Who really cares about paradigms, traditions and theories? How about we talk about how to actually fix the problems in the world!?

Sometimes it feels like the goal of education is to create clones. OK, maybe not education per say, but school. I mean, let's evaluate. How do you do well (I.E. get good grades)? Well, I would know because I have this art mastered... you figure out what your teacher wants and you give it to them. Now, I don't mean doing the assignments and following directions... I mean the process of evaluation you have to go through to gauge a teacher and identify what topics/methods/styles they are drawn to.

This semester I had a realization... I don't want to be like my teacher. I don't want to write like my teacher, I don't even want to think like my teacher. When I gave up trying to write a paper FOR my teacher, and completed the assignment it like I would write it on my own (regardless of who was grading it), and in a way that actually reflects my ideas and in my own style... that actually made me CARE... I stopped doing so well.

But, I refuse to do it anymore. I refuse to pretend to be something I am not. If I can't get perfect grades being who I am, caring what I care about and not pretending to care about things that I don't, then I will live with my lower GPA thank you very much. I am never going to be an academic or care about political theory. I am never going to intelligently discuss hugely vague philosophical topics without tangible application. I am never going to throw big vocabulary words and theoretical concepts into class discussion. And honestly, I don't want to be that person. EVER. I kinda like who I am... and we certainly don't need a world of people trying to prove their academic superiority. And we certainly need some people wired to actually APPLY these ideas instead of just discussing them all day.

It's really frustrating to me that the most valuable and liberating aspect of our lives, the gift of education which is supposed to allow us to be who we are and pursue what we love, has been diluted with systems which break down your individuality.

Rant ended.