Need advice about my school, and my relation to it

[Ian_Malmstrom]

Hi. I¨m from Sweden and i recently started going to a school which is really well known for being leftist. I don´t really know if i mae an informed decision when deciding, with some social pressure guiding me to that position. 

Anyhow, to the problem/question: The school in which i go is really, really leftist. The results of our school-elections gave 30% for swedens radical feminist-pseudo communist party, and 30% for the feminist greens.

I´ve also been faced with a lot of social ostracism and open derision, with some people openly insulting me. I do have many friends around me (who all are hardcore statists, something im quite critical of) who arent happy with my situation, but they arent exactly overly engaged.

I chose the school primarily from a "know your enemy" kind of standpoint, wanting to learn the way socialists think more accurately, but i kinda got that after a week... they don´t respond to logic, likely related to childhood trauma, but i cant break through all the defence mechanisms an have a genuine conversation.

 

Im now faced with the problem of not really recieving usable education (although the education is supposed to be objective and follow curriculums the teachers are not very objective, neither is the education). I´m also not feeling connection to the people and the environment im in, which chouldn´t really be surprising.

I don´t know wether to stay in school for the first year and then change, or drop education and focus on finding work and working on self knowlege more, to return to education next year. I´m at a loss about what to do or how to even deal with the situation in school.

 

 And FYI, the Swedish educational system is really, really heavily regulated, so there isn´t really any way to escape the propaganda anyhow.

[PGP]

Hi Ian, firstly, it's great you have such awareness in your teens. You are certainly years ahead of where I was at that age. Secondly, I want to ask about the education you get in this school and the system in Sweden generally. What sort of subjects are available? What is the approach taken by the teachers re: critical thinking vs a force-fed dogma? Is dissent encouraged or discouraged? What is the relevancy of the material to the career (if you know yet) you are leaning towards? What is the relevancy of the material to industry (and the "real" world of employment) in general? Are you very aware in the school class of the leftist-mentality of teachers and other students? Are other students as aware of the narrowness of the material and are they concerned about this? Is it a genuine brain-washing type operation they run?

I am genuinely interested in this as bad and all as my education was, dissent and argument was allowed and I took use of it insofar as I was interested in the particular issue at hand. Plus, I like to hear what the education systems are now and how they may be changing especially in socialist states like Sweden. 

[Ian_Malmstrom]

The education in sweden is quite pro free thinking on paper, there is openness in education and there is a general aura of relativism "there is no absolute truth" thinking. However there is a more subte form of propaganda, in which the narrative of education is really screwed up, especially in the social studies fields, like how the educations narrative is "the marshal plan saved europe" and so on. 

Being a dissident is, at least in my school discouraged on a social level, several students have used shaming tecniques like speaking racist and stuff like that.

 

The relevancy for career is not null, but there are tons of things that are useless. since it´s a statist system there isn´t much correlation between what the market wants and what you learn. the school focuses on "Education for sustainable development", but in my view it´s just a bunch of applying power-analysis on everything and enabling of state power by saying global warming is too serious.

The education is mostly relevant because of the door to academia it unlocks, which is more or less needed if you want to get into engineering/economist fields.

We have much of maths and biology and some social sciences, but as previously mentioned the whole education is presented from the "sustainable development" narrative, exept for maths.

I plan on entrepenourship/ becoming an economist later in my life, but before making a career i plan on escaping sweden, i´ve actually been looking in to the free state project and NH.

 

The students have an extreme leftist-mentality, i have litterally just found one out of 35 who doesn´t define as a feminist. The teachers are try to keep their opinions out of the education, with quite many exeptions, especially in the way they reward the "right" POV but just go "meh" over something that happens to be right wing.

 

90% of the education is manditory and non-choosable, there are two classes that you are able to choose, them being english 7, maths 5, German/french/spanish 4 and physics 2.

 

Sweden´s educational system is really hot politically and there is tons of bullcrap the politicians say will "fix" everything. The whole system is under the control of the state, with a national curriculum which dictates the exact amount of hours the students are to be taught, and of which subjects. Swedish education isn´t focused on creating a youth ready to get into the job market, it rather focuses on letting every student prusue his/her own "dream", at the expence of everyone.

[PGP]

Actually sounds fairly similar to mine own second level ed. Luckily, there were alot of the old-school male teachers left to create a bit of breathing space. Since then, the gov had the genius idea of incentivising early retirement for second-level teachers, many of them the best and most experienced. The school I was in is a shadow of what it was in the 90's from what I have heard. I digress.

It's an interesting situation you are in. What does your "gut" tell you? From your writing you seem to have the brains and motivation, so, the world is your oyster. For most people I'd advise stay in school and tough it out to get the piece of paper, but, for one such as yourself, you might just be going through the motions in school. Is there any way you could just have the curriculum, study yourself, and sit the final exams in a year? You could be working on other things in the process and get the piece of paper aswell?

[Ian_Malmstrom]

My gut tells me that i won´t be happy in the present school and that i wont get a huge lot och human capital out of it either, but in order to do that i have to work on my self-dicipline and procrastination, which have been a problem for me previously. I think a more free education would be fitting (which exists), but that would require self-dicipline and to gain that i think i´ll have to delve a bit deeper and find the source of my de-motivation. It´s always been like that, i find it easy to just drop stuff and blame things out of my control, making excuses and such. I´ve tried to change that behaviour but that would require finding its source.

 

I am motivated by the world and all possibilities, but i feel very demotivated by the state the world is in, which is part of the reason i don´t think the current school is fitting.

I don´t even think there is a possibility of taking final exams, not in that way at least, there is for the national university-tests, but that´s quite a bit over my current level of knowledge.

The most worriesome thing is meeting people, since really getting immersed in philosophy and anarchism i´ve been more or less disgusted by statists, and demotivated because of the huge social acceptance they get. 

What´s your experience of dealing with an anti-philosophical environment? do you simply escape it?

[PGP]

That's impressive, that you can recognise your limitations at this time and age. If the piece of paper is vital to your future, then the quickest route is preferable. The motivational issues is something I can relate to. Operating in a statist society, especially a socialist state in Europe, like myself, is difficult for those of our persuasion. I have come to the view that anyone with the capability and conscience to look at the world objectively will find an anarcho-cap philosophy or similar on their own with the information availability we have. Therefore, besides those I put alot of energy into in the past trying to persuade, I don't bother anymore. I will sow the seeds of doubt about the state if it is convenient and can be done quickly and if I think there is a potentially fertile ground but life is too short to make all the arguments repeatedly with no return. 

Increasingly there is a divergence in my life between myself and the zombie-nation. But, that's ok, that's just the way it is and pre-occupying myself with it will not help me achieve my goals one bit. To a large extent it just has to be accepted and the fights picked when expedient. You kind of have to have "two-minds" in my experience. 

My main preoccupation is to concentrate on myself and to work consistently on my integrity and virtue. It's bloody hard but it's the most important thing I will ever do. In a statist society perhaps there is a limit to the level of "absolute" integrity and virtue I can achieve, but that's ok, I don't want to be a martyr either. That's where I'm at anyway.