The other night I had a conversation with a friend who is a teacher, and it involved the state of education in the United States. I've been thinking about growth, and upon reflection on this conversation the title of Robert Fulghum's book, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, came to mind.

I think the title states a truth about education in the United States, elementary grades (K thru 4th) are about growth, then you have a transitional period called either middle school or junior high (5th thru 8th grades), and then you have high school. 

What we have in how education is commonly structured is a transition from growth to something else that is less about growth and more about indoctrination of an ideology that we believe prepares children for adulthood.  

Originally, the ideology was citizenship, but I think that over time the ideology has shifted towards meritocracy. Today the focus is on preparing our children to be successful, and that success is defined within the context of capitalism. 

We can debate whether or not this is a good thing, I have no doubt that a great deal of people believe this is exactly what schools and teachers should be doing. However, I don't believe this is growth.

Why does it matter? 

It matters because too many people take the first six words of Fulghum's title literally, "All I Really Need to Know...." Too many people believe there is a time in their life at which they really do know all they need to know. The very structure of education teaches that there is a time in life when growth stops.

The consequence is that individual growth ends far too early in life. A great deal of society's problems is caused by people who stay within the first half of their life and don't continue growing, and with that there is no possibility for progress unless everyone else in the world conforms to your way of seeing. 

To live is to grow, and growth only occurs when one realizes they will never know all they really need to know and that every day is an opportunity for their life to be transformed.