“Normal” is a phrase commonly tossed around in conventional conversation. A misleading boundary which creates a standard to live by. A concept imprinted upon us at birth and enhanced within our ever-failing school systems.

America’s Education system was once a respected organization, instilling knowledge and life values upon the youth of the nation, however the corruption has degraded and obliterated the foundation of ideals it was built upon.

‘Educators’ have been given the power to not only teach the future leaders of America what to think, but how. A comforting concept when hidden behind such a humble title.

However, true educators, those who inspire and encourage, help students discover their passions and potential have become a rarity. Merit pay is a large factor in some states.

Merit pay, a method in which the higher students score on bubble tests the more the teacher gets paid, is an absurd solution that plots teachers against another fighting for the “best and brightest.”

The only way merit pay “…could conceivably be fair is to have an identical group of students in each class—an impossibility” creating hostility and animosity within the learning environment.

According to Hedges, “The principal of a school was something like the conductor of an orchestra: a person who had deep experience and knowledge of the part and place of every member and every instrument,” ideal traits for a leader of education to properly direct and inspire.

Although they have instituted academies “…exclusively to produce instant principals and superintendents who model themselves after CEOs” placing “…financiers and billionaires”  in the position to lead the education reform, a position designed and intended for educators.

Upon replacing those who run the system of education, teachers are being downgraded to younger, less qualified instructors who “teach too narrow…and obey,” Hedges states.

A concept in opposition to the definition of education, condensing the brains of America’s youth into robotic duplicates.

Knowledge is the gateway to reality.  “The truly educated become conscious,” hatched from a shell of ignorance and oppression to a state of insight.

To be truly educated is to have control over your mind, “Thought is a dialogue with one’s inner self. Those who think ask questions, questions those in authority do not want asked.”  For those  truly educated,“the capacity to think…” is the only form of defense and truth we have against those who seek to “…impose mindless obedience” upon society.

The origin of self meaning and worth is “…our ability to stand up and pit ourselves against injustice and the vast, moral indifference of the universe,” according to Hedges, the first step to consciousness is acknowledgment.

To remain unconscious is to succumb to the will of the wicked. We, as the American people, must take the first step,  Hannah Arendt, states “We must fear those whose moral system is built around the flimsy structure of blind obedience.

We must fear those who cannot think. Unconscious civilizations become totalitarian wastelands.” We must awaken.