We Are The Borg

I took a Buzzfeed quiz today to determine what TNG sidekick I was. I'll let you chuckle at my nerdiness a moment...

I got Lt. Barclay, and I wasn't too keen on that, so I elected not to post it on my Facebook, but it did get me thinking.

For a moment, I considered retaking the quiz and seeing if I could get a different result. Now, don't misunderstand me, I'm actually a fan of "Broccoli," as I'm sure several other TNG trekkies are (though I prefer him as howling mad Murdock), but I don't see myself as the eccentric introverted lieutenant.

That's not what it got me thinking about.

No, in much my modus operandi, it got me thinking about the state of our educational system.

How many of you out there have retaken a Buzzfeed or Zimbio quiz to get a different outcome? I'm certainly guilty of it. After all, who really wants to be matched with Justin Timberlake for a night out on the town?

Isn't this what our current "teach to the test" approach is cultivating? No Child Left Behind has done one thing amazingly well: it's taught our youth to manipulate, rather than think; to deceive (if only themselves), rather than be honest. It's taught them to provide whatever answer is likely to produce the desired result, regardless of its veracity. When schoolchildren these days take test upon test upon test, they are no longer concerning themselves with expanding their knowledge base. What's at the forefront of their minds, is getting a good mark. Acing the test, regardless of whether or not that information is outdated, or in some cases, just plain wrong.

And our teachers pressure them to do so.

They have no choice anymore.

Those kids better pass the exam. The subject. The grade...

Or the school won't get the funding it needs to educate our young people.

Some of you out there are saying "so what?"

Here's what:

It forces the people charged with arming our kids with sound knowledge, and equipping them with critical thinking skills to instead arm them with arbitrary and often unexplained facts (I.E. our teachers don't get any time to teach why something is the way it is, just that it is). They're pressured by deadlines, quotas, and minimally acceptable requirements to avoid questions, and prod kids through the system.

We're sending them to war with Nerf guns, and telling them, 

"Don't question.

Don't think."

Here's this fact, repeat it back to me. Never mind that it might not be true. Never mind how it can be proven. Never mind how we know. We know. You don't. Repeat this fact. Write it down. Repeat it again. Now write it down here, in this blank space. Fill in this bubble next to the fact completely with a N°2 pencil. Good boy. Repeat the fact again. Remember it. It's true. It's a fact, because I say so. Remember it. Write it down. Don't question. Don't think. We don't have time for that. Here's the fact. This is the only correct answer. Repeat the fact. Remember it. Write it down. Good boy. You passed the test.

Don't you see?

We're paying teachers less than we're paying garbage collectors, and we're not even letting them do their job.

You will be assimilated.