If you leave a bunch of eleven-year-olds to their own devices, what you get is Lord of the Flies. Like a lot of American kids, I read this book in school. Presumably it was not a coincidence. Presumably someone wanted to point out to us that we were savages, and that we had made ourselves a cruel and stupid world. This was too subtle for me. While the book seemed entirely believable, I didn’t get the additional message. I wish they had just told us outright that we were savages and our world was stupid.
Were it not the case the teachers are often the biggest bullies. On the contrary, IMO, it is the excessively authoritarian, prison-like model school follows that generates bullies.
Prison is the better model for the whole institution, while Lord of the Flies is the model of the schoolyard.
I think there’s a good correlation between people who think a pile of children makes for good socialization and people who ignore the overarching prison model of the institution as a whole.
But I really don’t think it’s the interaction with the Prison Guards that predominantly makes for bullying—it’s the interactions in the prison yard.
Yes, it’s peculiar that most people think Lord of the Flies model used in mass schooling is the appropriate model for the socialization of children.
It’s particularly apropos that Lord of the Flies is common required reading in American high schools.
Paul Graham on the subject:
Were it not the case the teachers are often the biggest bullies. On the contrary, IMO, it is the excessively authoritarian, prison-like model school follows that generates bullies.
Prison is the better model for the whole institution, while Lord of the Flies is the model of the schoolyard.
I think there’s a good correlation between people who think a pile of children makes for good socialization and people who ignore the overarching prison model of the institution as a whole.
But I really don’t think it’s the interaction with the Prison Guards that predominantly makes for bullying—it’s the interactions in the prison yard.