"We don't need no education" (Pink Floyd, Another Brick In The Wall). Consistently misinterpreted, this is not an anti-education rap. Instead, it seeks to convey the message that vindictive and bitter teachers, and factory schooling, can break a child for life. The effect on such children is one of demoralizing them to the point where they repress their innate creativity. And even more, give up seeking their true calling altogether. .
Today, I have learned that the traditional methods of teaching are usually not the most productive in bringing about a true quest of knowledge and self-actualization. After years of training and schooling, I have mostly learned to memorize knowledge instead of experiencing it. Akin to the message in the above song lyric by Pink Floyd, I believe that experiences from my early education suppressed my true desires. This belief is based on the fact that I have yet to find that elusive career which a person enjoys so much that they actually look forward to going to work. My childhood memories of school are riddled with teachers who would abuse their authority. Whether it was the short-tempered PE instructor who accused me of misbehavior and threatened me with violence, or the English teacher who would pull my hair when my answers to her questions were not to her taste, most of my unblurred memories of teachers are of those who abused their power. I feel education is the key to awakening my dormant potential. Potential that was stifled in my early years of education. .
A fondness of technology has brought me to this point. Before joining the Army and before even procuring a first job, I remember very early on in a class at school, we typed a huge amount of commands and numbered lines into a computer. The result was a clown's face that moved its mouth as if laughing. Some of the programs would be dogs or cars that would run or drive across the screen and make sounds.
