dorpy

Everything I learnt from age 5 to 18? Very close to nothing — and I was a good student who graduated to one of the best universities in the country. I could read before I arrived at school, and I only started to educate myself when I left. I could learn more in six months than I learnt in ten years in school — no exaggeration. Generally it is only the intensely schooled, who have done all their learning within its confines, who make completely absurd claims about the efficacy of institutional education. People who can do many things very well usually understand how destructive schooling is of genuine growth. Again, kids do learn in school, but it is despite being there, not because of it.

‘It is best to let the facts speak for themselves.’ Where evidence can be used, use it; where evidence cannot be used, we must use something else.

You mean without learning. The ‘education’ presented in this article is schooled education, not learning. People do learn in schools, but they do so despite being there, not because of it.

On ranting. From the introduction to the book this article is taken from:

What follows is a polemic, or as defenders of the system would have it, a ‘rant’. Polemics express negative QUALITIES. It is generally best to ‘let the facts speak for themselves’, but there are some aspects of reality which facts cannot speak for. At various points in this book I refer, for example, to the ‘nightmare’ of the system. To those who do not experience system-life as a nightmare (usually people in nice jobs), it will look as if I am ‘ranting’ — an accusation that I tend to take as a compliment — see https://libcom.org/history/shadow-glorious-though-strange-go...