One thing I hear from people in the technology sector a lot is the narrative that our education system is designed to beat the creativity out of you. You hear it repeatedly on stage at conferences and in podcasts, and after hearing it showcased by Rick Rubin, I wanted to write about just how tired it is. Y’all need to stop and get a little more critical. Stop punching down, and think about who you are siding with when you repeat this bullshit narrative.
The narrative goes like this: some guy (they are almost always dudes) gets on stage or has the microphone during a podcast and tells the story about how the biggest problem we have is a lack of creativity and inspiration, because it gets systematically beaten out of you in the educational system by your teachers. I always smell bullshit and hustle when I hear this. I mean, I’m sorry you look back over your life and feel that your schooling was the worst part of it, but if you stop and consider the big picture, you’d see that you are full of shit.
First, there are plenty of people who get out of high school and are still creative as all get out. There are plenty of people who get out of university and are creative as hell. Where the creativity gets beaten out of you is once you have to enter the workforce, work inside of corporations, and are forced to make ends meet. You never hear these bros punching up at corporations or capitalism. It is always the educational system. It is always those damn teachers. When you start zooming out on the big picture, you realize there is a lot more going on, and the ideology you have chosen to align yourself with points to you being the problem.
Don’t get me wrong, the educational system has its problems. And sure, we’ve all had a shitty teacher. But if you ask girls about their experience you will get a much different take. If you ask Black and brown people, as well as poor people, you will get a different answer. The educational system helps a lot of people, even with all of its problems. There are a lot of people who come out of the educational system much more empowered and ready for the world. There are a lot of people who come out of the educational system ahead of where their family is. Education is essential to fixing almost every problem we face, and yet you are on stage punching at it.
When you pause and think about the narrative, you realize there are many, many, many other forces working to beat the creativity out of you, and schooling is very, very, very low on the list. When you assess the situation, you realize that you are parroting the lines of the conservative people who want to limit education and are likely behind the actual ills and problems you encountered in the educational system. These are the people who are pro-corporation and pro-capitalism, but strangely are aligned with you in being anti-education. Why do you think that is? Why do you feel it is necessary to beat on education? Why do you feel the need to ignore the rest of what beats the creativity out of all of us on a daily basis? Think about it.
