Back Row
Do not drop out of High School,
the Back Row is a special place.
It is how the Universe asks for help,
you are being asked to watch for trouble.
To keep an eye on your bullies,
make sure they all come back from home.
Their violence is an expression of abuse,
there is nothing you can do.
You are being asked to stare into the Teachers Soul,
especially when the bullies come, and she turns her head.
And you are being asked to be the first one to call the police,
if someone is in danger, get everything on video, upload.
Watch the Security Guards,
make sure that everyone is keeping a distance from all the students.
So, by now the teachers have you half way,
towards believing that you are dumb, a loser, and a waste of time.
They have been using you to tidy up their Grade Statistics,
their statistics can't stick out, they need a usual distribution of grades.
If it was all As, someone would come around asking why,
you are the "F" that makes their bullshit look legitimate.
I know, you know, that your grades your bad, because you were not learning before,
and now you don't have the base, that would help you understand what the teacher is saying right now.
But you are wrong.
Nobody else learned that stuff either,
even some of the kids that had tutors, didn't learn it, they just memorized it.
You'd have to be a freak of nature,
to actually comprehend that curriculum, please, please, don't memorize garbage.
Be careful, the teachers, and principals maybe suffering a kind of collective delusion:
"...The principal and I rejected his alibi and hung a fat zero on his final exam.
That dropped his precalculus grade down from a B+ to a D+.
It lingered like a purple bruise on his college applications."
Ben Orlin "When Memorization Gets in the Way of Learning" The Atlantic, September 9, 2013.
You are just as smart as everybody else,
you are just as smart as Newton was before he started reading books he liked.
There are no gifted individuals,
but there are individuals who like being celebrated as gifted, of special, or above all else.
They want it so bad,
that they go home and memorize that garbage, garbage.
Even though your mind is perfectly fine,
you still need Knowledge, you need an integrated picture of the world.
A clear picture constructed out of a hundred books,
loved an admired by Intellectuals, Scientists, Philosophers, those who show great achievement.
By sitting in the back row, and constantly being made to feel stupid,
they are stressing you out and preventing you from enjoying life up to a point where you can listen to Audio Books and Lectures.
This place is standing between you and knowledge,
and calling you stupid while its at it.
This is why you can't drop out,
because if this continues the world will fall apart.
Your real study,
begins right now.
You have to figure out,
how this place works.
Who the teachers answer to,
who the principals answer to.
How are they getting paid,
for this s*it.
You have to understand the school system,
because you are going to fix it.
There is a couple of teachers,
and a handful of students that will help you.
Learn from the internet how to give speeches,
and begin preparing yourself for speaking out against fake education.
Forgive the memorizes, they are often under as much pressure as the bullies are,
they are just better at keeping their mind from fracturing.
Some of them maybe admiring you,
that you are so strong that you don't pretend to learn.
If one of the girls tries to talk to you,
don't freak out just say the truth:
"I am shy, I need some time to be able to speak with you,
if you help me, I'll be your friend."
and then add,
"I am going to try to fix school, I'll need a lot of help."
And everything will work out.
My Friend,
A school that pretends to teach,
is a school that robs you of knowledge.
Civilizations do not die with a bang,
it happens so slowly that nobody notices when all the trees are gone.
How many Tigers are left in your time?
I hope you still have a few, I had 4,000 when I wrote this.
The Nuclear superpowers,
chose Mutually Assured Destruction, over Disarmament.
And prisons were full of people who were warped,
by stress, poverty, and lack of Knowledge,
it was Ten Million at the time of writing.
The blindness starts in school,
when Knowledge is replaced with disconnected facts and memorization.
And it continues,
grow strong my friend,
speak Wisely, Nobly and Loudly.
Imagine what it will be like when it is all over, and schools begin working.
Every formula animated before student's eyes, paid internships all around the word,
student exchange will be the first and foremost, adventures in England, Germany, Australia, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein, and why not.
Student Stipend will grant the students years of Enlightenment and Adventure,
the only grade will be their own path of education from Middle-school to University,
all their curiosities combined together into a Hard Cover book,
that others may follow and improve upon in a Fellowship of Enlightenment.
Begin your journey with A Short History of Nearly Everything, by Bill Bryson,
leap to A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn,
for light reading try What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions by Randall Munroe,
see if you can find a copy of The Giants of Philosophy Series read by Charlton Heston,
and look into The Teaching Company Lectures.
To make money, find a Start-up Accelerator similar to YCombinator near you,
and begin building Virtual Schools Online, borrow from Massively multiplayer online games.
Please don't be alone, but even if you do end up trying to save the world alone,
you will be in company of great beings, my Friend, and the future generations will stand upon your shoulders.
Here are some Starting Points, Thinkers and Scientists to get you started.
Ben Orlin "When Memorization Gets in the Way of Learning" The Atlantic, September 9, 2013. De-Grading Education by Elizabeth Wissner-Gross How America's public schools keep kids in poverty by Kandice Sumner Erica Goldson's Graduation Speech