After our discussion yesterday, my mind was all over the place (this seems to be becoming a consistent pattern). We concluded that our society is money-driven. How did we evolve to this standard? I understand that it may be attributed to a combination of factors: the media, popular culture, etc. However, the more I thought about it - the more I realized that we are trained for this society when we are in school.
Think about it - replace dollar signs with G.P.A.s, paychecks with report cards, and bosses with teachers - and you have a mini capitalist society. From an early age, we're taught to work towards something that society deems vauable. In school it's grades and in the "adult" world, it's money. Yes, grades can be linked to working to eventually get money, but it is the ideology that this system instills in us that has such a tremendous effect.
I've been duped. In the UK - you don't have to take GE's and you don't get grades/G.P.A.'s in university. Once you have been accepted into university, you are trusted to be responsible for your own decisions - so you pick your classes. You're given a cumulative exam at the end of each year, and as long as you pass - you're allowed to continue working towards your degree. Why is it, in America, students are told which classes they need to take, they are given exams every month, and they are given a G.P.A.? G.P.A.s make us competitive with each other, just like people in the marketplace are in constant competition. Exams every month give us practically no down time - which correlates to the workaholic norm our society is beginning to take on. Finally, school telling us which classes are important is similar to how society tells us what is important. Higher forces - media, popular culture, politics, economy - deem what is important in a capitalist society.
The irony is, in a G.E. class where I will be getting a grade which will influence my G.P.A., I am discovering the truths of our society.
Excellent observations.
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