Democracy through education, more like thought control

How many have listened to the Pink Floyd song 'Another Brick in the Wall'

We don't need no education , we don't need no thought control'


I am truly mortified that we stand today no further on in our society than Victorian Britain. As we come to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of the second longest reigning monarch of all times have we really learnt anything?

And do we have a democracy in our country?


Democracy is a difficult concept. It is without the most difficult concept because to be a true democrat you must fight for the right of another person to express their thought even if you totally disagree with their mantra, even if you would fight to your very death to oppose what is said. And this is difficult. I hate what they are saying but I must defend their right to say it.

No person on this planet, within the human race has the right to say that they are better than any other and no person can take the moral high ground without doing that.

I am quite simple really. I wake up, I wash and put on clothes, I go to work, I come back, I eat and then return to bed to sleep. In among all of that I find time for family, friends and hobbies. That makes me pretty much like any other person on the planet. I breathe air and I have red and bluey-red blood running through my arteries and veins. I urinate and and defecate and wish to procreate. I am a human being and as such am no different to any human being on this planet.

Yet there are those out there in the ether who would see that differently. Now I like a good conspiracy theory like a lot of people. After all we all, I think, kind of would like to know the truth about JFK or little green men in Roswell. Yet there are forces out there that believe we are not grown up enough to handle the truth. That mass chaos would ensue if we changed the system!

But would it?

Maslow described the idea that there are stages of growth starting with basic needs of food and shelter rising to a concept called 'self-actualisation'. And for those of you who are not psychologists that can be a pretty abstract concept yet ultimately it is what the human race aspires to.

If we all reach the idea of self-actualisation then rather than chaos descending I believe harmony would flow. 


But the system would have you believe otherwise. And that is why schooling was introduced. Whilst I agree in many of the thoughts of Sir Ken Robinson one thing that I haven't actually heard him say yet, although forgive me if I am wrong, is that education is actually about control of the masses for the benefit of the few for political ends. Orwell's 1984 vision is nearer to the truth I suspect than many understand. We dress it up in elections and standards and Human Rights but in reality the few that have risen through the system will ultimately keep the system in place because it put them where they are and they know the game better than others.

So should we crash the system? Well no I do not advocate anarchy in any way whatsoever but I do believe that we have to start thinking in a different way if our grandchildren are to have a life in pastures green. De Bono is fundamentally right when he talks about thinking outside the box. It's something I encourage my students to do and it's something enshrined in my personal life. I do not want to leave this planet having not reached self-actualisation. I want to feel that I have inspired a want for growth. I want my children to understand the power of the love that they have inside of them. I want them to understand that by sharing and collaborating all good things will come to all good people.

So do not become another brick in the wall, passion is the difference between mediocrity and greatness. Use you passion in a thoughtful way, help your neighbour and you shall help yourself.


Peace and Happiness