276 Teaching Minds Schools emphasize competition. Schools make kids stressed. Schools know the right answers. Schools enable bullying and peer pressure. Schools stifle curiosity. Schools choose the subjects for students. Schools have classrooms. Schools give grades. Schools provide certification. Schools confine children. Schools claim that academics are the winners. Schools do not value practical skills. Schools cause students to want to please teachers. Schools cause students to question their self-worth. Schools are run by politicians. Governments use education for repression. Discovery is not valued in school. Boredom is seen as a bad thing in school. Competition: Why should school be a competitive event? Why do we ask how a kid is doing in school? Learning in life outside of school is not a competitive event. We learn what we choose to know in real life. Stress: When 6-year-olds are stressed about going to school, you know that something is wrong. Is learning in real life stressful? Stress can’t be helping kids learn. What kid wouldn’t happily skip school on any given day? What does this tell us about the experience? Right answers: School teaches that there are right answers. The teacher knows them. The test makers know them. Now you have to know them. But in real life, there are very few right answers. Life isn’t mathematics. Thinking about how to behave in a situation, planning your day or your life, plotting a strategy for your company or your country—no right answers. Bullying and peer pressure: You wouldn't have to have say no to drugs or cigarettes campaigns if kids didn’t go to school. In school there are always other kids telling you how to dress, how to act, how to be cool. Why do we want kids’ peer groups to be the true teachers of HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_023962