CHAPTER 9: THE TRUE COST OF SCHOOLS

CHAPTER 9: THE TRUE COST OF SCHOOLS
The only way out is to give in. Most importantly, to resign himself to the fact that he will have to keep resigning himself to things his entire life long. Vladimir Megre


So, what is the true cost of ‘free’ compulsory schools? The costs play out at many different levels. The ‘free’ part is challenged as schooling is hugely expensive, and we can no longer pretend it is good value for the immense amount of money it takes. Schooling has direct and indirect damaging effects on planetary survival. The social cost of fragmenting and age-stratifying our society and creating dependent angry, resentful young people have to be considered. The impact on individuals, having autonomy and humanity harmed, plays a part in the societal damage. The loss of meaning leaves us all vulnerable and directionless when our survival requires us to act wisely, act with conscious awareness of the plight of us all, and to do so with hope that we can avert the devastation that the global machine creates by merely existing. Schools are in the driving seat of that machine taking us ever closer to the precipice.