fandomhigh | Practical Philosophy, Friday

It was still nice weather out, and so Ender had decided to hold class in the exact same spot that he'd done last week. He came a little later this time, though, giving the students time to situate themselves and maybe get some talking started before he had to start talking.

"I'd like to start by talking about something Britta raised the other week," he said conversationally as he sat down. "School is just a machine that operates by indoctrinating its students. Everything worth learning is outside our walls, while everything inside is simply a standardized means to keep us docile, to sort us into our future roles. It's a terribly Marxist way of looking at it." He paused. "Marx being a man at the turn of the last century of this planet, who was mostly concerned with workers' rights."

He pushed another bag of sandwiches into the center of the circle.

"From a certain point of view, that's true," he said. "The primary role of school is to bestow whatever knowledge the elders of our society feel is important for anyone to start functioning within that society. Not only that, but school is intended to give us a uniform moral framework between ourselves, to define the way we act, the way we talk, the way we interact with one another. It defines the roles we'll play later on in life, prepares us for the labours we will be asked to do. School supports the established hierarchy and searches to reproduce it, time and time again."

He took out a sandwich himself. "Of course, the problem with this is that 'outside the school' is, in its own way, the exact same thing. In fact, by this logic, your parents have indoctrinated you - or whatever caretakers you had. People on the street are trying to indoctrinate you every day - your friends are, too. After all, they all have moral codes and frames of knowledge they feel are necessary to interact in society. A stranger might tell you off for spitting. A friend might praise you for walking past a beggar in 'the wrong part of town'."

He quirked a little smile. "Of course, you could look at it from another perspective," he said. "We're all interacting. Trying to figure out the rules that will keep our society standing upright, whether it be the community between us here now or the community of the island, or the community of this country. Teachers are human beings, they have reasons for why they teach the way they teach. Perhaps they've gotten a curriculum enforced on them from above, but maybe they still choose in what way to emphasize it, in what way to leave an impression on you."

"But going back to the indoctrination idea," he continued, "Suppose the school is just a factory, and we're the would-be automatons shoved into it. Is this intrinsically a bad idea? Or does it help us find common ground with the rest of our generation, whether it be through shared experiences or shared hatred?"

He leaned back. "That's not to say school can't teach us deeply stupid things," he said. "Some frames of indoctrination equip us better for the rest of the world than others do. I like to think the brightest of us find ways to transcend that, though; terribly stupid, restrictive teachings can't last forever in a bright mind, unless they let denial overtake their thinking."

He took a bite of his sandwich. "Or I'm wrong, and we should all run out into town and break the bonds school is trying to put on the proletariat," he said. "That's the lower class, for those of you who've probably never heard of Marx. I'm sure Britta can supply us with torches and pitchforks."

Then, with a smile, Ender finished up with a bright, "Also, I hear it was Mother's Day last week. I hope yours wasn't too traumatic."

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"I haven't actually been trained to spout anything," said Ender, which really wasn't a lie. He amused himself with the thought of Britta in Battle School, or even dealing with his brother. "I think we can both agree assumptions aren't worth the air spent speaking them aloud."

He took a bite of his sandwich.

"You'd learn different things about life," he said. "But by and large you'd still learn them by interacting with other people."

"I didn't say you," Britta countered in an attempt to point out Ender's own assumptions, "but, yes, by interacting with other people. No argument there. The argument is in whether or not those interactions are organic or forced, and that the former is so much better than the latter. And also that just because someone's in a position of authority does not always mean that what they are trying to teach you is what's best for you."

Considering she had been railing at him for two consecutive classes now, you'd have to excuse Ender from including himself in that assessment.

"It also doesn't mean that they aren't," he noted, "and five year olds have a hard time traveling the globe without parents or supervision."

"I think," Britta said firmly, "if I had the choice bwteen a five year old who spent her life with her hand held and guided through every step of her life and a five year old who was forced mostly to fend for herself, I'd stick with the one who had to learn on her own rather than the one who had some bullshit spoon-fed to her."

Far be it from Ender to wish Peter upon anyone, but he had the vague inkling a conversation between her and Peter 'one death could be a tragedy, but a million is definitely a statistic' Wiggin would be hilarious to some parties; Valentine, perhaps.

"I've known five-year-olds like that," he said. "They were very capable at surviving... I'll give you that."

The unspoken implication was that they had needed to learn about a lot of things that had nothing to do with personal survival in particular.

Britta frowned a little, giving a stiff nod and wishing she either had more of that rum from radio or had drunk more of it, because this conversation was seriously sobering her up more than she would have ever wanted.

"So, yeah," she concluded. "School isn't always necessarily a good thing."

"I think we can agree on that," Ender said. "It goes both ways, though. Not every school is useless - I'd argue that every school has something worth learning. But sometimes the clever have to fight to rise above."

"And you can always use this to tout the systematic brainwashing of the masses," Britta offered. "I've decided at least this school is still better than jail."

"I'm terribly relieved to hear that," Ender said dryly. "Of course, we've veered wildly off the main point - which is that a little brainwashing might be necessary to keep us all playing nice with one another. Whether that brainwashing is what we have at present or some brand of anarcho-syndicalism is, in the end, really not all that relevant."

Britta sucked on her cheek a little as she thought about that.

"A little brainwashing is inevitable," she proposed. "Necessary, though, I'm still not convinced. Better get some stronger bleach."

"Well, here's a statement to talk about," Ender said. "Humans are naturally predisposed to massacre what they don't consider part of 'them' - what they have trouble understanding."

Practical Philosophy, Friday

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