Defense and a small group of eggheads in a few universities
At my high school, Cambridge High & Latin School in Cambridge Mass., the study hall was a re-purposed former auditorium, with a series of office cubicles at one end. This room had a high ceiling which magnified all the sounds from the ‘studying’ students and the people in the cubicles. So, it was impossible to study. This more or less defined education for me.
Every day, getting up early, to trudge off to school was a terrible inconvenience to me. I had a lot of things going on back at home, in my room. There were tape recorders to disassemble, comic books to write & draw, songs to record, and books to read. And of course, waiting for the Internet to happen.
I admit it. I did not understand the education system I found myself in. I appreciate that I was taught how to read. But, after that, I think that the system lost focus when it came to what exactly they were preparing us for.
The powers that be were already moving all manufacturing overseas and offshore. Wars were to be managed with pinpoint precision gadgets of mass destruction and a professional armed force.
I believe that, with the Internet, self-motivated individuals are in a better position to self-educate, and learn far more than I ever learned in school. We can learn not only information, but global responses to that information, so that there’s a balanced presentation.
We’re not being presented with only media or political propoganda, but the underlying motives behind an event or item. There is an exciting new world of possibilities out there.