Unconscious Education
From Gothpoodle
In the 20th century, education was designed to prepare people for life in a Second Wave civilization. Children learned the basic skills needed to function on a factory floor: literacy, arithmetic, punctuality, discipline, and teamwork. They also learned the dominant ideology of their nation, to which they would be expected to conform. Schools were themselves organized like assembly-line factories, accepting small children as raw material and delivering finished citizen-laborers. Learning was a job, and for many children it was a tedious and difficult job.
Today, education is far more critical than it was in 2000. Children must learn much more complex technical skills. Meanwhile, instead of absorbing a single ideology, they must learn to recognize and process the rich stew of memes they will be exposed to as adults. The load on the educational system would be intolerable if Industrial Era methods were still in use. Instead, modern education relies on making the learning process as efficient and unconscious as possible. Children no longer feel obligated to learn. Instead, they learn as naturally as they breathe or play, their natural curiosity engaged by computerized toys and entertainment media.
Adults also have access to unconscious training, usually delivered through similar entertainment media. For example, someone wishing to study history can order a variety of relevant InVids or slinkies, allowing him to experience period dramas rich in authentic detail.
The concept of unconscious education is regarded with suspicion by those who fear that it will expose them (or their children) to undesirable memes. This phenomenon dates back to the 20th century, when some parents “home-schooled” their children or sent them to specialized private schools in order to protect them from unwanted memes. There is some reason for concern – for example, there have been scandals involving kindercomp manufacturers who programmed their products with specific ideological biases. Parents who worry about this usually monitor their children’s learning activities closely, or buy material for them from education vendors specializing in certain memetic constructs.
See also Early Education and Higher Education.
