Free Thought and the Fading School Process

 I don't know that it is because the changes in educational process that has occurred since I was in grade school in comparison to what I think I understand is happening in elementary schools now that I base my opinion, but this is what I can offer.  School was, in the past, during my few years, was educational, informative, and channeled your creative spark, as well as a social medium of morals, values, and culture.  That being said, you will find those same elements today, but I believe the uni-thought doctrination is much more apparent in today's learning.  Individualism is slowly being stigmatized, and the "being gifted," so to speak is, from what I understand, an anomaly. People are channeled to think more alike and progressive from a cultural perspective, with a strange form of deterrence and diffidence towards those who trend in separate thoughts, or at least acknowledge that perhaps there are other views that are just as valid.

For this reason, I tend to believe that schools are now more aligned with indoctrination or training people to think in certain patterns, in contrast to allowing people to formulate their own ideas about personal values, morals, and issues.  One consequence of this is the new form of bullying, which in my day was not prevalent in the form of today.  Acceptance and populism are a strong undercurrent in today's school dynamics, and opposing views can be considered a dramatic form of rebellion, when in reality it simply is an alternative expression.  Thus, for me, and not in all cases, I tend to agree with Chomsky in this part that schools have tremendous influence and impact on the development not just of the youth, but ultimately the reality of a country.