The school system and our society

Because I have posted a long comment on a friend's Facebook post, which I think is worth to share with more people and keeping a record of it, I'll make use of it here as well. If by chance you read this, please let me know your thoughts!

School, as a whole concept, is the best way that human beings can evolve and develop themselves. Nevertheless, is full of structural flaws, such as:
- The system that is used is dramatically outdated, as it comes from the beginning of the last century when workers were supposed to execute, and not think;
- It is full of bias, as it is either public, so you learn the current governments' narrative of the facts (colonialist countries, for example, mine, portray it in a very romanticized way), or private, where all that matters is profit and not actual knowledge.
- This bias has the mission of keeping the status quo, and that is why, in most countries, the school system is not made to make you think by yourself but to "teach" you how to think like they want you to. The reason why you don't learn basic financial education, politics (not just history of politics) and so on is sole because, the more ignorant the people, the less likely the establishment is to change. The whole sphere of what you learn is only what is "acceptable", giving you the illusion that you can question everything, but in fact, you can only question what is inside that sphere.

From my experience, my school time was way too easy. I barely studied, even in university I have, of course, had to but I usually say I only did it in months that start with a J, and ever since my first year of primary school until my last year of masters I saw colleagues studying way more than I did, but having worse grades. And why is that? How come a guy like me be rewarded in a system that proclaims that the more you work, the better results you achieve? It's very simple: in a one-size-fits-all system, it is unfair for everybody unless you make yourself fit the norm. It is unfair for the ones that simply do not give two fucks about what is the area of a cylinder, and also to the ones that are too sharp and end up learning less than they should. I would always, constantly, year after year, end my tests and exams before most of my colleagues, always listening to comments like "Pedro's again rushing for it, surely he'll have a bad grade, besides he barely studies" and again and again I was top of the class. What kind of example of a good system is this?

The school system has to change, but society has as well. In BEST [Board of European Students of Technology, a pan-European organization which aims to empower diversity and develop European Higher Education students] we focus on making students attractive to companies; however, those same companies, most of the time, are not suitable for nowadays' society either. We say we live in a democracy, yet corporations are hierarchical. We say we want to go green, yet we live in a system that puts profit above it all. We say we want to educate people, yet in order to give tax cuts to the rich, we take money out of the Education budget. It's not just the school system that needs change: it's THE whole system.

Trip to Bali + transit in Guangzhou

And here I am, years after my last publication on this worldwide famous blog, writing my words while waiting at Guangzhou airport to fly back to Europe. I wish it was already to Schiphol, however, I still have a short, but existent, layover in Paris, and this suck even more because I met this Dutch girl that is flying directly to Amsterdam 15min before me, and via China Southern as well. Guess this is the price of only having paid 393€ return for this holiday.

Fast-forwarding to know, as in, landing in 30min in Schiphol at last, I want to leave in words my experience in Southeast Asia. After all, that's precisely what I told Kay, this Canadian girl I met at the hostel in Nusa Penida, to justify not having Instagram: I'm more of a words guy, not an image one.

Bali was a great trip. I met really cool people, had good massages, did a very powerful Tibetan meditation session in Ubud that inspired me to do it daily now that I'll be back home, followed my main goal at its fullest and got my scuba diving Open Water course in Amed and, adding ot all of this, visited Guangzhou thanks to the amazing service provided by China Southern - on both legs, they offered me free accommodation and transfer to pretty decent hotels in the city following my 12h and 10h layovers, on both ways, as well as provided me with tickets for two museums yesterday, that I could not visit due to lack of time but kept with me as they have no expiration date.

Nevertheless, and while all of this is already enough for lifetime travel for many people, I couldn't help but feel quite solitary at some point. In Canggu, it was fine because not only I met this guy from Couchsurfing and his friends, but I also joined a CS meeting and got to know, among others, Hassan, one of the best persons I talked to during these days. Then, in Ubud, it was just one night and I still met a Couchsurfing girl and two others that joined her on the place I did the Tibetan meditation. However, in Amed, a place where you only go for either scuba-diving or in transit to the Gilli islands, and if you do the first one you go with friends, partners or family, it was lonely not having anyone to share it, even if on the third night I met cool people at the Pacha bar.

This made me think about stuff in general, and now it's already the 21st and I didn't write anything until now, which means I don't feel the same urge any more so I'm gonna wrap it up already. The bottom line is: go to Bali, it'll be fun and you will get to know really nice people, do amazing sport and nature activities and so on. One thing, though: don't think that by going there you will heal, find your soul, or all that bulshit that is often fantasized on Instagram. I mean, of course, it is a good place to be if you are in that phase of your life, but it is all a process, you are still the same person when you return. The point is the way that you decide to deal with it, and the more days that go by after my return, the more I realize that being there really made me think about stuff in a different way. I still have the same problems here, but maybe I see some of them different.

P.S.: in Amed I saw stars in the sky, which made me realize I don't see them anymore in Europe. And that's a promise I did myself, leaving in a place where I can see them.