The Certified Racehorse: Educated to Run and Win

Who really won?

Is Modern Education Just Child Labor in Sheep's Clothing?

It begins innocently enough. A for apple, B for bat. From the very first days of playschool, we are placed on a conveyor belt we call "education." We are told it’s a journey of discovery. But have we ever stopped to ask where this conveyor belt truly ends?

We comfort ourselves with a simple story. Why excel in first grade? To succeed in the next. And the next. Until we finally "come up in life." But if you trace this path from playschool to post-graduation, a single, relentless focus emerges, not of learning, but of certification.

What is a certificate, really? It’s a slip of paper that proclaims, "This person is capable." And how does it prove capability? By testing you on the precise, narrow parameters that will get you employed. The entire system is a multi-decade audition for a future job.

So, how do you get these certificates? You perform the tasks. You pay your tuition, you get schooled, you take the exam, the teacher (the foreman) approves your work, and you get your certificate—a pat on the back. You collect these pats, one after another, until you have a stack tall enough for the industry to look at and declare, "You are the one we want."

Why are you the one? Because you have consistently performed. And how could you consistently perform? Because you have been working since you were a child.

We’ve just draped this process in a noble disguise. We call it "freedom." We say, "The child has the freedom to get educated." But is that freedom, or is it a mandate? If you look at it without the sentiment, what we call education today is, in its essence, a sophisticated form of child labor.

The Taste of True Education

This begs the question: what, then, is true education? And is it synonymous with 'Schooling'?

True education is not about data and information. It’s the ability to understand the world, to decode it, and to connect with it in your own unique way. It is practical, doable, and loaded with meaning.

Knowledge without action is empty. You can read a recipe for chapati, but you only understand it when your hands are dusted with flour. You can be told the flavor of a mango, but you only know it when you taste its sweetness. Whilst schooling is about description, true education is about tasting.

Of course, survival in today's ecosystem doesn't just mean hunting and foraging. It means understanding computers, electronics, and politics as much as being familiar with natural surroundings. It means competing and cooperating. But the core of this true education is science—not as a subject, but as the spirit of asking, "How can I do this?"

How can you get "hands-on" with E=mc²? The point isn't to replicate every experiment, but to embrace the mindset that created it. Einstein didn't learn that equation in school; he derived it from his observations and creative thinking. That is the capacity we need to foster.

Our assessment of a child shouldn't be based on how well they perform tasks for a grade, but on how they align with nature, how they problem-solve, and how we can make them resilient survivors.

This is what the saying "Education is for life, not for living" attempts to convey.

The Slavery of the Certificate

When education is "for living," you start as a worker in kindergarten and end up a slave by post-graduation.

Why a slave? Because if your certificate is denied or deemed worthless, the system tells you your life has no value. Your entire existence becomes contingent on external validation. If it's revoked, your world collapses.

Certification is an acknowledgment from an organization that other companies subscribe to. If Harvard says you're good, you're in. But who is Harvard to say? It says so by taking your money, making you perform rituals, memory gymnastics, and intellectual stunts. Having done this, you can earn your living, as the certification is a testimony to your ability to participate in the race for eking out a living.

In stark contrast, the university of "Nature" doesn't produce standardized students. It creates unique individuals, each with a unique fingerprint.

I have witnessed many home-schooled success stories. Schooling for them isn't about future earnings. Their education is all about survival with grace. Nothing is out of syllabus. Programming, politics, cooking, foraging, and taxes. They get to observe, learn, adapt, and live a life! The scope of their education is so wide it transcends simple certification.

How is it they can succeed? Because they understand a crucial secret.

This isn't about rejecting ABCs or mathematics. It's about changing the very nature of education—pun intended—so that assessment and certification are not merely pathways to employment and disguised child labor.

Is the solution, then, to avoid certifications?

Definitely not.

It’s not about avoiding certifications, but knowing their limitations. A certification can adorn you as a beautiful garment, it shouldn't become your identity.

Why? Because the minute the certificate becomes the center of your life, you convert yourself into a product, so that a few successful people at the top can look at you and say, "I want that one."

Think about it. When you present your certificate to an employer, are you not, in a way, requesting that you be given a chance, an opportunity, or even begging to be considered?

(Pardon me for the harsh words, but it is just to drive home a point.)

Are you not saying, "I worked so hard, sir. I always came first." Even though that "first" wasn't for the joy of learning. It was hard work, sacrifice and struggle so that someone could look at you and say, "Good boy. You are the animal that won the race. You are the horse I can bet on."

The Racehorse

Schooling a Young Pony : An unasked gift for its secure future !!!

And that is modern education in one stark metaphor: it is making you into a racehorse.

From the time it is born, a racehorse is trained for one thing: to run. It has no life of its own. It might win medals, it might be egoistic with pride, but the one who truly benefits is the jockey and the ecosystem that places bets—not the horse. The horse has ruined its life running for someone else's profit.

We outlawed what we called "child labor"—a child working in a shop, or a farm. That's a wonderful thing to do.

But if a child is forced into a system with no freedom to say, "I don't want to go to school," isn't that also a form of labor?

We took something beautiful—the pursuit of knowledge—and over time, we converted it into a sophisticated, universally accepted form of child labor. A child can now get legally employed in a school, start working for a future by conforming to rules that guarantee a better job later on.

It’s time we saw the race track for what it is and started building a wider, wilder field for our children to explore instead. A field where they learn to taste, to do, to survive—and to live.

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Please note:

I am schooled, educated, certified, successful and have a wonderful life - thanks to this very system I seem to be critizing.

The irony is 'what got me here is outdated and will not work as efficiently in this new environment'.